Far be it from me to express any opinion on which of the contenders the members of Premier Muscat’s Labour Party should elect as their Deputy Leader for Party Affairs.
After all, it’s their party and they can cry if they want to.
It seems that the real choice before them is between the one who has admitted that PanamaHats Mizzi is a better man than he, and the one whose chosen form of political persuasion is the axe, politically speaking, of course.
From where I’m sitting, the third contender, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, does not seem to have a snowball’s chance in hell, though he might creep up on the rail if the other two balk each other.
Owen Bonnici, for it is he who told us that he did not contest the Deputy Leadership last time around because he thought Konrad Mizzi was the better choice (his words, not mine) is campaigning on a “righteous and virtuous” ticket.
For a horrible moment, I thought he had succumbed to the virus that seems to grip a number of the more hide-bound components of the Opposition Party when issues of morality and personal behaviour crop up, but then I twigged that Bonnici was referring to righteousness and virtuousness (rather than virtuosity, I suppose) in terms of national governance.
Which is a Very Good Thing, it must be said, at least at first blush.
The snag is, it is almost impossible for Bonnici to pump up his chest and blast a trumpet for righteousness and the other thing when he was front and centre defending his Premier and, on the second occasion, his superior Ministerial colleague, when they were facing those pesky “no confidence” motions.
How can you, unless you are blessed with an Orwellian vocabulary and forma mentis of epic proportions, stand up and be counted in fervent defence of Konrad Mizzi in the House and then campaign as being a stalwart of good and integral governance outside the House?
It need hardly be said that if the motion condemning the PM’s Consiglieri ever gets off the ground, it is only to be expected that Bonnici will vote it down, since any other vote would, Heaven Forfend, be one that could only be interpreted as being one against Premier Muscat.
Which is inconceivable, for all the usual reasons.
What price the Speaker’s take on that motion by Marlene Farrugia, incidentally, duly parroted by Owen Bonnici? It’s fine to attack a non-member of the House if his name happens to be Richard Cachia Caruana, but it’s not OK to do the same when it happens to be Keith Schembri, by dint of his position one of the most powerful men in the country.
We then have the other candidate, whose favourite book, if he had one, would be “The Axeman Cometh”.
It is of Christian Cardona that I write at this time, the other contender for the Deputy Leadership of Premier Muscat’s Party.
His credentials would be classified as A++ if there were to be a rating agency for contenders for this post: he panders to the grassroots by evoking images of fire and brimstone (or political axes, whatever they may be), he fulfils his debt of slavish loyalty to his Premier by voting straight down the line, with very little, if any, whip needing to be applied, and he has very strong attributes to appeal to the people who vote for him.
He’s an avid pub-goer, for instance, and he doesn’t try to convince everyone that in his spare moments, he ingests large philosophical tomes or anything of the kind.
It’s up to them, but what a choice to have to make.