Categories
Articles

J’accuse : The New Labour Stupid

It’s been ages. If a week in politics is long then almost a month getting married, going on a mini-moon (that’s the trendy half honeymoon while waiting for the real thing) and becoming an uncle immediately after that, while also marking your 36th year of existence, is not only a mouthful but a googleplex of eternities. When the celebrations and tsunami of emotions had subsided, I half expected to look at the papers and find a changed world armed with a strong euro abroad and a Labour government that took over from GonziPN after the latter had imploded.

“Hożż fl-ilma.” Which is a much better expression than “Yeah right!”and accurately conveys the idea of how far off the mark my wild imaginings had been. The events over the past month have given us two incontrovertible truths that will be rather difficult to change in the foreseeable future. The first is the confirmation that the eurozone and EU nations are in one hell of a big mess. The second is the sad unmasking of the empty Opposition that has long gone past its sell-by date and has failed the expectations of all those willing to give Joseph’s New Labour a chance.

The new republics

First let’s take a look at the Europe of Merkozy where words like “spread” apparently no longer excite bunga bunga masters like Berlusconi. What name should we give to this crisis now that it seems to be definitely here to stay? Is it just a Debt Crisis? Is it limited to an economic maelstrom of sorts or does it extend beyond the confines of stocks, shares, bonds and hedge funds?

The more I look at the crisis and its immediate effects, the more I am convinced that from a wider angle (and that includes a longer span of time than the proverbial week in politics) we are at an interesting turning point for our market-oriented democracies. The liberal-democrat world as we know it was of course built on the will of “we the people” constructing the basic elements of government − for the people by the people. We were brought up in a world of checks and balances where politicians were supposed to be elected to responsible positions at the helm of nations, guiding them in a principled manner for the “common wealth” of the people. Sure we had the extremes of socialist sharing and liberal laissez-faire but the ties that bound us were clear. We were all servants of the law because we wanted to be free.

What now? When governments from Spain to Greece to Italy collapse (or if you like, politely step aside) and allow the infamous “technocrats” to waltz in and attempt to minimise the damage we are witnessing a paradigm shift. The paradigm shift is one where “we the people” don’t really end up calling the shots but “they the number crunchers expecting quick results on spending and debt” insist on who (or at least what type) of person should help the leviathan weather the economic storm.

“They the number crunchers” would not have sounded so nice on the 4th of July in 1776 (although a Freemason or two signing the document would not have minded) but the truth is out there… our elected politicians risk becoming less and less relevant during the economic downturn unless they prove to be able captains when weathering the storm.

The real Opposition?

Which brings me to what has been going on in Malta. We jumped from a confidence vote and early lessons in constitutional law to Tonio Fenech’s budget that was thankfully lacking in holy talk and concentrated on substance. The budget should have been (and is mostly) about the government and its plans for the economic side of the business of government. It was also inevitably a bit of a pre-electoral budget: not so much a handout budget but one that was criticised in some quarters for dispensing sugary goods to the elusive “middle class” (seems more like “everyone” to me) and families.

From where I am sitting, we heard more noise coming from the Opposition and its Internet mouthpieces than from the government benches and apologists… and boy was the noise an ugly cacophony. Squeezed down to its bare minimum, the collective ensemble of Labour intelligence (if you excuse the clumsy oxymoron) boiled down to the tired clichés of “pizijiet” (burdens) and “cost of living”. It’s 2011, Joseph Muscat has had three years to restyle and redefine what Labour means and they are still investing all (that’s a big word) their capital in one basket: public discontent − whether real or fabricated.

Discontent is good for pitchforks and takings of Bastilles, but in the complicated world of the New Republic it takes much more than the unnerving capacity to hypnotise part of the people into a whinging collective to become eligible to run the country. This however is a Labour collective that INSISTED (my caps) that the budget discussion be held in a vacuum away from the European reality that are the governments and markets of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Were it not for a last minute reaction by Brussels-based Prof. Scicluna, you’d have thought that our government-in-waiting was edging towards Mintoffian isolationism once again. “Il-Haddiem qabel il-barrani” and that sort of claptrap, which should have long been confined to forgotten chapters of the annals of history, were back to being order of the day.

