Opinion • February 22 2004

Yesteryear or tomorrow

Saviour Balzan never minces his words and does not see why he should do so on this occasion

What will it be, this week?
Should we take a cue from the Maltese front pages and report about the Iranian elections or shall it be Alfred Sant’s blueprint or perhaps nightlife in Brazzaville.
I get this uncanny impression reading the dailies and watching the telly that this country is unconcerned and detached about the next leader of the Nationalist party and eventual Prime Minister of this country.
It probably has to do with not having an intelligent debate.
What is clear, is that the choice is clearly between Lawrence Gonzi and John Dalli.
Before it all started, Dr Gonzi and the Pietà clan - with some help from the secretariat at Castille - appeared unassailable. Now the figures indicate that Mr Dalli has more than a sporting chance.
In the last three years we have witnessed an unadulterated campaign in favour of one candidate from the PN party machine. The stakes are high.
But yet in the press, not a whisper of discontent from the media and stranger than strange, even the columnists failed to pen some spin.
Anyone who denies this should simply take note of who the moderators are in the press conferences of Dr Lawrence Gonzi.
Now, Mr Dalli is not a virgin when it comes to the press, but he has not had the luxury of being peppered with loaded questions purposely designed to make him look sweeter.
Dr Gonzi on the other hand has had a week of questions about how he decided to contest and, better still, about his exciting days in the private sector!
In the last days, we have been overwhelmed with trigger messages about the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates. And of course we are reminded of everyone’s love for the social fabric of this country.
Dr Gonzi’s spin-doctors have been touching not people’s intelligence quotient, but their emotional quotient.
The problem, if there is one with Mr Dalli, is that he talks as if everyone had an IQ.
Dr Gonzi has purposely downplayed his campaign.
He has implied this week that he is not a bulldozer and that when he takes decisions he does not leave tracks or cracks.
That sounds to me like someone breaking an egg without cracking it’s shell.
Mr John Dalli has not been reacting directly to Dr Gonzi, but then we all know that the strangest comment so far has been that made by Joe Saliba, the PN’s secretary general. Last week he said that all three contestants are so similar and bound by the electoral programme that there was no reason for a three-way debate.
Anyone who recalls last April’s PN electoral programme will be flabbergasted at the general absence of text and the universal in-existence of content. In fact the PN electoral programme could well have been a teach yourself how to use an egg piercing machine.
Next Sunday we will have a clear signal of who will be the next leader. If the councillors’ vote kicks Lawrence Gonzi upstairs it will consolidate the Gonzi doctrine, a replica of Fanfani’s democrazia cristiana politics.
If the councillors go for Mr Dalli, then it will be a vote for change modelled on perhaps the Aznar experience.
And yes, there will be new faces, new ideas, new challenges and an itching desire to get on with one’s life.
One thing is certain, after the end of the contest, nothing will be the same.