The disclosure that a number of letters appearing in the English language press, purportedly written by ordinary citizens, were in fact being written by a select group of people in the higher echelons of the MLP’s youth movement – Forum Zghazagh Laburisti – is much more than just an interesting snippet of gossip. It confirms the lengths to which Labour’s dirty tricks department is prepared to go in order to manipulate public opinion.
It is true that this ‘secret’ activity ended up in the public domain because the ‘bright’ youngsters overplayed their hand, but it is also true that they had succeeded to mislead the editors of these papers and, moreover, impress a gullible public with the idea that Dr Alfred Sant has been hitting the right chord with the man-in-the-street, when no such thing was happening.
It would be as foolish as these brash youngsters have been if one were to dismiss the whole episode as some children’s prank. For it is very obvious that it is nothing of the sort. The scheme was organised well and must have had the blessing of the powers that be within the MLP. In other words, this was not something that just happened: behind the orchestration there must have been a conductor wielding the baton.
This cannot be just one antic of the MLP’s dirty trick department; and as it so happens it complemented the recent strategy that is aimed at manipulating the way in which the party leader comes across to the general public. The letter-writing spree should not be seen in isolation, but as part of a very larger picture concocted by the MLP spin weaving machine. Some parts of this intriguing jigsaw puzzle now seem to be well in place, while there are probably others that are still in the shadows.
The spate of letter writing was hypothetically ‘triggered’ by Sant’s performance on a Bondiplus edition during which he shrugged off his Birzebbugia histrionics as a joke that failed to elicit laughter. These letters portrayed Sant’s performance on Bondiplus as a brilliant and memorable one, in spite of not being anything of the sort. The suspicious trilogy of letters appearing within two days in the correspondence columns of The Times under the heading ‘Round one for Sant’ was meant to be the dawn of a new Dr Sant, or rather of the same Dr Sant in new packaging. Sant was depicted as the man near the people while Gonzi was dismissed as unaware of the real feelings of the people.
In the words of one of Sant’s most ardent admirers, Marie Benôit, the MLP’s message comes across like this: ‘Dr Gonzi campaigns in poetry but governs in prose. This came out clearly in his debate with Dr Sant, and there is no question that the latter redeemed himself after his show at Birzebbugia. He is best being honest and sincere.’ Ironically, this particular effort on the part of Marie Benôit was published in the same edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday in which Daphne Caruana Galizia wrote her article under the title ‘The elves in Sant’s grotto’ that started off by saying: ‘Since the debate on Bondiplus between the Prime Minister and the future prime minister, there has been a spate of letters to the editors of all the English-language newspapers. These letters are interesting, not so much because of their content, but because of what they imply: that somewhere in the bowels of the Labour Party headquarters there are those who still think of the “electorate” as a giant tabula rasa on which they can imprint any thought they choose’.
It is more than obvious that someone in the MLP devised a ‘post-Birzebbugia’ strategy aimed at restoring Alfred Sant’s reputation in the public eye after the Birzebbugia debacle. The main thrust of this strategy aims at ensuring that Sant’s exposure to the media is strictly controlled and limited. Much like the ‘documents’ that are supposed to outline the proposed ‘new beginning’, Sant was to be wrapped in resplendent cellophane and viewed from a distance…
It is no sheer coincidence that after the Budget speech, Sant’s usual press conference was reduced to a terse three minute statement ending abruptly with journalists not allowed to field questions. Or that last Sunday, Sant avoided hostile journalists by not addressing the usual public political meeting in some Labour party club as he has been doing for so many years. Instead, he appeared on a one-hour programme on One TV answering questions that had been prepared and rehearsed beforehand.
This week we have continued to see this strategy in practice., The MLP withdrew its participation in a Bondi+ programme that was to discuss Alfred Sant’s response to the budget on Monday. Incidentally the Broadcasting Authority obligingly ordered PBS and the programme producers to change the subject of that edition of the programme. In the evening, Sant was photographed and videoed entering the Parliamentary chamber holding a black briefcase while being flanked by Deputy Leader Charles Mangion and Labour Whip Joe Mizzi, aping the way the Prime Minister entered Parliament to deliver his budget speech. Naturally, the GWU daily, l-orizzont obligingly reproduced the photo on Tuesday. If Sant’s performance at Birzebbugia recalled the theatre of the absurd – as Lino Spiteri put it – this charade was just parish hall farce.
Meanwhile the party’s General Secretary, Jason Micallef – who seems to have assumed the role of master of ceremonies – insisted that in his post-speech press conference, Alfred Sant had to have the same props that the Prime Minister had in his.
Duping the general public with artificial and fake letters praising Alfred Sant, therefore, complemented the artificial and fake set-ups in which Alfred Sant was being ‘presented’ to the public. The orchestration was organised perfectly, except for the silly drummer who beat his drum too much…
All this, of course, shows that rather than presenting serious stuff to the electorate, the MLP has opted to make up for the lack of substance by resorting to theatrical effects.
What they mean when they say ‘a new beginning’ is actually a new package for the same old Sant and this same old collection of vague ephemeral suggestions.
Yes, it’s the same old wine in new bottles complete with new special effects for the labels!

micfal@maltanet.net