The Christian Democrat DNA is back

The likes of Karmenu Vella and Anglu Farrugia thus became easy targets for the flotilla of calm sharpshooters ever prepared to highlight Labour’s deficiencies. For once, so long as they kept away from personal insults, J’accuse could not but agree with the necessity to expose the fake promise that is New Labour. New Labour is turning out to be a stupid reshuffle and deprives the nation of a valid Opposition that would be necessary at this point in time to refresh the waters with new ideas.

Trust the Nationalist Party to morph into the second Opposition at this very moment. After almost two years of being browbeaten into accepting the fact that the state of affairs in social rights is not exactly kosher − from censorship (expression) to divorce − the PN has done what J’accuse has been stressing it should do ever since the first blogpost back in 2005. This weekend’s General Council has a new document before it that is a revisiting of the “Basic Roots” document that is the bible of Nationalist Party thinking.

The document outlines the Nationalist “fingerprint” (I sense that someone would have loved to mention DNA but had to settle for second best). “Our roots” is a return to understanding “what the Nationalist Party believes” and “how it will set up to bring into effect its beliefs”. The new document is an opening − a reaction to the discontented within the party who for the past few years became a vociferous second Opposition − from the backbenchers to the lost votes. This was a rallying cry for the “umbrella party” to redefine itself. If the motion is backed with sincere plans and a clear step-by-step approach to proper legislation and affirmative action, the PN will have made giant steps into filling that value vacuum that made it look ever so antipathetic to the discerning voter.

Values

Number crunchers might (only just) save the moment economically, but a politic that is built around the dignity and potential of the human being and recognises the diversity and fragility of the world we live in can be worth a hundred saving funds from many a European bank. If the PN is ready to put its values where its mouth is then it has just leapt forward, far ahead of the tantrum-throwing toddler who just wants his moment of fame to toy with the lives of a nation. Rather than complaining about supposed “U-turns” by “GonziPN”, the Labour ensemble would do well to notice that it is already late (very late) as it is − they do not only need a proper economic plan but also a clear framework of values to convince many of us that they are even worth considering.

And now Simon

A big welcome to the world to my first nephew Simon − thanks for waiting for my wedding to be over (you’ll soon be told how much your uncle loves being in the spotlight). There’s a brave new world out there full of interesting things waiting for you to discover them. Take your time… God willing we’re here for a while and as you might soon find out… change happens fast. Really fast.

 

www.akkuza.com ist verheiratet − (I’ve been dying to be able to say that one). The blog is back too following the nuptial happiness. Cheers to everyone for the patience.

Facebook Comments Box

Categories
NRD

therealopposition.com

Here’s another one for the New Republic Dictionary – where’s the real opposition? Andrew Borg Cardona beat me to this reflection yesterday in his Times blog (Snappy Little Annoyances). This is no race though and ABC’s pondering only comforted my thinking in the sense that if other people are reaching the same conclusions then the concept might be worth a moment of elaboration and analysis. In this case the idea (or question provoking the idea) is simple: Who is performing the work of the real opposition in Malta nowadays? Surely, I hear you protest,  it’s Joseph Muscat and his merry band of “għaqlin”. Well no it isn’t.

If we needed any confirmation of the absolute abdication by the Malta Labour Party from its duties as a real opposition then the run up to the budget and subsequent follow up have given us enough to digest. There they were arming their cannons with the fodder of overused cliches about the cost-of-living and the water and electricity bills. The likes of Luciano Busuttil, Cyrus Engerer and Leo Brincat crammed social networks with “warnings” that the government benches’ vocabulary would be rife with references to the international state of economic affairs – like that would be a bad thing. The “opposition” wanted you to believe that a government presenting its budget in November 2011 was obliged to do so without thinking about what was going on in France, Spain, Greece and Italy. Basically according to Labour, our Budget in Times of Crisis had to ignore the Eurozone in its entirety.

