Frank analysis of a rebel

I’m writing this on Wednesday night and, by the time you read it, the political landscape may have changed substantially. I had contemplated begging my editor’s indulgence and asking to submit on Thursday afternoon and then I said to myself: Why bother? The fact is, there is going to be an election and whether it’s to be in a few weeks, a few months or at the end of the legislature is pretty much by-the-by as things stand.

It is now time to draw a line under this sorry episode...- I.M. Beck

The whiny teenager has stamped his foot, read out his whiny monologue, had his few minutes of whiny limelight and is now, whatever he voted on Thursday, well on the road to being consigned to the trash can of history. Franco Debono has ruined what could have been a decent political career and will now have to content himself with being just another lawyer, of which there are many, and many of whom are better than him at what they do, for all his Form II mid-yearly report cards.

Let’s put this person into context once and for all, shall we? I am suggesting this because I have no doubt the Labour Party will be using him as a main plank in their campaign to discredit GonziPN, given that they appear to have an obsession with gathering into their fold anyone who has a beef with the Prime Minister.

Dr Debono defends alleged criminals, in itself a laudable occupation in a democracy. By dint of this, he has formulated a number of theories about the proper way to defend these alleged criminals’ rights, not all of which are music to the ears of his colleagues at the criminal bar, for all that he keeps telling us that he’s the best of the best among them.

These theories had the happy advantage, from Dr Debono’s point of view, of being a good rod with which to lay about the former minister’s back, even when he was lying on it in a hospital bed. There are many theories as to why Dr Debono is not the Mifsud Bonnici clan’s greatest fan, none of which need to be repeated here, as they are common currency.

Dr Debono’s bonnet was large enough to accommodate many bees, such as the reform of the libel laws. It is a funny coincidence, it may fairly be pointed out, that this particular hobby horse was hopped onto just as Dr Debono found himself being roundly, and justifiably, criticised for the crass way he was going about things. He wants rights for his clients but when it comes to rights of freedom of expression for his detractors, the line in the sand is etched with acid and then some.

He also arrogated to himself, at various instances, expertise in public transport (the fact that a potential rival in his electoral district had a hand in the reform is another of those funny coincidences, of course) and a vast knowledge of electricity, the generation thereof, among many other subjects on which he had an opinion he was convinced was the only right one.

It is no exaggeration to say, you might not find unreasonably, that Dr Debono has only room for one point of view about anything that catches his attention: his own. It is also a fact, at least on the evidence, that if his ambitions are thwarted, he gets more than slightly worked up and will huff and puff and generally behave like a bully, to the extent that, by the time you read this, he might even have brought the House down.

He also has a rather peculiar set of priorities. His blessed reforms in the criminal law, to return to his primary obsession, must take precedence over everything and anything, according to him, and if they are not enacted now, if not sooner, then the world has to stop, because Dr Debono has so decided.

There’s plenty more that can be written about this guy but I don’t think a dispassionate reader, who is, moreover, bored to tears by his self-indulgence and behavioural aberrations, needs much more evidence to conclude that the PL would be sorely misguided if it were to use Dr Debono in its campaign to persuade us that GonziPN should be disdained.

In Maltese, there’s an old saw about seeing a resemblance in you of the person you are with and does the PL really want to be seen as another Franco Debono? On the evidence thus far, they do, frankly, so eager were they to capitalise on his way of doing things. It is now time to draw a line under this sorry episode, rendered almost poignant by the sight of a young politician self-immolating into oblivion, and to concentrate on the real issue, namely who is going to run the country for the next five years or so, depending on when the election is actually held, at the time of writing unknown to me.

The questions that we – the great unwashed – will have to address are various and very few, if any, of them have anything at all to do with anything that roosted in Dr Debono’s belfry.

There are issues of economic and social impact and of whose policies – or lack thereof – can be trusted to take us through them.

There are issues of the manner of doing politics, of whether we prefer breathless sound-bites and crocodile tears to clear definitions of the problems we have and the means we have with which to address them.

There are issues of whether we prefer smug sanctimony and faux righteousness to honest assessments and decent policies, even if they may be subject to human error in their eventual execution.

It’s going to be an interesting time, that’s for sure.

imbocca@gmail.com

www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20