A very good friend of mine insists that most, if not all, life situations, find pre-cedents in the works of Shakespeare. A few days ago, on the 400th year anniversary of the playwright’s death, I challenged him to find me a suitable parallel for the current political situation in our country.

His answer was as immediate as it was abrupt: Julius Caesar.

Not bothering to elaborate, he naturally assumed that I would be goaded into finding it out for myself, which I did. This is what I found.

The name of the play is quite a misnomer, in that Julius Caesar himself does not really feature all that much. He is a powerful leader who has done a lot of good for Rome, but yet a number of senators, all driven by avarice and envy, get together and decide that they must get rid of him in order for them to profit from power.

They are aware, however, that they alone do not enjoy the credibility to go ahead with their plan of assassination, as they will easily be seen through, and so they need a credible face who could be persuaded to join their cause.

This was Brutus, a loyal and honourable man from Caesar’s camp, a close friend, actually, who was convinced by the conspirators that it was in Rome’s interests for Julius Caesar to be removed.

He signs on and misguidedly allows his reputation to be used by the conspirators for their own ends.

Caesar is assassinated and at first all seems bright, but then young Octavian comes on the scene and joins forces with another old friend of Caesar, Mark Anthony, and they refer to the people as “masters” and speak about their “hearts and minds”.

What we are witnessing today is no novel thing, but actions driven by the basest components of human nature – avarice, lust for power and deceit

By now, the people have realised that they have been conned. At one stage Brutus chastises Cassius and tells him he is “condemned to have an itching palm, to sell and mart your offices for gold to undeservers”, when he finds out that Cassius has defended a corrupt colleague “for taking bribes”. The people increasingly rally behind the “young Octavius”, who, although discounted as young and inexperienced by Cassius, eventually overthrows the usurping conspirators.

After victory, Octavius shows great magnanimity, respecting Brutus as an honourable man who had acted as he did out of a sense of duty, albeit misplaced, since he had been hoodwinked by Cassius and his lies.

By the time I had finished reading this play, my friend had been amply proven right. The parallels are all there. Brutus was no traitor, which fact is even recognised after his defeat and death.

In my mind he had come to represent those who were beguiled by Joseph Muscat’s slick, dishonest campaign and acted in good faith. He who betrayed him and tricked him, lying and knowing full well that his word was never intended to be kept, did not.

I was also particularly struck by the fact that what we are witnessing today is no novel thing, but actions driven by the basest components of human nature – ava-rice, lust for power and deceit.

The masks have come off, as was demonstrated beyond any more doubt at the Labour Day event, where any sham Tagħna Lkoll was stripped away, exposing the harsh reality of the red Labour of old.

There is, however, hope for the future, and it lies in the Nationalist Party, which has embarked ona difficult path, the straight and narrow one.

Simon Busuttil, our ‘young’ leader, is making it crystal clear that there is no compromise with the honest approach, and abso-lutely no place for those who see the party in government as an opportunity for themselves.

Sadly, this was not the case with the motivation of those in the inner circle of trust of Joseph Muscat. They saw the electoral victory of just over three years ago as a means to their own end.

And, from the way things are going now, it seems like it’s going to be.

Charlot Cassar is a Nationalist Marsascala councillor and general election candidate.

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