I.M. Beck - quote unquote

Doctor Alfred Sant, bless his little cotton socks, aspires to be the national leader (well, that's how he's billed when he's being called to the stage to do his thing) and, as is his wont, he's pressing his claim by promising to be the Good Shepherd, St Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa, all in one.

If you want a small, small taste of what he's actually going to be like if, Lord Luv Us, the electorate takes collective leave of its senses and gives him the helm, consider the latest piece of idiocy perpetrated by the Broadcasting Authority, on his party's vocal insistence.

This august body has decided to ban a couple of episodes of Xarabank because representatives of the Malta Labour Party were not going to be present.

The Malta Labour Party, with the brilliant and sublime Doctor Alfred Sant in charge, has consistently and continually refused to take part in Xarabank even though it was invited to take part. The MLP was invited - and refused - to take part in the very programmes that they then insisted should be banned and the Broadcasting Authority, cravenly and without even a bow towards logic, instead of telling the MLP precisely where they should get off, meekly banned the programmes.

This is ludicrous.

This is, moreover, Doctor Alfred Sant in opposition, people, imposing his warped will on all and sundry and making a mockery of the basic human right of freedom of expression. Just imagine what public broadcasting would be like if he was in charge of it - Super One and E(manwel) Cuschieri would be paragons of balanced programming.

Come to think of it, the Sunday after the referendum demonstrated precisely what Doctor Alfred Sant thinks about basic rights (such as the right to express one's will as part of a majority and the right to expect that no one would take to the streets and endanger public order) so why should we expect anything better?

Verily, the PN billboards are right. There is danger lurking in the man.

Don't treat us all like mushrooms

In his thirst to drink from the well of power, Doctor Alfred Sant, as we had learnt in 1996, will make a deal with Satan. He'll also say anything if he thinks it will get him a vote or two.

His latest piece of unabashed vote-grubbing involves hinting that he will hold a referendum if he gets into power, to give the people the opportunity to decide between PartnerSHIP with and membership of the European Union.

This is nothing less than a clear demonstration that Doctor Alfred Sant thinks we are all idiots, fit to be treated like mushrooms.

Let's be clear on this one, shall we?

If he is elected on April 12, he will not be signing the Treaty of Accession (notwithstanding that the majority of voters said he should). He said so last Tuesday and got a round of applause from his party conference (wow, that really impressed me).

If, assuming he's PM and he does not sign the treaty, we will not join the EU, whatever we might eventually say in the stupid referendum he's dangling in front of our eyes, apparently believing that anyone with even half a brain takes him seriously any more.

The next enlargement, if at all, will be in 2007 and by then, it will be irrelevant, because Doctor Alfred Sant's style of governance will have brought the country into penury anyway.

So, clearly, whatever peculiar form of referendum this man dreams up to hoodwink the electorate will be worth even less than the paper on which it would be printed, even assuming that he will keep his electoral promise, which on past performance is hardly a given.

Think on this

It is fashionable, especially among the chattering classes, to propose the idea that it is high time that the Nationalists are booted out of power because "my dear, they're just so arrogant".

It is not my intention, at this point, to remind you precisely who is arrogant in the political arena. Far be it from me to muse upon the arrogance of a man who turns a 19,000 vote defeat into a victory in order to save his own skin within his own party, or to wonder aloud about whether it is arrogance to bully the Broadcasting Authority into trampling all over freedom of expression.

No, my intention is to be positive. What is this arrogance that the whingers are on about?

Is it the arrogance of a minister of social policy who thinks nothing of sitting through hour after hour of negotiations with unions and employers, trying to resolve industrial disputes? Don't ask me, ask the people who attend the meetings.

Is it the arrogance of a minister of economic services or a minister of transport and telecommunications, who try to balance competing claims for resources? Again, don't ask me, ask the people who interact with them, the Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Industry and the like.

Is it the arrogance of a minister of finance, who has to raise the money - by, horror of horrors, taxing people - to pay for social services, infrastructure and everything else we take for granted?

I could go on and list all the ministries, but I think you might be getting my point.

These people were elected to govern and to administer and it is not arrogance when they actually do that. If you are someone who thinks that this lot are arrogant (and I'm not saying that on occasion, they aren't - they're human) have a bit of a think about whether what you think is arrogance isn't, actually, a failure on the part of someone or other to give you something to which you weren't, really, entitled.

In other words, stop whining and start thinking: your vote isn't there to punish the politician who didn't pander to your every whim, it's there to elect the people who will do right by this country.

And, with all due respect, it's not the arrogant lot who think that they can do and say anything they like to scare and intimidate who can be trusted to do right by this country at this point in our history.

A personal message

The sad nerds who bothered to set up (and immediately close) yahoo and hotmail accounts just to send me, anonymously, pictures of MLP billboards with the message (loosely translated) "a liar's life is a short one" are completely and utterly right.

That's why Doctor Alfred Sant's government only lasted a few short months.

A prediction

I predict that, on March 31, that singularly silly national day commemorating the end of the lease of a few military bases, Mr Dom Mintoff, one-time prime minister and current major irrelevance, will kiss and make up with Doctor Alfred Sant.

I also predict that a great fuss will be made of all this by the MLP and its spin-machine, for all the world as if the errant lamb had come back to the fold, with the prodigal son being fattened up and impaled on a spit, for the purpose of barbecuing and feasting.

Why the reconciliation of the two, who share a complete disregard for the meaning of electoral results, should be seen as anything other than proof positive that Labour has not changed is beyond me, but it will be trumpeted as a great step in the right direction for the MLP, I do predict.

The writing is on the wall, ladies and gentlemen.

If Labour get back in, the will of the majority will be disregarded now as it was in 1981. If Labour get back in, public broadcasting will become an MLP monopoly, as it was pre-1987 and as it has started to become in 2003. If Labour get back in, the streets will become the forum of political debate again, as they were pre-1987 and as they became, for a few hours, on March 9, 2003.

Think about it when you cast your vote.

Leisurely things

A peculiar couple of weekends, those just passed. From a play about particularly unpleasant people doing particularly unpleasant things to each other (A Chorus of Disapproval) to a film about particularly unpleasant people doing particularly unremarkable things for more than two hours (About Schmidt) to a relatively (but only relatively) better film about spies (I Spy) to a better play about sex (Closer), I went from boredom to deeper boredom to less deep boredom to not so much boredom (even if two hours is too long for any play) in the space of seven days.

I got the name of that kebab house wrong: it is Aslantis, though the food remains good despite my not paying attention.

Meanwhile, on the literary front, I suggest you check out the translation by Doctor Alfred Sant of that estimable Chinese work, "Hu Wun - I Wun" being a treatise on the democratic traditions of ancient China as described by Yuw Sew Dum.

bocca@waldonet.net.mt