PLPN

Notre classe politique est une pipe

pipe_akkuza.com

I believe that I have referred to this idea at least once before. Magritte’s creation seems prima facie to be an inherent contradiction since he accompanies an image of a pipe with the caption “this is not a pipe”. In actual fact Magritte’s observation was more of the obsessive compulsive kind – “you could not stuff this pipe, it is just a representation, it is not a pipe but an image thereof”.

I like to think that our political class, and particularly the Taghna Lkoll Movement/Government have mastered the art of denying the obvious that is in your head. They will present you with a pipe – as real as can be – and then proceed to deny that it is a pipe at all. Magritte’s prima facie contradiction becomes a reality after all. In this the Taghna Lkoll Movement and its discontents are aided by a particularly malleable media and a voting class that is more than willing to dance to the tune as the piper intended.

It is only with such “politics” that a government can afford to claim not to be putting citizenship up for sale when no matter which way you look at the (revised) proposals we are still facing an outright sale of passports – changing the small print does not change anything of the final underlying reason for the transaction. It is such “politics” that allow a well-oiled media machine to “sell” the idea that citizenship has always been easily obtainable (so why no charge a price?) while at the same time denying that this has anything to do with price. Such “politics” sells you the lie that this is all about attracting “talent” to Malta. Indeed.

Meanwhile the opposition huffs and puffs and is still unable to put Humpty together again after his great fall. Right now the opposition is gearing for the forthcoming MEP elections and is investing quite a little bit of its time in hyping up its list of candidates. The latest to be mentioned is one of the biggest pipes in Maltese “journalism” – the inimitable (thankfully) Norman Vella. Not content with overhyping the legal qualities of some of its line-up, still unsatisfied with the questionable economic credentials of some of its other careerist members of the list, we now have the PN pushing Norman Vella as a journalist. “Ceci n’est pas une pipe, c’est Norman Vella.”

Will the voters have enough? Have they not seen enough posturing and over-hyping from both sides? The great toilet of so-called journalism in Malta will survive many a flush and seems to be geared to provide the electorate with more and more choices for European election day. The parties will strut up the figures of their supposedly pre-selected candidates and will over-sell them to a populace that seems to have given up on any concept of discernment. The candidates will shoot non sequiturs of the highest order – sometimes hyping up an issue as though they have discovered the world. Thus Cyrus Engerer and Stefano Mallia supposedly “agree” that the President of the Republic should be chosen from outside the politicial milieu. A non-politician. “Ceci n’est pas un politicien, c’est votre President de la Republique”.

It’s getting very, very confusing and more and more difficult to cut through the hyperreal crap that the establishment uses to legitimate the ideas that it sells. When we fail to question the obvious and to point out the embarrassing nudity of the Emperor we insist on committing a disservice to ourselves. As the various lobbies continue to struggle for a place to suckle at the teat of this Labour government’s fat pig bonanza, they become willing participants in the lie that we live in daily. It will become harder and tougher to call their bluff. And by “their”  I mean all of them.

Ceci n’est pas un blog post politique.

1. The government will be revising art censorship laws. Malta does not have art censorship laws, it has censors in artists’ head. Ceci n’est pas une phrase censurée.

2. The biggest issue in the controversy on gay adoption is not whether it should be allowed but whether this government had a mandate to introduce it. Ceci n’est pas un enfant terrible.

3. The Bishop’s rant about moral duties of politicians in parliament is a huge tautology. The truth is that any politician is accountable to his own set of morals and values as well as those of his party. Whether they are legislating on spring hunting or gay adoption politicians are supposedly inspired by a code of ethics, morals and values. The trick is in finding out what values our politicians and their parties represent. Ceci n’est pas une blague.

4. 10 months into this legislature and we still have no news about those ridiculous claims by various ministers as to what they earned. Ceci n’est pas un bon souvenir.

5. The oil purchasing scandal rages on. It remains the biggest excuse yet whenever you confront Labour with anything wrong with their government. Ceci n’est pas une bonne excuse.

6. Arriva left the island. The money that went into the government side of transport planning remains money hopelessly spent. The luminaries behind the ideas that tied Arriva’s hands as from its arrival (excuse the pun) have a lot to answer for. The general public remains blind to a series of improvements that Arriva made (quality wise) – except in Gozo of course where Arriva worked like clockwork and actually contributed to an increase in public transport use. Ceci n’est pas un autobus en flammes.