Did “we the people” fall for it? Well the “sarcastic” elements of the web might have found something to chew on – coming up with Eurovision-like games about the number of times Tonio F would mention the PIGS (that’s Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and not the porcine patterers) but on the whole the reaction to what on the surface seems to be a very family oriented and equity-driven budget (“equity” that’s a word to hang on to nowadays) seems to be relatively positive and unaffected by Labour’s shenanigans. There is hope yet.

We cannot be distracted though by the sanity of the PN budget planning. Two years before a general election it behooves us to drill the fact that Joseph Muscat’s Labour has not only been caught with its pants down but (if you forgive the extensive milking of the metaphor) it is very evidently lacking any signs of puberty – let alone full blown maturity. We couldn’t put it simpler – the Labour opposition is transparently unable to come to terms with the simplest of facts: a budget is not only where to spend your money but also about where it will be coming from.

Muscat is headstrong about the downsizing of water and electricity bills (while expecting Tonio Fenech to both announce a hike AND a cut in the utility bills) but cannot be brought to explain to anyone who cares to listen where the hell the money to cover those cuts will be coming from. Broad statements and planning coming from the opposition involve spending more and cutting less or some half-baked plans about alternative forms of energy. This while Sarkozy’s government (shit, he mentioned France) is hell-bent on AUSTERITY, SuperMario (darn.,there goes Italy) has been installed to supervise a cost-cutting and tax-hiking exercise to tackle the spread, and Greece (no, don’t mention the Greeks) is battling for survival with the latest technical government.

Even in a time of crisis where in other countries (sorry but they exist) opposition members co-operate with governments in order to perform the tightrope act of equitable measures that might just about keep the euro bomb from exploding, Muscat wants to play at the traditional, old fashioned opposition selling unsustainable populist wares to what he hopes is a sufficiently gullible and greedy electorate.

Which brings me back to the question. Who is the real opposition? Well the likes of Franco Debono embody the kind of unlovable opposition (from a government point of view) that we really deserve. Even with a crisis looming backbenchers found time to rap the government hand on such issues as responsibility in transport reform, divorce legislation, and now criminal justice reform. They did not hesitate to throw themselves four-square behind the government when it came to the all-important measures related to economic stability. better still we got an added bonus because the government could plan confidently and include incentives that remind us of the true worth of christian-democrat politics when practised properly.

The New Republic has the potential to banish futile, old-fashioned oppositions from their undeserved seats and benches in parliament. Joseph Muscat’s failure to breathe fresh air into an old and tired Labour might find that the final test will be an unfortunate one for his fate and of those who would love to preserve the old fashioned way of the all-nixing opposition. Far from being progressive, Muscat and his minions have proved to be a clunking metal ball at the foot of real progress in constitutional, institutional and republican matters. The sooner the Republic is rid of this baggage the faster everyone gets to move on.

 

Facebook Comments Box

Categories
NRD

We the People

Speaking to the papers earlier this week Franco Debono was protesting that his was not the voice of a rebel politician but that of the electorate. The nationalist MP had just lived through another period of being labelled a renegade by his side and a near miss by the members of parliament across the chamber and was once again attempting to explain what his motivations.

Is Franco Debono an anomaly or yet another clear sign of the newly-formed rules of the game in the New Republic? His criticism of Minister Austin Gatt’s transport reform was couched in constitutional terms of “accountability”, “collective and individual ministerial responsibility”, “control on spending” and other such  terms that are the staple food of the democratic system of checks and balances. Beyond Debono lay an opposition baying for much more than constitutional principles and ministerial blood. There lay an opposition still firmly entrenched in old ways hoping that this “crisis” would be the last for “GonziPN”. They refused to understand Debono’s line of thinking… to them there was one way out – the collapse of government and early elections.

[box type=”info”] That (…) Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. – US Declaration of Independence[/box]

The math behind electoral laws is such that ensures that the government of the day is one that enjoys the confidence of the majority of the people. It’s basic democratic spiel. Franco Debono’s noise about being the electorate implies that somehow the circle of trust between the electorate and the party in government had somehow lost its focus. His, the MP claims, was not a battle to destroy the legitimate government but to remind it of its duty towards the electorate. In many ways Franco Debono is right. Far from the noise of the spin gurus and the spam, the message that Debono sent shockingly to the PN core is a clear Caveat. His idea of a modern politician is of one who puts his constitutional duty of representation above that of loyalty to his party. Franco Debono turned into the one man guardian of “We the people”.

How far does Franco’s concept of “electorate” depart from our previous ideas of the workings of democracy? Not much. It’s rather the manner in which the electorate is bandied around that is becoming quite novel, and not just in Malta. At the end of the day the MP’s seat and the cabinet chair is theoretically filled by those entrusted by “We the people” to run and manage the affairs of the state in the interests of the common good. Just a tiny strait of sea away we have just witnessed a change in government from a political one (elected by “We the people”) to a technocrat one (SuperMario’s nanny government entrusted with nursing Italy’s economy into EU standard good health).

What happened in Italy is a clear sign of the result of new pressures. Merkel, Sarkozy and international pressure obliged Berlusconi to bow out. Silvio did not even lose a vote of confidence in parliament. If you believe Silvio, he stood aside for the good of the people. What happens in these circumstances – will the good of the people trump the normal rules that have their chosen representatives in their rightful seats? For how long?

Economically hard times might prove to be a godsend for parties selling cheap solutions and promising the earth. The new republics will need a wiser citizen when choosing his representatives. Half-baked solutions and empty promises are a ticking bomb that risk breaking becoming the straw that breaks the camels back. How long will technocratic governments be on standby to wrong the rights of elected officials?

We the people still have an important role to play in our liberal democracies. We the people must learn to chose wisely and for the greater good.

The New Republic can only be based on intelligent voters.

[box type=”info”] PREDICTION 25 – In the future, the value of your vote will become less than zero. That happens when the amount you pay in taxes to have your own vote counted is less than the value that you get from the vote itself. (The Dilbert Future – Scott Adams)[/box]

 

 

Facebook Comments Box

Categories
NRD

The New Republic

Today, Monday 14th November 2011, J’accuse : The New Republic is born . We’re officially dropping the “la verité si je mens” (the truth if I lie) slogan and kicking off the new season by declaring the Age of the New Republic open*.

This is the age of crisis after crisis, the era of the 99% vs the 1%. It  is the age of the bouncing of the cheques issued by the marketing-inspired politics of taste and of the de-crystallization of the post-1989 ideologies.

This is the age of the redefinition of populist calls and the age of the clueless enfranchised cohabiting with the hapless disenfranchised.It is the age of the whiplash effects of consumerism, of the final, desperate calls for environmental propriety and of the unmasking of the financial string-pullers and profiteers. It is the age of relativist unhappiness, of consumer anxiety and of moral vacuum after moral vacuum.

Natural disasters, check. Financial turmoil, check. Spread of debt, check. Missing political compass, check. Dearth of leaders, check. It’s all set.

This is the age of crisis. We live in interesting times. However, there is a sense of inevitability in the idea that from this chaos, from this crisis and moment of questioning will arise a new age. We might be questioning the very functionality of our society’s basic functions and organisation. There might be an institutional crisis further aggravated by a political crisis and a lack of faith in those who have claimed to lead until now. There may be more questions and answers at this point in time and a sense of doom and darkness that might lead us to lose all sense of proportion.

Yes, there may be all that and more but there is also the inevitable idea that the chaotic waters following this intellectual, social and economic big bang will be pregnant with new ideas and provide us with a newly born order. The seeds of the New Republic(s) are being sown today.

