Land of Chinese whispers

To say I am perplexed is the understatement of 2012 but I have a feeling that we are merely at the beginning and we are in for a year of wonders. By the time you read this you will all be sick of the very name of Franco Debono whose momentous abstention last week was a foregone conclusion in this land of Chinese whispers.

What has long been perceived to be just and democratic by the ordinary citizen is anything but- Kenneth Zammit Tabona

There never has been a gossip columnist in Malta and that is because not only do we know or are related to everyone else but we know everybody else’s business even before they do; albeit with slight distortions, embellishments and exaggerations. The abstention though was accompanied by a long and hard verbal whipping which sounded even worse than it read. It was literal flagellation and yet all the politicos, notably our long suffering Prime Minister, endured it stoically enough, even giving Dr Debono extra time, which to me was amazing as personally I am as thin-skinned as a new potato and as sensitive as the “princess on the pea”. It convinces me that to be a politician one must have the skin of a rhino and live in a world apart from ordinary people where politics with a capital P attracts a kind of logic that is definitely not run of the mill.

No, last week was not at all enjoyable apart from the fact that for most of it I was stuck at home with bronchitis and condemned to amuse myself by following each and every twist and turn in the sorry saga right up to the time when Dr Debono referred to his Jesuitical AMDG in his parting shot just before the abstention. If any of our old beloved teachers are anywhere out there still I am sure that in this day of instant information they never cease to be amazed at the mixed bag of men that they helped form. There was always, from the very start of the story, a faint but persistent Greek chorus the lyrics of which for those who know start off with “work play day by day college years roll away…”. It made me feel quite nostalgic.

Anyway, as far as it goes the Sturm und Drang has ebbed, but for how long? Let’s forget about last week. Let’s put to bed the fact that were Dr Debono in the late Brother Piccinino’s beloved First Eleven and scored an auto goal deliberately while playing St Edwards because he disagreed with the captain there would have been mayhem. All we know is that although theoretically the vote of no confidence failed, the St Aloysius Football Team is insisting on finishing the game till the end knowing full well that one of the team is no team player and doesn’t look as if he ever will be.

So what is the result of all this; attacking the Opposition full out for what the Nationalist Party deem as taking advantage of the situation and pretending that Dr Debono does not exist… but he does and like the ghost of Banquo he will, sure as eggs are eggs, come back to haunt the PN while leading the Labour Party a merry dance in the process! He has made a mockery of politics as such but he may not be altogether wrong for in retrospect Dr Debono has sliced open the underbelly of a flawed democratic system which needs reform and like Iris, the Goddess of Discord, has thrown the golden apple into the House of Representatives. It will never be the same again and, after all this, nor will we.

The Opposition Leader has declared over and over again that the PL is in no hurry to call an election and yet he is constantly portrayed as being driven by an insatiable lust for power by the Prime Minister. Who do we believe? Dr Debono’s own ambitions, somehow, were dashed or assuaged and from his aspiration to be a kingmaker now becomes a mere pawn in a very Byzantine game of internecine politics the ramifications of which go far beyond his perception and incidentally ours too. It is a dangerous game and not one that ordinary citizens like you and I will ever be able to comprehend. From Dr Debono’s initial declaration that he insisted that Lawrence Gonzi must resign we ended up in a PN victory by abstention that can only be accurately described as Pyrrhic. Dr Gonzi is not going to resign despite Franco Debono’s shenanigans and there’s an end to it but what a kafuffle they caused and in both parties too let alone the electorate!

So where do we go from here? Will the PM in the next six months publicly address and redress each and every point raised by Dr Debono in his various tirades? Will Dr Debono be happy with that? Will the electorate be happy with that? Will the factions whom Dr Debono is obviously targeting keep quiet about it? Will Dr Debono’s accusations of rewarded incompetence go unheeded? This all remains to be seen. However, what has taken place in the last couple of weeks is an eye-opener to all those with a modicum of intelligence that there actually could be something radically wrong with the entire system of democratic government and that what has long been perceived to be just and democratic by the ordinary citizen is anything but. Dr Debono has opened a Pandora’s Box.

With one half of the world teetering on the edge of a financial abyss and the other half in a state of ferment with people being killed every hour and every minute, ironically to achieve this very same but strange animal called democracy, Malta is indeed blessed. In the last three months of 2011 unemployment in Spain increased by 400,000, the population of Malta! Should we insist on transforming this nation into a Clochemerle…? I don’t think so.

The author is deputy chairman of the Manoel Theatre board of direction and artistic director of the Malta Baroque Festival, which kicks off in January 2013.