 

 

Sycophants

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Is the sycophant a product of our political system or is he a cause? Do the parties feed on the sycophantic needs of many involved or linked to our political system or do they generate new ones? In any case, the sycophant is ever present and more dangerous than ever.

In un paese pieno di coglioni, ci mancano le palle.

 

Where’s the plague when you need it?

It’s become too much of a cliché for people like us to yell “A plague on both your houses” at the PLPN and all they represent. The first line of defence is always that your repetition of the PLPN mantra is an obsession. Hand on heart however, how many can sincerely say that this is not the era of the proverbial fecal matter hitting the rotating device. We’re knee deep in doo-doo and the rot is only obscured from the man-in-the-street’s eyes because he is high on a double dose of “Taghna Lkoll” pills and post-trouncing of the nasty PN euphoria.

Here at J’accuse I should be popping champagne bottles and rejoicing that our warnings of a dire future that would be caused by this obsession with a race to mediocrity have been (are in still in the process of being) proven right. Naysayers will chime in with that ever so wonderful chorus – “Sure but we had not alternative other than to vote in more of the same”. Right. It’s not like observations such as those that often were to be found in the posts on this blog were only directed at the creation of a credible third alternative. No, they were and are also directed at the fact that as a nation of supposed discerning voters we stop enabling the farce and the circus that are the Nationalist and Labour parties.

What did we do instead? We immersed ourselves in this delectable Maltese version of the war of the roses and threw all caution to the wind. Seven months of Labour and what do we have as a result? In your face appointments that defy reason, unshamefaced cavorting with people of questionable history and the selling out of the nation as an outpost to (parts of) the Chinese behemoth. Elsewhere these ugly warts of Labour’s je ne sais quoi are being dutifully exposed. Well done and more – though it took some people quite some time to notice that the Chinese deal is all about the PV market (Liang Mizzi’s appointment being only yet another unpleasant spin-off of the “già che ci siamo“) kind. Focusing just on one minister – take Anton “Minimum Wage” Refalo as a random example … opens up a pandora’s box of no nos that only serve to demonstrate Labour’s inability to conceive of what democratic representation and the rule of law is about.

Meanwhile Joseph Muscat has turned into photo-op PM hoofing around the world trying to get his not so attractive mug in as many photo shoots as possible. When he is not giving lessons to the United Nations as to how to notice that the REAL sufferers in world immigration are the Maltese he is teaching the United States the secrets of Malta’s economic success (So we are successful now?) to FOX news journalists. Back home his cabinet is engaged in a free for all that makes a herd of pigs battling at a trough look like a silver service  dinner at the Ritz.

The opposition is lost in its own thoughts but is increasingly sending out signals that all is not too well and settled in its house. This blog has already voiced its opinion as to what the early steps in the rebuilding of the PN should be so we will not go there again. As far as we concerned the real measure of the EU Parliament campaign for the PN will not be so much how well it fares vote wise but really how much of the old strategies (read vote driven) still survive. Will the candidates be chosen purely on their propensity to attract votes and their marketability (are we still in DJ’s and popular faces mode?) or will their be a block of political thinkers being pushed? I suspect the temptation to go along with the old fashioned “motley crew” is still very much what the PN is about. Tant pis. It will be a missed chance to inject real quality.

So yes, we are left with wishing a plague upon both their houses. There will not be of course and the population is entitled to dream that everything is fine and dandy for a while longer. That is until the sums are made and the result is not very much to their liking. Pleasures yet to come.

 

In un paese pieno di coglioni, ci mancano le palle. 

Broken Bad the second

“We may be broke but we are not broken”. I may be paraphrasing Beppe Fenech Adami a little here but that was the thrust of his address on the granaries last night. Well, that’s too bad Beppe because I’ve chosen the title for this little series about the PN quandaries and it’s there to stay. Obviously I do believe that the party is pretty broken besides being broke and I will not deny that the not so subtle reference to one of the greatest series ever written for TV made the choice of this title much much simpler.

