I.M. Beck - quote unquote

Some people don't know when to clam up. And others, notably the media, don't know when to ignore the ones who don't know when to clam up, which is probably why the ones who don't know when to clam up, don't clam up.

Stuck, just a bit, for something with which to kick off the little grey cells in order to get this week's masterpiece up into the ether, I surfed over to The Times portal to get a feel of the news beat and, lo and behold, there was the fair visage of Dr KMB, erstwhile leader of the MLP and Prime Minister, the one who never actually won an election in those exalted positions.

What the dear fellow was chuntering on about was his whine, inherited from his predecessor, about Malta's neutrality and the entrenchment of this mildly anachronistic notion into the Constitution and how the revitalisation of our membership of the Partnership for Peace violates said Constitution.

I'm sorely tempted, even if it does irritate people (like this ever stopped me) to recall this guy's celebrated, nay notorious, declaration that human rights can take second place to the creation of jobs, in order to demonstrate his grasp of the niceties of constitutional law, but this would give his grouch about the PfP thing a semblance, fleeting though it might be, of legitimacy.

In fact, what KMB and his fellow travellers are moaning about has, to my admittedly untutored mind, an air of has-been futility. Neutrality, as preached by that other genius of foreign policy concoction Dom Mintoff, was always essentially a ludicrous notion even when the world was pretty much divided into two. I was always uneasily amused with the idea of our tiny rock pretending to sit prettily between the two hulking blocs, without even the Alps to protect us and now that the world is no longer neatly divided into two, the idea of neutrality is even more plain darn stupid.

Neutrality from what, may I ask? Are we expected to stand equidistant between the basic civilised ideas of the West (an amorphous concept if ever there was one) and the fundamentalist barbarity of the terrorists and thugs who believe that only their religions or culture should prevail? We used to - forgive me while I fall about laughing - form part of the Group of Non-Aligned Nations, until someone noticed that there was no side against which to be non-aligned, which rather tended to put the knackers on that idea.

Truth be told, many of the "basic civilised ideas" of the West are pretty lousy ideas. The hypocrisy of George W. Bush's America, which exports people for the purpose of torture, and the materialism of much of Europe and Asia, to say nothing of the way we treat Africa, are facets of our so-called civilisation that are pretty disgusting, but compared with the viciousness of the fundamentalists, they pale into insignificance.

KMB might - in fact, I would go as far as to say he indubitably does - believe the guff he preaches about neutrality. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, if you'll allow me the mental laziness of resorting to platitudes, but this does not apply to the Alfred Grixtis and Albert Fenechs of this world who, if you'd care to surf over to the blog section of this paper's portal, can be seen weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth at this horrific move of the government's.

What these people have to take on board, unless they're going to spend the next five years imitating Don Quixote (more precisely, his steed), is that the government is there to govern and there's an end to it.

Not JPO

I know, I wrote that if I saw another word written about the Pullicino Orlando case, I'd up-chuck, but this bit isn't about the case itself, it's about the reactions to it that have continued to pour out. When and if (you can probably forget the "if", the "when" alone would do) the facts come out, and if the fancy takes me, I'll comment about the case itself, but in the meantime, I'll not add to the sum of human knowledge about it.

That's not to say, however, that there isn't some fun to be had with the reactions we've been reading.

These can fall, broadly, into two categories, three if you include the ones that keep saying that JPO was an innocent victim of mudslinging. Since this latter position is predicated by the imperativeness of all the facts becoming known, we can leave it aside for the purpose of this segment.

First, there are all the doomsayers, generally AD supporters, who are justifying, ex post, their eagerness to dump on the Nasty Nats, even while not having had the moral courage (if I might be allowed to put it that way) to vote effectively against the PN, preferring instead to waste their vote and risk Alfred Sant getting in by default.

These people are now going around with a sanctimonious smirk on their faces, saying something on the lines of "see, we were right, the Nats are sleazy". Isn't it fun to be able to say "I told you so" with such glee? Oh well, little things and what they please, I suppose and never mind waiting for the facts.

Then there's the rather larger slew of people who are all going around with a large virtual banner with "Sant was right all along" emblazoned on it, forgetting (until some creep like me reminds them) that Dr Sant may well have been right, but he lost, which in politics is way the wrong thing to do. Why he handled the case the way he did, why he chose to miss the news beat completely, why he chickened out of that now-famous debate and why circumstances just ran away with him are all questions that will, no doubt, be answered by whoever it is that is trying to do that little thing, but the fact remains that, hey, he may have been right, but he's the one who had to go, after all.

Of course, Dr Sant being right depends on what the facts eventually are proved to be, but what the heck, facts never got in the way of a good old mud-sling, did they, so why should they now?

Getting interesting

The MLP tussle is getting interesting, isn't it? If you believe everything you hear, it's going to be a four-way contest (at least) with all the contenders being encouraged by people on the inside to chuck their beret into the ring.

So far, the early shows in the race to declare seem to be George Abela, Evarist Bartolo and Michael Falzon, with Joseph Muscat already having made his intentions clear. It is to be assumed that Mr Bartolo and Dr Falzon will have the blessing of the party machine, though the extent to which any serious contender would want Jason Micallef's blessing is debatable at best, while Dr Abela certainly does not have the benefit (!) of this benediction.

He also shouldn't rely on any backing coming his way from South Street, where the MLP's partner, the GWU, hangs out. The head honchos at the Workers' Memorial Building are not stupid and there's no way they're going to endorse a candidate they rather unceremoniously dumped not so long ago, now are they?

Coleiro Preca and Farrugia, Marie Louise and Angelo respectively, seem to have faded a bit of late, but there's time yet, I suppose - a six-way contest would be even more interesting, though the extent to which any of the candidates fit the bill is not a question I'd like to have to answer, so varied are the criteria that have to be fulfilled.

I mean, talk about a dilemma: You have to pander to the delegates and at the same time be of the timbre that would appeal to the centre, which is where the electoral battle is fought and won.

Mutually exclusive, or what?

Back to essentials

Now that the dust has settled, it's time for me to put the end bit back in, which is the bit many people read first.

On Saturday, we had a pretty good meal at Otters in Marsalforn, being as we were up North for the holiday weekend. I'm still on that confounded low-carb thing, incidentally, though I've slipped a bit, so I'll have to start suffering again.

On Tuesday, for work-related reasons I had to trot along to Spezzo at the Civil Service Sports Club and a worthwhile trot it was too: Really enjoyable. See what I mean about slipping?

And then on Wednesday, I was given lunch at the Excelsior, where a nifty business lunch menu has been concocted, from which you can nourish yourself without even the hassle of getting there, since they've made a deal with CT Cabs to get you there and back for free.

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