Following the triumph of josephmuscat.con, the reins of Government have been taken up by Dr Joseph Muscat. I imagine you’re asking yourselves where this statement of what can only be called the sanguineous obvious is taking us, given that a) in retrospect, at least, it was ultra clear that Labour would prevail and b) consequently Muscat would become Prime Minister.

Muscat fails to differentiate between his Government and our country, which remains ours, each one of us

Well, the dear chap’s recent dictum that one of the main challenges his party is facing is having to think like a government gave me pause for thought. In the light of those peculiar references to “movements” before the elections, it occurred to me that this apparent confusion on Muscat’s part, faced with the task of actually running the country, should not have been surprising.

Stories leaking out of the ship of State, to boot, have confirmed this.

Wholesale, sometimes downright illegal, chops and changes to the crew, have led to ministers and parliamentary secretaries having to blunder about like bulls in establishments specialised in the sale of fine crockery, thinking they’ve had the computers nicked and cars spirited away, when in fact everything was there, had they known who to ask.

There are more serious problems looming, as the cold light of reality starts to shine on the seven thousand seven hundred and seven-seven (a number merely used in its Biblical sense) promises made, but we’ll leave those aside.

Calls for Konrad Mizzi to resign will no doubt be made at the appropriate time, when he fails to deliver on bringing the new power-delivery systems on-stream at the appointed day and hour.

Such was the scale of the victory that the winners, I suppose understandably, are cock’a’hoop, with smug triumphalism oozing from every pore. Every PQ, every media comment (such as are any that are made, as considerable chunks of the trade are still on a honeymoon with Muscat, or busy raking over the Dalli story), every commentary is met with “you are undemocratic, you are swimming against the will of the people, you have learnt nothing”.

Well, that’s as may but the people making these inane cracks have a democratic deficiency that is breathtaking. The sad thing is, it starts from the very top, as the PM’s reaction to the Opposition’s refusal to play nicely with him in sorting out the economy demonstrates.

Muscat seems to not understand that it is the Opposition’s role to keep him on his toes, to make sure he treads the straight and narrow and to squeal when he doesn’t.

It is not the Opposition’s role to sit sweetly by simpering and adding faux diversity to the Monolith of the Movement, where all is provided by the State, where the State knows all and where the State brooks no dissent.

Muscat, it is becoming increasingly clear, fails to differentiate between his Government, to which he has every right, and our country, which remains ours, each one of us.

Toni Abela compared Muscat recently to an amalgam of Boffa, Mintoff, KMB and Sant, and on the evidence, he might be worryingly right, leaving aside Dr Boffa, who doesn’t deserve to be associated with that bunch.

Mintoff suffered from the arrogant assumption that opposition to him was opposition to the will of the people, KMB saw his ends as the justification of any means and Sant, well, Sant was Sant.

With his delusions of Second Republican grandeur and his insouciant “time to start thinking like a Government”, from his shoving that speech down President George Abela’s throat, through the digital extension of his appointment of that Debono fellow to mess around with the Constitution, to his tinkering with the Piano Project, Muscat seems to have embarked on a mission to prove the other Abela right.

Let’s make no bones about it: Muscat has the right, nay the obligation to run the country and the PN should, it is hoped will (once it gets a head and back on its feet) stop whining about appointments of little folk to places of minimal influence (leave that to people like me, we enjoy it) and concentrate on the fundamentals.

The first of these is the headlong rush to mess with our basic rights, a rush that has carried along with it people who should know far better.

Just remember, please, that Franco Debono, apart from the total inappropriateness of his appointment in the first place, has expressed the thought that the media should be reined in.

This is symptomatic of a mind-set that should set the alarm bells ringing at a volume that can be heard in every corner of Europe and it is the PN’s duty to sound them, loud and clear.

Might I be permitted to close by recommending that if you’re in Gozo of an evening and want a glass of something that cheers and very decent nosh to go with it, you drop into Kozmo, near Rundle Gardens, the other side from the car park? And if in Valletta, give Salvino’s a try, under the Palace Square and in new hands: very good too.

imbocca@gmail.com

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20