The Sirens’ call

Interviewing someone on a Saturday morning is not a very good idea when you're working on a Sunday newspaper. But Franco Debono is one exception to make on a Saturday. 

Whatever happens to Franco Debono, and anything that he says, remains relevant up until that special moment and day.

As I sat down in his very humble home (and that says a lot), Alternattiva Demokratika were organising a press conference on open spaces instead of talking about the political crisis.  I shudder to think why anyone should waste any more time with Michael Briguglio and his horticultural society when they are so detached from political reality.

More so when Franco Debono reminds me of my early days in politics, when transparency, party financing and the issue of the judiciary were the reasons that led to the foundation of Alternattiva Demokratika in 1989 against all odds.

That was 1989 and everyone laughed off our proposals for more transparency. 

It is now 2012, and Debono is going to have the last laugh.

Today, the Maltese Greens have become as irrelevant and pathetic as one would not have hoped, and are unknowingly doing a great favour to Labour.

But back to Franco Debono. The man could be accused of not caring for Lawrence Gonzi but you have to give it to him, he has got the balls and unlike JPO, Jesmond Mugliett, Robert Arrigo, John Dalli and so many others, has taken the issue to the limit.

But what is more significant is that despite his boastful comments, the arguments he makes are sound.

They underline a reality about the Prime Minister that I have long believed in and valued. This being the very fact that Lawrence Gonzi is only interested in people who are loyal, yes men and effectively good soldiers. 

When it comes to people who are good managers, have their own mind, are unwilling to say yes to everything, he intrinsically takes a aversion to them and expels them from his inner coterie. 

It is perfectly acceptable for the Prime Minister to be surrounded by someone such the parliamentarian Stephen Spiteri - even though his lifestyle is in complete conflict to what the Prime Minister preaches and believes in - but to be in the company of 'family' who share different views... well, that becomes a problem.

Which goes to show that the most important criteria in politics are not what you do and say, but whom you decide to support and suck up to.

But the issue of being excluded from the Nationalist party is not a national one. If that is what most political parties want - that is, having dumbfounded loyal followers - then it is their problem.

Yet, the issue that concerns us as citizens are the decisions taken - or rather, the decisions never taken - that have an influence on why this society is intrinsically sick.

When Franco Debono talked of party financing, he did not cough up a problem which he had never mentioned beforehand.  His first speech in parliament referred to the crucial issue of party financing, and at many intervals in recent years the Prime Minister repeatedly referred to party financing as being something that would be on the top of his agenda.

As in so many other things, many of these issues never ever resurfaced, let alone materialised.

And when they did, they were usually half-baked.

Debono may sound pompous and self-centred when he presents his arguments, but when he does so he is precise and clinical. He argues that for a truly democratic country the issue of party financing is central.  Without a tap on big business, politicians will take decisions which are clouded by 'other' interests.

That consideration has been ignored for the last decade but is the root of all our problems.

Perhaps beyond all the recriminations, no one has asked whether Gonzi has failed to smell the coffee. Did he honestly believe that this problem would blow over by simply taking Debono to New York and answering his telephone messages at untimely hours of the day?

Unlike many other parliamentarians, Debono is not the type to take no for an answer.  or to be promised that an issue would be tackled but never realised. He does not like to be treated like a crock of shit (her words) as the bilious queen of hate stated when referring to Debono.

Nor will he stand for being picked upon by Pietru Pawl Busuttil.

And Debono does not need to be told that all the attacks are orchestrated by Gonzi's clique. Which is why I fully endorse his stand off with Gonzi over these vile attacks.

Which is why Edwin Vassallo was more than just pathetic when he placed his hands over Debono in Xarabank and asked him to come back to the 'family'.

Vassallo sounded like a siren. (In Greek mythology Sirens would call out from their island to passing sailors with music and song. Heeding the irresistible calls the seamen would sail to their death as they became shipwrecked on the rocky coast.

This is the biggest crisis ever for the PN in ages and it must be upsetting for Gonzi that it could end in this way for his leadership.)

But that is politics, for those who treat it like fiefdom.

It is must be even more upsetting since it was Lawrence Gonzi as secretary general who convinced Franco Debono to contest in 1998. Gonzi, at the time, was less demanding in his choice of candidates. But what should have stopped him from choosing Franco Debono, a first class student, an intelligent young man and with the right ambition for politics?

Nothing really, apart from the traditional feuds between rival party candidates.

As time progresses it is more than apparent that the situation cannot remain as it is now. There is political crisis and there is instability. Either Debono resigns, or Gonzi resigns. The two options seems highly unlikely. The other option is for Gonzi to address many of Debono's concerns, but this too seems very unlikely.

The other possibility is for Debono to cave in, which is perfectly possible because Debono is human after all and Castille know how to make people malleable. But then, Debono is no run-of-the-mill backbencher, he has got the resolve to weather the storm and unlike those sailors who succumb to the Sirens and sail into reefs and shore, takes to the open sea and braves the storm against all odds.