Counting our blessings

Before this Sunday is out either Lawrence Gonzi or Alfred Sant will be the Prime Minister democratically entrusted to lead the country for up to the next five years. Whoever is the victor the background to the decision will not be changed.

Both men fought a tough electoral battle. The rhetoric each used has been invariably strong. Invariably their harshest words were left for each other.

The two contestants levied all manner of accusation, one against the other. They swashbuckled fiercely in an attempt to slash the other to ribbons. Repeatedly, one accused the other of lying. Repeatedly, the theme of wrong-doing came up. The two leaders fought to the last ditch. They slept over to today nursing bloodied noses, for the punches they landed were hard and painful. Corruption became an easy word, with charges and counter-charges flying about as if picked up and lashed by a mighty gregale wind.

That backdrop notwithstanding, even as the decisive votes are being counted, we as a people have good reason to count our blessings. The two main opponents were tough and rough and even bloodthirsty. They fought with no holds barred. They rained blows above the belt and, on occasion, hit below it as well. Political aggression has been their stock-in-trade.

Such metaphors rest uneasily on two men cut from cloth that is almost common. Both are well bred and, outside the political arena, mild mannered. Each is a gentleman, even if, as political pugilists, they paid little respect to Queensberry Rules. Alfred and Lawrence are guys you would not mind crossing the road to say hello to, you would not find it distasteful to sip a drink with, once you really get to know them.

All of that is not where the blessings in this piece's title come in. We should count our blessings because, in the most basic senses of the expression, the two contestants are both honest men. No hint of personal corruption clings to their hands like hard-headed dirt. They were never a gun for sale. We as a people can freely not agree with one and side with the other. Or even look askance on both their houses. But as a people too we can feel good that the tradition of honest leaders has been carried forward by the two men.

To look back only at our post-war history, we have been blessed with Prime Ministers for whom personal money has little meaning, if any at all. Paul Boffa, Nerik Mizzi, Dom Mintoff, George Borg Olivier and Eddie Fenech Adami were all leaders who brooked no nonsense, who fought for their beliefs as relentlessly and fiercely as they could. But they were all upright men.

Much mud was thrown about during their tenures of office, for that is the occupational hazard of politics. Yet the mud was never aimed at them as private people. They were not perfect men, each had his weak moments. But at no point in time did they entertain the thought that they would use their office for personal gain.

Sant and Gonzi, who continued the line of post-war prime ministers, demonstrated beyond doubt that they are cast in the same mould. And it is in that mould the winner will be moving forward.

Should one really count blessings because our leaders have the required propriety and honesty? Perhaps not. Such attributes should be taken as given. Yet that is not invariably so. We have been lucky. Other countries have not. There have been cases, both close to us and afar, when leaders displayed scant attention to what was required of them in terms of personal propriety.

There have been leaders uncovered as bent to the point of being doubled up. Crooks should have no place in politics. That notwithstanding, crooks do worm their way into or even saunter through politics.

Our prime ministers have not been like that. Gonzi and Sant are not cut from that ugly, black cloth. Half of Malta will be disappointed by the end of the day that its favourite did not make it, that the much-scorned adversary won the day.

Nevertheless all Malta can be satisfied that voters had to choose between two men whose politics and styles are as distant from each other as the sides of the Grand Canyon, but they are similar to each other where it matters most.

Moving forward, the winner will have to show that it is not enough for him to be upright - so must the rest of his team. He will have to demonstrate that he demands the same standards as he sets himself. Demands not only from his Cabinet members, but also from the private secretariats, from all of those in their entourages, whatever the position held.

We should count our blessings that the choice of Prime Minister was between Alfred and Lawrence. Our blessings would be greater still the more the winner between them demonstrates that he is not simply one of a kind.