Manuel Mallia’s involvement with the Labour Party in 2010 epitomised the shift towards the centre pioneered by Joseph Muscat’s leadership. Having been cast in the role of bridge-builder with the business community, Dr Mallia used his contacts and influence to allay fears that a Labour government would spell economic disaster.
The formula worked. Fed up with a country paralysed by political instability caused by the previous administration’s touch-and-go one seat majority, the business community warmed up to Labour and Dr Muscat.
Dr Mallia was eventually hailed a star candidate for Dr Muscat’s Labour. He was a new face; a moderate, who previously rooted for the Nationalist Party.
Photos, video clips and audio recordings are ubiquitous: they now capture and lock our every word, grimace and gesture
And, in March last year, Dr Mallia outdid veteran Labour candidates like Leo Brincat, Evarist Bartolo and Michael Falzon and got elected on the ninth and 10th districts.
But the lustre on the star soon started to fade after the election. In the extremely powerful position of home affairs and national security minister, Dr Mallia’s tenure was gaffe-prone until the inevitable happened this week.
In many respects, even if at such a late stage, Dr Muscat did the unthinkable and booted out his star candidate.
But as the ink dried on the Prime Minister’s dismissal letter, pundits turned their eyes on the political fallout of what happened over the past few weeks.
Columnist Martin Scicluna believes Dr Muscat emerged a loser from the affair for not taking decisive action early on when the shooting incident happened.
“Through his indecision, he [Dr Muscat] found himself shackled to a political corpse [Dr Mallia], the ghost of which will haunt him for the remainder of this Parliament,” Mr Scicluna argued.
The country also came out a loser because the incident exposed the “terrible” behaviour of the police, he added. “The police force has emerged as the weakest institution of the State and, yet, it is such an important one.”
The incident has eroded trust in the police force and damaged the government’s standing in the eyes of the electorate. But whether this means political gain for the Opposition still has to be seen.
Mr Scicluna said the PN capitalised on a series of errors compounded by the Prime Minister’s indecision. But he also argued that the loss of trust in the government did not necessarily translate into gain for the PN. “It will take far more work by the PN to gain people’s trust and they have another three years to work on it,” Mr Scicluna said.
Media observer Carmen Sammut believes the Opposition did gain lost ground with its grassroots and switchers (those who changed political allegiance at the last election).
The Opposition adopted a systematic campaign that identified the incident with the ‘wild west’ approach of the 1980s and resorted to leaked telephone conversations that may have freaked out those members of the public concerned with issues of privacy.
The incident opened a debate on Dr Muscat’s leadership qualities with the Opposition accusing him of losing moral authority by postponing the decision to sack Dr Mallia.
Dr Sammut acknowledged it was unusual to see the Prime Minister on the defence but saw Dr Muscat emerge as a firm leader from the saga.
“Sacking a star candidate was politically tricky. Yet, he emerged as a firm leader when, in spite of attacks on his credibility, decisively waited for the result of the judicial inquiry,” Dr Sammut said.
She added that while appointing a new minister, Dr Muscat left the door ajar for Dr Mallia’s future return, “possibly to avoid further fallout and resentment”.
As the saga unfolded on the course of three weeks, Dr Sammut noted the media’s role as a “fierce watchdog” that kept public opinion informed.
Gone are the days when people in glass houses could get away with murder, she added.
“The events of the past week sounded the alarm bell for politicians, especially those occupying the seats of government.
“Despite its nine-seat majority, Labour does not have a free ride,” she said.
The departure of a Cabinet member was not a new development in the political scene, according to Godfrey Baldacchino, professor of sociology at the University of Malta. There were cases of ministers resigning or being pushed out in the past, he recalled.
What may have been new in the Mallia saga was the “critical role” of technology.
“Photos, video clips and audio recordings are ubiquitous: they now capture and lock our every word, grimace and gesture. For those in public office, forced to give up privacy for power, the resulting optics are messy, embarrassing, incriminating, confounding: whether we like it, as with social media, or not.”
Prof. Baldacchino wondered whether a politician’s career today was only as long as the time it took for him/her to “slip, err or misjudge, in good or bad faith”.
Who knows how Dr Mallia would answer?
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com