Michael Falzon | Sunday, 29 March 2009

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The (sour) grapes of wrath

Alfred Sant’s ventures in the printed media of late seem intended to send the message that he is far from being written off, even though for many they seem to be more some sort of ‘apologia pro vita sua’ – a justification of the stances he adopted as MLP leader for a stretch of 16 years that include just 22 months in government.
His article last Sunday in the GWU weekly it-Torċa continued where previous articles and speeches had left off: our society’s progress is blocked by a web of power that is dominating our island.
In every democratic society there are groups that lobby in their own interest and this should be of no surprise to anyone. But Sant insists that these lobby groups have consciously – or unconsciously – merged into a network that seeks to use power for its own ends. When one looks objectively at those whom Sant accuses of participating in this network, one practically finds that this network is in fact the basis of Maltese society itself: the country’s principal economic players, the judiciary, the security forces and the Church. Apart from all those who see that their interest is best served by a PN government, Sant also includes those who resisted the imposition of Labour rule in 1981-87, in spite of the PN having garnered more votes than the MLP – and an absolute majority to boot – in the 1981 election. In practice, he insists that almost everybody seems to be part of the power network that refused to let go and give him another chance to take over the country in 2008.
If it were not patently ridiculous, Sant would probably include Dom Mintoff – who brought his downfall from power – as part of the right-wing network that has succeeded in ‘blocking’ society from moving ahead!
Sant sees nothing wrong with the network of people – and organisations such as the GWU – who are convinced that their interests are better served under a Labour government, and he imagines the possibility of a left-wing regime that overrules everybody’s individual interests and works solely in the interest of the country at large.
The way of doing things that Sant finds fault with, is partly the result of our small but closely knit society. While one appreciates that ideally it should not be so, his theory that a future Labour government would liberate Malta from its predicament is just a fantasy that is not borne out by the country’s experience of Labour in government, including the short-lived Sant led administration. Sant conveniently forgets the situation under the 1971-87 labour administrations when we had people manipulating power for their strict private interest and many others, peddling influence in one way or another. The ‘power network’ then included trade unions, the drydocks workers and their Council, those running and working with a myriad state-owned companies, broadcasting, the Police force and the armed forces… but Sant ignores this.
Clientelism, the bane of Maltese society, is surely not a PN monopoly and it has always been – and still is – a tool used by Labour to garner votes. Sant conveniently forgets that his efforts to distance his 1996-98 administration from the vagaries of clientelism were a complete failure as can be seen from many a decision taken by his administration in the run-up to the 1998 general election. In other words, Sant has had an opportunity to right the many wrongs that he rants about – but he made a mess of it.
It was Wenzu Mintoff himself – then Chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - who put it this way: ‘What has New Labour done to tackle effectively income tax evasion, except for the appointment of a glorified talk shop? What has Alfred Sant done to eradicate waste and to ensure value for money in the performance of public contracts? What has he done to increase the efficiency of non-productive public service employees except for the appointment of an inspectorate which has been conspicuous by its invisibleness? Dr Sant’s commitment not to hand out jobs and promotions for the boys lasted only until his government became a caretaker. Alfred Sant’s solutions for our nation’s plagues, penalised each and every one of us indiscriminately, notwithstanding the inequalities and different social conditions and needs in our society, notwithstanding whether we are parasites, ‘barons’ or honest duty-minded people. The low-income earners, the pensioners and those who depend on the Welfare State have been abandoned to their fate by New Labour.’
At face value, Sant’s analysis might seem logical and hence his arguments are interesting and intriguing. However it ignores so many facts that appear glaring to many an observer of the local political scene, that one is tempted to view it more as a reaction to his disappointing political career than anything else. Perhaps, after all, this is just a case of sour grapes, more so considering that the vehemence, with which he lambasts all and sundry, speaks volumes. The intensity and its underlying anger makes one suspect that when he was touting ‘new labour’ and selling himself as a moderate, he was just faking it.
His latest written harangue belies a quixotic attitude that depicts him considering himself as the lone champion facing a powerful alliance of right-wing elements all out to frustrate his efforts to put Malta on the ‘right’ track. The sad truth is that no one will ever consider Alfred Sant’s political misadventures in this light.
One wonders to what extent will Alfred Sant’s recent outbursts in the press influence the powers that be in the Labour Party today. More so as he tends to end his contributions by ‘appealing’ for support to Joseph Muscat so that the left will be given the chance to ensure that society starts breathing fresh air ‘again’.
Ironically, Joseph Muscat’s ‘pragmatism’ has led him to adopt and push right-wing policies, as in the case of illegal immigration and the demand for refunds on VAT paid on car registration fees. They are the sort of policies that Sant’s much maligned right-wing power network would favour!
But left and right have apparently lost their true meaning and the ideological compass has gone awry. To the extent that Alfred Sant seems bent on subscribing to the nonsense of considering whatever the PN government does as the result of a right-wing conspiracy while whatever the Labour Party proposes must be the politics of the left.

micfal@maltanet.net

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