Opinion • February 29 2004

Contestants number one, two and three
Saviour Balzan throws a tantrum at a lame and agenda driven press

I write this article before the announcement of the election for the leader of the Nationalist Party so what I have to say has nothing to do with the qualities or the chances of the three contestants.
On the last day in an empty room at the Intercontinental, Dr Lawrence Gonzi had the gall to admit that there were differences between the candidates. It went contrary to what Joe Saliba, Lawrence Gonzi’s mentor, said about the contestants themselves.
In these last three weeks we have witnessed a media that has proven to be detached from reality, obsessed with the implications of the interpretation of any word they utter.
Is it a reflection of their uneasiness with showing their true colours or better still, their confusion over who could win the next election?
The banal attempt to control the media by the Nationalist party executive has failed miserably. There will be no three-way debate, said the party. But on Friday, the representatives of the three contestants met on Joe Azzopardi’s TV programme and did what the party had prayed should not happen.
The diktat from the party was not only counter-productive, yet symptomatic of the general disdain for a truthful debate about party policy and vision.
Throughout these last three weeks, the three contestants have campaigned, some much more than others. And yet the daily newspapers and television stations chose to award these public events a second division status.
Some events moderated by Pierre Portelli, former NET TV head, even went so far as to inform the audience that they could speak freely because the press was not present!
Television Malta, the national TV station gets top marks for treating the news of this campaign as an addendum to the financial news.
Worse still, each candidate was allowed only one ‘coverage’ per day in the media.
So if Lawrence Gozni – and this was definitely not the case – decided to launch himself into a frenzy with dozens of activities a day, PBS and NET would only report one activity each.
This was also a time for foolhardy and unbelievable statements.
Joe Azzopardi told the nation that his ‘team’ always have surveys. But he did not explain why he had planned to spring his ‘top secret’ survey on the popularity of the candidates with the general public less than 24 hours before the contest.
In its editorial of yesterday The Times said that it was placing the order of candidates, not according in alphabetical order but according to when they submitted their nomination! Houdini would have never got out of this one.
And the best howler, which should anger Joe Azzopardi, is Daphne’s comment that the contest for the PN leadership has nothing to do with the public.
Which could have sounded pretty fine, until I remembered the way she had bludgeoned John Attard Montalto and Anglu Farrugia in the contest for the Labour leadership.
This has also been a week of paranoia. I for one could have been suffering from a bout of manic depression to lead myself to believe that Joe Azzopardi’s decision to issue a survey favouring Lawrence Gonzi a day before the election was part of a ploy. Thankfully, I am told by good old Joe himself that what I was thinking was a figment of my imagination and a LIEEEEE!
So be it.
Another one, was David Agius, PN parliamentarian and ever smiling host of Smash TV who asked me live on air whether I had not published Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s weekly opinion in last week’s edition of MaltaToday because I knew he supports Gonzi.
To think that I should stop this dissident PN parliamentarian from expressing his view just because he fancies PN contestant number three (according to The Times criteria). What really makes me laugh, however, is that this same leadership contestant has made a pledge to support Ninu Zammit in his bid for an interim landfill next to the temples. Music for the ears of Mr Pullicino Orlando.
Well good luck to the new leader, or will he be a new leader?
Good to know!