Confirmation of Gonzi’s magnanimous new political strategy can be best appreciated by viewing all the new political appointees in the government gazzette.
Pity the Labour party is in such a shambles. If not, they would be on the warpath and pointing fingers at the great new way of doing politics.
One other reason to believe that God really is Nationalist, I guess.
Looking at all the political appointments in the last days, one cannot help giggling and/or laughing and/or bursting into tears or all three things at the same time.
The most memorable one this week was the hilarious appointment of an artist by George Pullicino – yes, an artist –on… let us hear it… Wasteserv.
It was like asking Cicciolina to sit on the CANA council.
A public funded company-like body which is given the grand job of issuing lucrative contracts to nice looking contractors with cute links to political movements… just the job for an artist.
Well, the new way of doing politics is in style with the Colorado way of thinking. That is, deal with your adversaries by making everyone subservient and obligated to the party, thereby keeping the party in power … forever.
The Pisani factor
As we were hoping to have another four years of excellent PR work from Missus Josephine Vassallo, the PM’s former PR woman and newly appointed private secretary, we are regaled with the news that the PR man is the one and only Gordon Pisani.
Mr Pisani was Joe Saliba’s right hand man and instrumental in getting things done. The things that make politics exciting, but not very nice.
Gordon is an okay kind of guy, a St Aloysius student who shared his student days with Joseph Muscat.
Yes, Muscat the Labour leader who believes he can do what good old Dom did at 39 in the roaring 1950s.
Well, Pisani is groomed, if not fine-tuned, for the art of killer spin. Killer spin as in real nasty spin.
He can take a little bit of news, turn it round and transform it into an Exocet missile. He will then train it on his enemies and let it do all the work for him, and then disappear from the scene.
He is a political functionary who will make Gonzi more parochial and more partisan. And that is what he should not be.
But then whom I am to say? Whether Gonzi will attain his dream of extending Nationalist rule for yet another five years very much depends on how f***ed up the Labour party is. And how intelligent men like Gordon Pisani and RCC can play with our destiny.
Sad old Labour
Which of course brings me to the Labour party. As we can detect from the deluge of commentaries and angry comments, it is not only on the verge of breaking up, but literally sinking.
And there is a distinct aroma of raw sewage.
I would be very surprised not to see George Abela not take some four to five deputies and set up a new political formation.
I would indeed welcome it. It would send a healthy tremor into the democratic set up and it would benefit everyone, including the Nationalist party, who needed to know that in five years’ time they should be allowed to govern.
It is of course very risky to put forward such a speculative political scenario. But who would have said that George Abela would have found the proverbial “balls” to return to the fore?
By returning to politics he has proven everyone completely wrong – including myself.
If he has got this far he now needs to rally all his supporters and give birth to a new party.
Unless, that is …
Abela and Muscat
The June 5 election process proves that Abela still has a chance. Then there is a very good chance that Abela will make it.
If Abela does not make it, there is no saying that Muscat will not be an innovative leader. He is surely a good quality candidate that could give the Labour a new look and a new chance. But he is still very much in the Sant mode.
And ironically it would be tragic if the Labour party were to compromise and become another mish-mash party like the PN.
What we need in this country is some diversity in looks and thinking.
Anyone who thinks that this is not healthy is probably anchored to the noble idea that there should only be one government, one party and one leader.
Pairing and St Thomas
Tonio Borg’s declaration that the government planned not have its parliamentary calendar torpedoed pending failure to reach a pairing agreement goes to show how bad the situation has become.
The fact that the ruling Colorado-like party has only a one-seat majority is a direct result of a flawed electoral system that has been on the agenda for as long as we have had Xarabank on TV.
Yes, that long.
Well, the same applies to all the plans and promises that should have got tackled but never seem to get solved.
One thing that seems to be a top priority for government is the mess of green slums at St Thomas Bay and Armier. Some people prefer to call them boathouses.
Now, if you have not heard the news, Dr Gonzi, the PM who deposed George Pullicino from his MEPA throne to take over the throne himself, is proceeding fast to be remembered for his dishonourable plans regarding St Thomas Bay.
Anyone who has not been to St Thomas Bay should not be scolded: it is simply horrible, ugly and seriously depressing. But just in case you have, you will surely agree that it is a veritable monument to the great world of slum.
Answering a question to a silly French journalist about how he tackles media criticism, Gonzi replied that he takes it in his stride and takes stock of it and it helps him.
It proved (1) that French journalists are as bland as English roast beef (2) that our PM takes us for fools.
In reality Dr Gonzi would very much like to do away with the media and to send me and some others packing to Afghanistan or perhaps to sex offender department at the police HQ, where I could, if I wished, consider jumping off the bastion.
Or…
Natalino’s revelation
Which brings me back to the real world.
Well some time ago, Mr Natalino Fenech – not yet the TVM head of news but then a journalist with the Times – was so kind as to write that a policeman (not a police officer as the gender policewomen insist we call them) had lied through his teeth but was awarded a gold medal.
The policeman had suggested through his very vivid imagination that he had braved the waves and saved a woman from the seas. It was of course a complete lie.
But it was believed. When it was discovered that he had lied he was stripped of his medal and asked to talk to a disciplinary board.
To add insult to injury, instead of being reprimanded the policeman was promoted to police sergeant.
So far so good, but really the real juicy bit is that Police sergeant Adrian Lia was the man who interrogated the late Nicholas Azzopardi.
Which of course brings me back to Natalino Fenech, the TVM head of news who was so very kind as to present us with a totally skewed dimension to this story, of course leaving out the story he generously reported 10 years ago when he was Mr Nice Guy with The Times.
Private practise
And of course my thoughts go to Mater Dei.
Thank you for all the emails about your experiences at Malta state of the art hospital, where waiting lists are so long and interminable that they erase the long and interminable lies coming out of government.
And what about the patients who have to wait weeks on end for an operation unless that they get the hint and of course visit the consultant at his private practise in one of the two private hospital?
No wonder they called the hospital Mater Dei.
Last thought
How sad to see Eddie preside over the opening of parliament – this time in his position as president.
So with President Eddie, PM Gonzi and speaker Louis Galea and no Opposition leader, I tell you I really felt as though it were the openeing of the Harare House of Representatives.
Send your Mater Dei experiences to sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
