Joseph Muscat has said a million times that he wants a ‘new style’ of doing politics. I would like to think he’s serious about it, that it’s high time someone saw through the tit-for-tat and bickering and went for a saner approach. Thing is, what happened to Carm Mifsud Bonnici last week doesn’t inspire me much.

Labour saw their chance and made their move. Debono didn’t disappoint. Question is, where does that leave Labour?- Mark Anthony Falzon

The first thing we need to ask is, Why him? I don’t know Mifsud Bonnici. The only time we ever met was briefly at Notte Bianca three years ago and I can’t hand-on-heart wheel out the ‘true gentleman’ mantra (which, in any case, I find overused and possibly sexist). Still, let’s just say he hardly comes across as a latter-day Vlad the Impaler or Caligula.

Quite the contrary, in fact. I rather liked the way he kept a low profile throughout his time as parliamentary secretary and minister. I especially liked the manner of his leaving it on Tuesday. He didn’t get vicious or bitter, nor did he play the martyr beyond a reasonable degree. He just said politics was like that and went home.

That’s refreshing in a country so swarming with bloated egos that it’s beginning to look like King Ludwig’s swan pond.

It also probably explains why the Labourites I spoke to in the past week seemed unexpectedly subdued about the whole thing. I’d say shrugs were the order of the day. ‘Dottor Carm’, as he is known in Cospicua, happens to be one of those politicians who plays for one side without unduly irritating the other.

One might object that all of that’s beside the point, that Labour’s problem was with the performance rather than the man himself. I don’t buy that for a second, for two reasons.

First, it’s not as if Labour’s grievances had to do exclusively, or even especially, with Mifsud Bonnici’s territory. The opposition has been (understandably) vociferous about a great many things. Which leaves us with the question.

Second, I suspect there are no two people in Malta today, no matter how low their confidence in Mifsud Bonnici, who will give you the same reasons why he had to leave. They will probably pour in something about the ‘Queen of Corradino’ or dragging court cases, thicken the brew with an ‘għarukaża’ (‘shame’) or two, and move on to the price of swordfish.

Let me use myself as an example. I am in my waking life the head of the Department of Sociology at University (no zenith of prestige that, it just means one has to run the admin.) I’m quite sure that when the time comes for my colleagues to decide they’ve had enough of me they’ll easily be able to find, with hindsight, some excellent reasons why my headship was the pits.

I’m saying that Wednesday’s vote of no confidence was not the logical conclusion to a growing list of grievances. Rather, it was the other way round. Having decided to get rid of Dottor Carm, Labour simply worked their way backwards through a dossier of failings. In keeping with the Mifsud Bonnici spirit, the Italian expression that comes to mind is ‘tirare l’acqua al proprio mulino’.

The second question we need to ask is, Why now? Why did Labour wait until the eve of an election to discover that one of the key government ministers was not performing? Surely they could have let him bumble on a few more months, to their net electoral gain?

All of which is rhetorical. The real reason Labour decided that Mifsud Bonnici in particular was an especially useless minister, and that the time to sort things out was now, goes as follows:

It was clear that this was no ordinary sorrowful young Werther, that he would sooner point the gun at Albert than at himself. There was (and is) a fairly long list of Alberts, truth be told. Of whom the most dreaded, the one who married the most desirable Lotte of all, was Mifsud Bonnici.

Labour figured out that Franco Debono was too weak-willed to vote against his party and bring down the government. There was, however, one man he would vote against with relish. That’s also because Debono is at his best when things get personal. (I was about to scribble something about Debono’s Achilles’ heel but I like swimming too much to risk Thetis’ wrath.)

In any case, Labour saw their chance and made their move. Debono didn’t disappoint. Question is, where does that leave Labour?

I don’t begrudge Joseph Muscat’s Labour for wanting to dislodge GonziPN. That’s the rightful job of the opposition. It would be a decidedly odd opposition that sat happily twiddling its thumbs and didn’t try to get in power at the earliest. It actually follows logically: The opposition holds that it would govern the country better, and the sooner it does that the better for the country.

This time, however, I’ve a sense that Labour have gone too far. I find it cynical and spiteful that the opposition should capitalise on the weaknesses and personal broodings of an MP to dislodge a government minister who, at worst, was average.

I might have forgiven them had it been government in general. Like I said, it is Muscat’s duty to seek to become Prime Minister as soon as possible. But I doubt this will help his cause. He’s said it himself, in fact, that “problems will persist beyond Monday’s vote”. It’s hard not to ask what, therefore, was the whole point.

The sad thing is, Labour seem convinced that their only chance of winning the next election is to stoke the Debono fire. Truth is, there would be so many better ways of going about it than that. Then again, those ways would require a pretty radical rethink. A new style of doing politics, in other words.

mafalzon@hotmail.com