The PN’s extraordinary debacle in last week’s general election makes me sad but gives me hope. During the last four years I have watched and commented upon the way Lawrence Gonzi’s administration was moving from one disaster to another in its relationship with public opinion.

All that the PN fought for over the last 40 years has now been accepted by everybody

After the PN’s debacle in the 2009 MEP elections, I had written a piece ‘Old habits die hard’ (The Sunday Times, June 14, 2009), in which I had drawn a parallel between the constant broken promises I make in all sincerity to my doctor every time I go for a check-up (followed by a quick plummet back into the old routine) and Gonzi’s assurances that his administration will be taking more notice of what the people are feeling.

“The truth”, I had written then, “is that the Labour Party successfully turned the election into a referendum on Lawrence Gonzi’s performance in government and the result is too damning to ignore.” I ended the article saying that my doctor had practically given up on me and had “warned me that at this rate there might come a time when I would need a heart transplant only to discover that finding the right donor would be well nigh impossible.”

During these four years, I met several genuine PN supporters egging me to keep writing in the same vein as the Administration needed a constant eye-opener to what was happening ‘out there’.

I also met those who felt that I was being too harsh and preferred to attack the messenger rather than mull over the message.

This week there were people telling me how right I was in my ‘prophetic’ articles. This is a pedestrian country indeed, where those who see the truth staring them in the face are considered prophets!

This does not mean that I always get it right. In April 2009, I wrote that I believed the end of Eddie Fenech Adami’s unique career had, perhaps, proved to be a notable exception to the dictum that “every political career ends in tears”. Sadly, I was wrong on that one.

In spite of what happened, there are some who are still in a state of denial, attributing the nature of my articles to any imaginable reason whatsoever, so long it ‘proves’ that my personal interest was the prime motivation. I know Gonzi as a gentleman of integrity who never did me a bad turn.

Nor has he refused ‘giving me’ something that I asked for. Indeed, it is sad that I feel the need to spell this out because many still prefer to find fault with the messenger.

The problem created by the Gonzi administration’s lack of empathy and its abject failure to be in synch with the common citizen was compounded by the PN election campaign that was built on the assumption that the Labour Party was still the old adversary with the stupid shortcomings evident under Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant.

This miscalculation made matters worse. Today, one still meets people who are surprised and cannot understand how this Labour victory was not celebrated with violence and arson.

In truth, many from the old guard of both parties were obliterated by the electorate and many PN supporters did not fear Labour to the extent that thousands of them must have voted their own party out of office.

I like to believe that Malta has become a normal European country where people agree to differ and respect each other for it, where they exercise their right to change their government as they wish, without fear or favour.

This was the country’s first election where there were practically no differences between the PN and Labour on Malta’s status as a valid EU member, on foreign policy, and on the importance of creating productive jobs in a social liberal economy and the big part that our education system plays in this goal.

All that the PN fought for over the last 40 years has now been accepted by everybody and the PN should be proud of this greatest of achievements, however ironic this may sound in the current circumstances. That is why hope should overtake the sadness that every true PN supporter must be feeling at this time.

I honestly hope I am not getting this wrong. At the age of almost 68, I still believe in change and abhor getting stuck in some old rut. Doing something because that is how it has always been has never been my outlook on life.

The PN should now take some time to reflect on its current situation and search for a new generation of intelligent politicians who are willing to dedicate their efforts with diligence and perseverance so as to reinvent the party by redefining its very raison d’être in the Malta that it itself had so successfully changed, paradoxically at its own cost.

The search for a new leader must be started with earnest but rushing things should be avoided.

And above all, the PN must act with humility and dignity in defeat.

micfal@maltanet.net

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