Having got that off my chest let me now turn to the PN Leader’s speech last night. Simon Busuttil switched away from reminding us how Joseph Muscat has lost his map and for one night seems to have focused on his own house that needs setting in order. This is the right time of course in which the PN can engage in a little introspection and the granaries is the right forum for such introspection to be given the seal of approval. Busuttil told the crowd that the PN has always had vision and has had vision for 49 years and he added that the PN still has vision now. But does it?

Some readers will hopefully forgive me for another reference to Guy Ritchie’s movies but all that talk about vision reminded me of a Vinnie Jones speech in Snatch – he had an idea about what exactly it is that has drive and clarity of vision, he was not too impressed about its cleverness though. The thing is I have an aversion to party conference/mass meeting/staged event rhetoric and that aversion is deeply rooted in the fact that most times the basic building block of such rhetoric is good old bull. The point about having vision is not that you talk about it but that you act upon it. You see Simon, to people like me your talk about having vision is not very different from Joseph Muscat’s talk about having a road map.

Six months have passed since the ignominious thrashing at the polls for the PN. During those six months it was supposed to go through the inevitable “sackcloth” moment that involves a diet of humble pie and much (very much) introspection. During those six months we did not expect the PN to renege on its constitutional responsibility to act as an opposition and guardian. The latter work comes as second nature of course but its importance should never be underestimated – the opposition has a very important role to play within our constitutional structure and an important part of that task is keeping the government in check when it comes to seeing whether it is delivering what it promised.

But that’s not what the “vision” bit is about. The vision bit is directly linked to what I spoke about in the first part of this series. The PN is supposed to be asking itself what kind of party it wants to be. In a way it needs to be reinventing itself to a certain extent – particularly if it does not want to fall into the same ruts of the past. It is encouraging (very) to see Simon Busuttil distinguishing between the politics of salesmanship and the real politics of values. What is not really credible is the assertion that the PN has already found its vision. Really?

Unless this vision has been cloned from some outside source there have been little clues to show that the PN is reforming its forma mentis and that it has developed a new basic building block upon which to build a real plan that can be pitched to the voters eventually. Nobody is expecting the PN to come up with an electoral manifesto as of yesterday and to be honest we would even be prepared to wait a little longer than six months given the structural deficiencies (administratively speaking) within which such intellectual revival needs to take place. In the meantime though I would dare suggest that the PN undertakes an exercise of intellectual honesty with its closest members as well as with the more discerning of voters.

“We have worn the sackcloth, we repent, we recognise where we need to go and we are beginning to work to get there” would have been a splendid start. Throw in an appeal for involvement that does not smack of a recruitment campaign for billboards and yes-men (and women) and you might just be on the right track.

Returning the nationalist party to the value-driven movement that is built on the value of the human being and his potential does not have to be a step back. It can be a step forward (as they like to say). It will take a bit of discipline to ignore the instincts and bad habits that have developed over the past.

It will mean that they don’t need to bother much about a few misplaced boos here and there.

Sticks and stones.

 

The riot acts

It’s all happening in Rabat it seems. At is-Serkin to be exact. Rabat pastizzi and tea places have long been the rage for an after hours sobering up. There was a time when you would throw in the Tarxien doughnut guy – that was when the guy would go to the doughnut before the doughnut began to come… everywhere. Turns out that at 5 a.m. this morning there was some form of altercation between an employee of PN Dar Centrali and the two renegades Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono. Depending on which news source you read there was some form of provocation from one side and the Taghna Lkoll appointees who had shot to stardom under a nationalist administration are on record to have directed a barrow load of invective against anything “nationalist”.

Five a.m. in Rabat eh. We’re not exactly back to the Raymond Caruana drive by scenarios (God rest his soul) but by the look of it this morning you get the feeling that the PN side of the equation are dying hard to portray this event as a prelude of such things to come. (I mean we DO have a monument to Mintoff in the making – and displayed at Labour HQ to boot – Ghax Taghna Lkoll means tal-Lejber). On the other hand my facebook wall is already witnessing mocking comments by Labourite “supporters” of the young nationalist stalwart whose description of the action makes him sound like some Harry Potter being attacked by Death Eaters.

The tableau remains the same. Two politicians long past their sell-by date have engaged in yet another public performance that should in normal non-Banana Republic countries spell the end of their public commitments and engagements. A reluctant opposition still insists on referring to JPO and Franco without reminding the public of their roles – you get the feeling that the PN is (1) painfully aware of its limitations at this current junction and is not too eager to rock the boat and (2) quite tellingly the PN remains even more painfully aware that it was the springboard for JPO’s and Franco’s claim to fame. It was after all PN votes that got JPO into parliament (spin and all). And Joseph? What will he do this time round? Surely not another quip about something that ‘also happened under the nationalists” (it didn’t by the way).

These are the politicians of this Banana republic of ours. Now it’s down to brawls in nightspots. Oh yes J’accuse will express sincere solidarity with any victim of senseless violence. If punches were thrown then the aggressor must not only be condemned verbally but must be brought to justice. Things might be about to go out of hand thanks to the persistence of our dichotomous way of thinking. I look at the scene as it was reported and I do not see Nicky Azzopardi, Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando brawling outside a pastizzi and newspaper joint.

I see the continuation of a race to mediocrity that is far from over.

Ghamilli te vojt u tlieta irkotta. Le… x’gazzetti? Ma tafx li ilni ghomor ma nixtri gazzetta?

Grabbing the iced buns

Iced buns are quite the talk of the town thanks to Muscat’s very unique interpretation of meritocracy. Norman Hamilton’s appointment as High Commissioner in Britain is the latest in a long line of appointments that have absolutely nothing to do with merit and much to do with “partitocracy”. Taghna Lkoll’s labour are not reinventing the wheel, we’ve been there before but never with such brazen partisanism. It’s as though the only reason Labour wanted to get elected was to dig its teeth in a huge cake and there seems to be a sense of urgency in all this – as though the cake might finish tomorrow.

It’s across the board. Across the boards actually. Nothing is spared. Justice, environment, diplomacy, culture… you name it the’ve got a board, directorship, charimanship or some other magic chair to fill. There is absolutely no direct correlation between the person nominated and the job in question – which is where Labour is actually going out on a limb. There is no attempt to colour the nominations with any semblance of competence or adequacy, the only justification spouting from the acolytes of the TaghnaLkoll creed is that “now it is our turn” or that “you can only trust our own”.

Such a parody of a political system defies comment through its very existence as a real life caricature. Everyone can see how naked the Emperor is it’s just that they still cannot get over how brazen he is about his nudity. Meanwhile the consequences of a more subtle iced bun distribution network gone wrong are being felt among the opposition. The horse-trading that went on behind the scenes in the nationalist party camp had already been partially exposed thanks to the Borg Olivier gaffes about his “barter” system. Businesses and commerce would have been quite happy with preferential treatment and a rather generous credit system “mal-partit” if their workings were facilitated by the party in power. Lose the power, lose the credit.

Before you know it l-istamperija is history. You know, the stamperija is the kind of place that allows the PLPN parties to conduct multimillion print and poster campaigns without batting an eyelid. Obviously right now the Labour side of credit must be basking in sunlight. No closing time for the Labour equivalent of stamperija yet because Labouris now in the driving seat of the iced bun business. Sure, Labour will bumble it much faster than any amount of PN sugary pastry scheme could – simply by way of the inability to moderate its hunger for power – but yes we are still very much in the field of same, same but different.

The biggest problem with Labour’s idea of managing the iced bun business is that Labour seems to have even less of an appreciation of the fragility of the whole power system. The Labour Horde of pretenders to iced buns have been unleashed on a Castille Palace that must seem to them what the witche’s Candy House seemed to Hansel and Gretel. The tentacles of the Labour orgy have spread into sensitive areas such as justice and diplomacy. That is very dangerous territory. Meanwhile a civil service that was very much constructed to work the EU machine is being slowly dismantled to allow inexperienced pretenders to take their places in various directorships… expect a ticking time bomb there – not because of any sabotage by nationalist civil servants but simply because the lock stock change being imposed by the iced bun brigade is simply unsustainable.

In short, the Iced Bun system is simply a progressive increase on what was already there in another form. That does not make the new Iced Bun system any more acceptable than the previous one. But it seems that in the world of PN vs PL all that it takes to be ahead is to be “same, same but different”.

Thank you very much PLPN.