Salvu Mallia has created something of a dilemma for the Nationalist Party and its leader, Simon Busuttil. On the one hand Mallia, a PN candidate, is one of the harshest critics there is of Joseph Muscat’s government. He fits right in with Busuttil’s efforts to build an “anti-corruption coalition”.

A former presenter of a popular cultural heritage programme axed by the present government, he likes to tell it as he sees it. The PN may have seen his penchant for speaking so freely and his quirky, honest approach to politics as potentially attractive to some floating voters.

His liberal beliefs may also give the party some counterweight to the advantage that Labour has gained among certain sections of the electorate through its expansion of civil rights.

The problem for Mallia and the PN is that by his behaviour he is at great risk of not being taken seriously. His very attri­butes, which he displays so exuberantly, are prompting raised eyebrows and even derision, and make easy targets for attacks on the party.

In expressing himself so fiercely against Muscat, Mallia has crossed a few lines. His drawing of parallels and comparisons with Hitler and the plague, however he explains them, jar badly. His resorting to foul language is distasteful and off-putting to those who look for dignity and decorum in their politicians. Surely he does not need to stoop to vulgarities to make his points: he has amply proven this in the well-argued articles he has written for this newspaper in the recent past.

Another cause of concern for PN exponents are his “ultra-liberal” beliefs, his position in favour of free choice in abortion and euthanasia, which is incompa­tible with the party’s principles. When he said in an interview last week that “the PN should adopt my policies” he surely does not expect the PN to depart so radically from its own.

The biggest worry internally may be that if he were ever elected as an MP he might one day do a Franco Debono (in action, not motive) and cause trouble no end for a future Nationalist government. Indeed, he has projected himself as the guardian of virtue in politics and would not hesitate to rebel if he thought a PN government was deviating from the straight and narrow. Bully for him.

His criticism of his own party and its leader, which he believes are not talking tough enough against government corruption, reflects his belief that in a democracy he should be free to express himself in any way he pleases. And he is absolutely right. He needs to consider, however, that in adopting the same objective as the PN, he would be more effective as a disciplined team player.

His declarations of undying loyalty to country and conscience are admirable but he might serve both even better in the long run by putting a little more faith in party and leader and toning down his self-aggrandizement.

This is not to say he should be anything less than totally frank when it comes to pointing out PN shortcomings internally. Doing it so publicly, though, and threatening to walk away if he is “silenced”, is shooting himself and the party in the foot and damaging the cause both are fighting, ostensibly together. Would that every party harboured such an outspoken critic to keep it on its toes. But there is a time for complete honesty and a time for restraint and diplomacy.

Busuttil has no doubt made some compromises in accepting Mallia as an election candidate; the latter’s reference to his “conditions” for coming on board testify to that. Compromise (the art of politics, after all) and humility would go some way towards fulfilling the faith Busuttil has shown in him.

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