Austin Gatt is firmly in the sights of Franco Debono, aided and abetted, cynically and opportunistically, by the Labour Party in all its (in)gloriousness. That film title fits the lot of them well.
The reasons why Debono has it in for Gatt are various, if you believe Debono, though this is an exercise which should be undertaken with generous helpings of salt. Anyone who can smell rotting fish, however, knows that salt-pans full of salt won't make them taste any better.
According to Debono, Gatt messed up the reform in public transport, lumbered the country with a BWSC-benefitting power station and - most heinous crime of all - is involved, albeit at one remove through the Transport Authority, in privatising various car-parks.You know the ones, in the latter case, the ones where in most cases today you are accosted by a gentleman thinly disguised as a lout who will demand payment of a tribute for his services, non-existent as they may be.
Without knowing what the end result of the "privatisation" process will be, anyone with an axe to grind on the Governments's back started screaming blue murder and the government told Transport Malta to suspend the process.
This was not enough, the sharks had smelt Gatt's blood in the water and the biggest rogue fish of them all has sunk his teeth into the opportunity with glee and alacrity.
Yes, of course the public transport reform could have been better handled, and there are still many, many tweaks to be tweaked, but does anyone who is not either blinkered by the politics of cynical opportunism or shackled by a terminal reluctance to accept change really want a return to the crap we had before?
According to Debono, yes, obviously, if it will mean Gatt's head on a platter.
The biggest "tell" (a gambling term, it means you can see the truth) is Debono's espousal of one of Labour's favourite war-horses, knackered as it is. The BWSC matter has been discussed to Kingdom Come (and gone) and no-one in his right mind gives it credence, but this doesn't stop Debono trotting it out to add to his quiver of barbs.
Gatt, with his usual forthrightness (call it arrogance, if you like, it will shed more light on your mentality than on his) told Debono and anyone else involved precisely where to get off.
The Lil'Elves and Debono and his fellow travellers take this as a sign of panic, demonstrating that their grasp of real politics, not to say reality, is less than solid.
The fact is, Debono has the power to cause damage, even if this power is purely coincidental and dependent on external circumstances that have nothing to do with any merits that Debono may possess, the extent of which is debatable at best.
Like a toddler with a submachine gun, he can go around blasting at anything that takes his fancy, and the results will be what they may be.It will be interesting, when push comes to shove, to see what the bulk of the population will think of Debono and his antics, to say nothing of how Labour will be judged.
Whatever the result, I hope they're proud of themselves.