As a first step, J’accuse will be proposing a series of posts under the new rubrique (NRD – New Republic Dictionary) in which we will be looking at salient concepts and issues that are at the forefront of national and international news at the dawning of this new age. The Dictionary for a New Republic starts here.

P.S. It’s nice to be back – and thank you for all your good wishes.

 

*You might have noticed the new addition to the J’accuse logo.

Facebook Comments Box

Categories
Politics

Call my Bluff

This nation has its testicles in the hands of Franco Debono because our current government will not give up power readily and because the only alternative to government is Joseph Muscat of the hacking, the “controversial secret plans for the economy” and the directionless policies based on the sole maxim of “PN is bad”. Interesting times indeed.

No. I’m not calling my own bluff and I am still on a blogging break (well, sort of) but I’ve woken up mighty early this Sunday and thanks to the hour switch it becomes earlier still. I’m probably also suffering from article writing withdrawal symptoms so all in all I am entitled to a little post.

So whose bluff should we be calling? Well – the average backbencher’s of course. Right now it is the Honourable Franco Debono who is back in the limelight (incidentally we do hope his relative has a speedy recovery in hospital) for being the latest backbencher/government MP to hold the government at ransom. To put it more blandly, Franco has the government by the balls. (As the Latins would say “cuius testiculos habet, habeat cardeam et cerebellum”). As Labourites cheer and hardlines nationalists grind their teeth, Franco is holding his ground over the possibility of his abstaining in a crucial vote about an opposition motion regarding Minister Austin Gatt and the Arriva fiasco (a very good piece by James Debono here). Well good on Franco Debono I say.

Do you know why Franco Debono (now) and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (then) are behaving this way? Because THEY CAN. Oh yes they can. Remember the whole J’accuse rant about the way the electoral rules are phrased in order to be able to foist the “wasted vote” conundrum on the undecided voter? Do you remember how you are constantly reminded that EVERY VOTE COUNTS in order to get that much craved majority (even relative) to get to govern ALONE – without the need of coalitions? And when only two parties elect members to parliament but none of those parties have a clear majority above 50% of votes cast then we get the famous D’Hondt Relative Majority – and the party with RELATIVELY the most votes gets to play government by having its seats adjusted to equal OPPOSITION +1.

That +1 then becomes the noose around the government’s neck whenever a backbencher wants to make some noise. The opposition is obviously going to accomodate anybody wanting to stir the governmental ship and there you have it .. the plus one becomes the “testicle holder”. Q.E.D.

Is there a solution? Of course there is. In the interests of governance the Prime Minister could call an election. It’s been the elephant in the room for quite some time now. Call an election. Call the backbencher’s bluff. Get the people to decide on whether they want individual kingmakers or whether they would prefer a stable government with a wider majority. Why has this solution not been resorted to? Simples. You do not call an election that you cannot win.

This nation has its testicles in the hands of Franco Debono because our current government will not give up power readily and because the only alternative to government is Joseph Muscat of the hacking, the “controversial secret plans for the economy” and the directionless policies based on the sole maxim of “PN is bad”. Interesting times indeed.

Facebook Comments Box

Categories
Admin

The J’accuse Wedding Break

J’accuse is finally tying the knot and it’s seven days to W-day. I’ve dragged this announcement long enough in the hope that I might throw in a few more posts before the final rush and hustle and bustle. The last week will involve an incredibly full schedule and the week after the wedding will (obviously) involve a deserved rest and chill out. Which means that you are being served with an “out of office” notice by J’accuse while we are away tying knots. We will probably be back on the 15th November with the J’accuse column on the Malta Independent resuming on the 20th.

For those who follow us on tumblr there might be a few photographic surprises or one word reflections every now and then. (n case you never noticed our tumblr posts also appear at the bottom of the J’accuse main page. We’re also on twitter of course: @jacqueszammit

So please bear with us for the longest pause in J’accuse blogging yet. It’s for a good cause…

 
Here’s a bit of a marriage story for Halloween… (I’ll change this midweek don’t worry)

Facebook Comments Box