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Travelling around, people ask me. What do you do? Newspapers, I answer.
Invariably they go on to ask about the international pages, and shamefully I disclose that the newspaper I write for does not carry foreign pages. I cannot blame them for thinking I write for some sort of parish bulletin. How can they possibly visualise what the Maltese media is all about?
The more I read foreign news in Maltese newspapers and the news from Brussels, the more I am reminded of the forgotten days of Radio Moscow. More so, when the only Maltese journalist feeding stories about European matters offers nothing more than an unusual replica of official EU bulletins with careful omissions of anything that could serve to dampen the enthusiasm for Europe.
It is high time we get the facts right about and from Brussels. It is just the right moment to erase all our exaggerated and romantic impressions about Europe. There is no way forward without settling for the right and correct facts. And what is happening in Europe will come as a shock to many.
The bickering and the walkouts in the Maltese Parliament will not alter the decisions that will have ramifications on the way we live and plan our future. With Eastern Europe seen as the place for investment and Turkey seen as the land of the future for many European giants, Malta is fast becoming an afterthought, an uncomfortable speck to embellish the map of Europe.
The five men elected to represent us concern themselves with either satellite dishes and airport taxes, or better still, declaring that they are steadfastly against abortion or strangely four-square behind gay-hater Buttiglione.
Somehow, there seems to be a deficit between their ability to distinguish between being purely parochial or more relevant. This brings me back to the island of honey and its eternal contradictions, my real home. As islanders, you can only understand and love Malta after you have hated it.
Everyone seems to agree that in Malta everyone should be given a fair chance in politics, as long as you belong to one of the two major parties! And therefore it should not be too far-fetched to suggest that the next time around, the opposition will be running this administration. Yes, but as the good Italians says, c’é un piccolo problema… if Jason Micallef, the MLP’s secretary-general, with all his ‘fine’ attention to media and his ability to antagonise everyone with his latest TV appearance on Bondiplus, believes that Alfred Sant is Dr Gonzi’s replacement, he must be joking.
It shouldn’t be the case that Alfred Sant cannot beat Gonzi, but for many it is. Sant, despite all his ‘altruistic’ intentions cannot win the next election for Labourites.
So what is next?
Next, I believe is what many Labourites have hoped for in vain. They hope Alfred will do the unthinkable and propose a new leader, step down and take up an important but albeit secondary role in the party.
The Labour leader knows that the only ammunition the PN have in their armoury is a cluster bomb called Alfred Sant. I will concede that it is unfair, but the government together with the media have contributed to making Alfred Sant unelectable.
Now, reading through this opinion, as is typical in Malta there will be those who question why I should choose to offer advice to the Labour party. It is an impertinent point raised by those who continue to believe in their own interpretation of democracy. Democracy it seems is only relevant if ‘my’ party wins, but what about the rest?
As Roger de Giorgio said on a televised TV programme this week, the country needs to be modernised. But how?
I cannot see Alfred Sant stepping down and I cannot see the PM’s men being more graceful with the ‘free’ press. I cannot see pluralism growing in the political structures or for that matter the economy exploding. Or better still, Richard Cachia Caruana accepting to be interviewed by this newspaper or in a television programme!
What I can see is a proliferation of the unbending ‘free’ press, the press that offers only one allegiance, to its readers or audience and fixated on one priority, that of transmitting news, analysis and information in a palatable, entertaining and intelligent way.
Some people call it the independent media. I prefer to give it its new name Free Press. Free to act and say it as it is.
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