MLP leadership contender George Abela's The Magic Word (May 16) seems to confirm my previous assessment of the public persona Dr Abela created for himself. Like the one preceding it, this piece lacks vision, but seems once again to concentrate, quite effectively one must add, on the importance of form over content.
Dr Abela claims that our elections have become presidential in style. One does find opinions about the presidentialisation of politics in the two countries which somehow serve as our cultural points of reference: Italy and the UK (The British Constitution by Anthony King, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp 318-22, gives an in-depth analysis of developments in the latter).
However, Dr Abela makes the mistake of suggesting that in presidential-style elections, form is more important than content. Facts show otherwise.
The US presidential election is the presidential-style election par excellence. Despite his dubious public image, George W. Bush won his second term in office thanks to his hardcore conservative views. Mr Bush was weak on foreign policy, and certainly was not scoring high on image. We all remember an e-mail doing the rounds portraying the President's facial expressions as similar to those of a chimpanzee - this was not mere satire, there was more to it. However, Mr Bush was strongly against stem-cell research, abortion and other ethically controversial issues. His conservative message was clear, and well-received, particularly by the Bible Belt voters.
Despite his debatable image, he won, because his content was strong, unequivocal and appealed to more people than the message of his adversary. Had I been an American citizen, I would have voted for Mr Bush, wholeheartedly.
Because, though not falling in the definition of the typical Bible Belt voter, I liked Mr Bush's message, despite his public persona.
Writing in his weekly column that same week, Ranier Fsadni made a very insightful comparison between the public persona of Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi. From Dr Fsadni's comments one can discern the inherent differences between Dr Fenech Adami and Dr Gonzi's respective public persona. This accurate reflection indicates that form is decidedly important, but content is paramount.
Dr Abela's piece gives the impression that it is an attempt to reduce the election to a celebrity contest, which it blatantly is not. Dr Abela is certainly an affable person, and I am among those who like his deportment and bearing. But if he keeps portraying himself as he is doing now, he will only convey the idea that he is more concerned with form than content.
Alas, if there isn't the kind of magic necessary to materialise content, no amount of words will do the trick.
I believe Dr Abela's professor friend can supply him with historical examples in support of this observation.