Obituaries tend to focus on the good qualities of the person who has just died. That’s why, in this newspaper, we still call them appreciations.
There are several reasons for emphasising the nobler traits of the recently deceased. We want, of course, to be kind to the poor person who has just passed away and we are sensitive to his family in mourning. The obituary as tribute, emphasising the goodness and the kindness, the rectitude or the fortitude, shows it is the good qualities in a person that leave the strongest impression and have the most lasting impact on those left behind. It is the virtues that retain life after death.
Likewise, in a completely different but analogous context, Simon Busuttil – who has ‘passed on’ from his stint as leader of the Opposition to a political afterlife – deserves a fitting tribute, one which focuses on those characteristics of his leadership that have left the party and the country a better place. For it is those aspects that
need to live on under the new leadership. It is those qualities that one would like to see endure as his legacy to the party.
After all, much has already been written about the reasons why the PN lost the last election. That post-mortem has been performed in countless articles, social media posts and radio and TV programmes. Busuttil has been apportioned his fair share of blame, some of it justified, much of it the result of bitterness at the magnitude of defeat and the need to find a scapegoat.
One thing that can safely be said about the result is that what Busuttil stood so staunchly for – in short, clean politics – was out of sync with the priorities of the majority, in a population increasingly enjoying the advantages of prosperity and anxious to keep it that way. But that is no condemnation of Busuttil. The principles of honesty, justice and truth that he fought for are fundamental, their importance perennial. They are not something that can be dismissed just because the nation is not in the mood to hear them, or because “it’s the economy, stupid”.
In his tenacious emphasis on good governance and consistent efforts to root out corruption, Busuttil was doubly courageous because he must have known he was running the risk of misreading the public sentiment. He took a calculated risk and it failed.
This means the approach of the new party leader will shift somewhat and the party will want to attune itself more finely to what the ‘man in the street’ is saying and feeling. But the new leader will not be able to ignore the cause that Busuttil and his team espoused, of which he reminded his listeners so forcefully during his final speech to the convention on Friday. That cause has now taken deep root in the PN and to demote it too far would risk creating dangerous fault lines within the party.
In this sense, Busuttil has left behind a strong legacy indeed.
His vision of doing politics provided a stark contrast to the maladministration, bad governance and corruption that he denounced. He managed to define a better way, one that captured the imagination of a huge chunk of the electorate and provided a clear direction forward.
The irony is that, while he may not have made a successful leader of the Opposition, that is, if success is measured by winning general elections, he had the makings of an excellent prime minister. He demonstrated statesmanlike qualities, the ability to inspire, strong organisational skills and rock-solid principles.
The good thing is that, as he also reminded his party, he will remain an MP, committed to seeing justice and truth prevail. Perhaps reports of his demise are exaggerated.