It can’t be denied that the election of Simon Busuttil to the post of PN deputy leader gave the party a boost. Never mind that the party is currently trailing in the polls and that the Budget is as likely to pass as Austin Gatt getting a humility implant. With Busuttil at the helm, it was felt that not all was lost.
Perhaps the PN strategists should rethink their campaign, ditch the poison pens and remind people why they should vote Nationalist- Claire Bonello
This was largely due to the fact that the doe-eyed Busuttil seems to characterise a more approachable aspect of the party. Competent, yes and maybe a bit smug about it, but not the bulldozer variety type of politician that we wish would disappear.
Busuttil was meant to herald in a new era for the Nationalist Party which has lately been coming across as the nasty party of Maltese politics. So it must have been quite dispiriting for the freshly-elected deputy leader and like-minded Nationalists to see how the Dirty Tricks Department of the Party neutralised the Busuttil buzz with their latest attempt at scaremongering.
I’m referring to the infamous ‘transfer’ letters which were mailed to hundreds of employees engaged with the civil service. Earlier this week, these employees received a personalised letter, informing them that in the event of a Labour Party victory, Joseph Muscat’s government would carry out an employment audit and have them transferred. The transfer date was indicated as being the July 14, 2013. At that point the employees would have to pack their belongings in a cardboard box and trudge to the Labour-specified work gulag.
The letter was not signed, though it didn’t take much to figure out who had been busy spinning away and acting like wannabe Macchiavellis. It’s a pity that they didn’t pause long enough to think about the potential backlash to their missives.
Really what did the anonymous letter-senders think as they licked the envelopes and sealed them shut? That the recipients of the letter would read through its contents and take it as given that their job security was threatened by Muscat who would suddenly acquired the power to hire and fire at will?
Did the elves working in the PN mail room hope to get people to believe that the laws regulating employment would be done away with if Labour made it to power? And if they were convinced as to truth of the contents of the letter, why didn’t they sign the letter instead of sending it off anonymously? Didn’t they foresee questions being asked as to the provenance of the letters and how the Nationalist elves got their mitts on a database with the names and contact details of civil service employees?
In fact, the whole affair provoked an initial denial followed by an embarrassed admission by PN president Marthese Portelli that the letter originated from the PN; hardly inspiring stuff from the fresh young candidates of the PN.
Insofar as tactics go, it’s the time-honoured strategy of scaremongering and going negative early on in the campaign before softening up during the final stretch. What the amateur spinners aren’t factoring in is the fact that their transfer allegation is such a gross misrepresentation of the truth, that it’s just not credible.
It doesn’t resonate with the public. The allegation’s link to statements made by Labour exponents is tenuous at best, so it is practically impossible to substantiate. As a result of this, the PN elves have managed to create a story – not about Labour’s misdeeds – but about the PN’s unfair attacks.
By engaging in these sordid strategies, the PN elves are unwittingly revealing their desperation. They feel that the party’s solid performance in the economic and labour field is not enough to go on and that the electorate will only be swayed by untruthful allegations about Labour. I’m not so sure about how successful this strategy will prove to be. Despite successive efforts, the Nationalist Party has not managed to transmogrify Muscat into the ogre that the electorate would love to hate.
The attempts to ridicule veteran members of the shadow cabinet have been more successful, but these attempts have become so repetitive that they have lost much of their sting – the electorate, the press and the pundits have heard them all before. So the PN continues to invest in a negative campaign which bears diminishing returns and is not helping its ratings.
Given that the PN has a penchant for aping electoral campaigns in other countries, its strategists should take note of the reasons contributing to US President Barack Obama’s dismal ratings in the polls last July. The President suffered a slump in the popularity stakes even among the cohort of people who were satisfied with his handling of the economy.
As one commentator wrote, this was due to the fact that, “He is now no longer the sunny, optimistic, friendly person he portrayed himself as being in 2008. Instead, a nasty, surly, angry image has taken over. This change is at the heart of Obama’s dilemma. The more he goes negative, the more he hurts himself in the process and undermines the reservoir to good will that has sustained him through tough economic times.”
That particular dip in popularity was reversed especially through Obama’s dignified response to Hurricane Sandy which brought his positive attributes to the fore once more.
Perhaps the PN strategists should rethink their campaign, ditch the poison pens and remind people why they should vote Nationalist and not against Labour. As it is, they’re doing a pretty poor job.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt