It may well be, as Lino Spiteri argues, that "this circus has almost four more years to run" (October 12). This does not contradict what I wrote in my first piece for this column. "Governments are made possible by alliances: Social and political alliances, by alliances of convenience and, sometimes, of conviction, by strategic and tactical alliances, by long-term and short-term alliances. Many of the alliances that this government is built on are beginning to come apart."
On the same occasion, I pointed out that this process of social corrosion of the foundations of the Gonzi government is exacerbated by an adverse international environment. "The international financial crisis, its repercussion on the real economies of our principal markets for both our industrial exports and tourism, the impact of all of this on our own real economy, our broke government's impotence in the face of this crisis, indeed its compounding of the effects of the crisis on our economy, thanks to an insane policy dictated by its pre-electoral profligacy and decades of wastefulness" supported, I argued, "the conviction of many that this government may not be standing on solid ground" (January 19).
Only fools will be consoled by the fragile signs of international economic recovery. Moreover, the structure of our economy and its subordinate, peripheral location in the world economy, are such that when the sun finally decides to rise in all its glory over the global economic centres, it might still be midnight over here.
Also, we cannot exclude that the global economic landscape after the crisis - and there is little doubt that it will be very different than it is today - will be such that Malta's position within it will be more precarious than we have ever known it to be. The very measures that other governments are taking and will take (including subtle and not so subtle forms of national - and provincial - protectionism) may mean that their recovery will make life more difficult for us.
Of course the circus may have more years to run. But it will be an increasingly sorrier sight. A cacophony of ageing lions and cunning mice, skin-and-bone elephants and sad dromedaries, rheumatic acrobats and melancholic pantomime artistes, dancing alligators and predator lice will chase a beleaguered Cabinet and a bitter Parliamentary group for goods they cannot possibly deliver. At the sight of this, those women and men of good will who voted for this government because they sincerely believed that it was the best possible option for their country are bound to have doubts. Serious doubts.
Meanwhile the leader of the PL, exactly 30 years after Monday, October 15, 1979, has condemned the events of that day in no uncertain terms. What happened then, he said, ought never to have taken place. His actual words were: "dawn kienu atti li qatt ma jmisshom sehhew". Dr Muscat made it a point to recognise the historical precedent set by Archbishop Emeritus Guzeppi Mercieca's apology, in the name of the Church in Malta, to Labourites for what they went though in the 1960s.
The negativeness of the Nationalist Party's reaction to the PL leader's statement does not augur well. When, a few weeks ago, I wrote on the national day issue, I said that "the life experiences of those - whatever side they were or are on - that lived the momentous events of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s - events that have shaped us as a nation - cannot be ignored." I argued that "quick-fix closure that tramples over their feelings" will not do. On the other hand, I also argued that: "We also expect them to lead their supporters in a re-visitation of our post-war history. A reconsideration that interprets even the most conflictual moments not as a manifestation of the eternal struggle between good and evil - whereby each party perceives itself as goodness incarnate - but as what is to be expected in a critical phase of the development of a society necessarily composed of different interests and emerging from a long colonial experience."
I concluded that article by noting that, on the national day issue, "the younger of the two leaders has shown himself to be the bolder and the more enlightened".
His statement on the events of October 1979 has not only confirmed that he is the bolder and more enlightened of the leaders of the two major parties in our country today, it has also shown that he is the only one of the two who is looking beyond yesterday and, with feet firmly set on the ground of the present, boldly towards tomorrow. With no future to look forward to, the circus management will be sorely tempted to focus on the past.
Dr Vella blogs at watersbroken.wordpress.com.