Those who take politics at face-value in this country saw Joseph Muscat’s hot potato job on Joe Grima as evidence of the former’s strength of character and no-nonsense style, standing up to an oaf and dumping him without thinking twice about it.
I beg to differ: in politics, timing is everything and if you hesitate, all is lost.
Muscat hesitated, for a mere blink in time, admittedly, but he hesitated: he didn’t dump the arrogant oik as soon as his rant hit the blogosphere but quite some time later, when the heat started building up and when it became clear that Grima was being seen as the face of Labour, especially through the prism created by the adulation and quasi-beatification of the late Dom Mintoff. It was only at this point that Muscat dropped him, calculating, presumably, that the harm done to Labour outstripped the good that the on-going association with Mintoff was creating. I don’t see the latter as being the case, either, but how else would you explain the way Labour is getting all protective of the Mintoff good name? They must see some advantage in being associated with him.
The dumping of Grima gave inspiration to someone at maltastar.com to pen a piece, in decent English for a change, which means one of two people could have written it, calling on the PM to distance himself from Mrs Caruana Galizia and myself, in my case because I have the temerity to think that Mintoff was not the greatest thing since sliced bread (perhaps the family will call on the Police to investigate me, as well?) and, having held official roles within the Nationalist Party, I should be treated the same way by the PM as Grima was by Muscat.
About the only similarity between me and Grima is in the way we both look on television. I am not a former Minister within various Labour Governments, I do not have a television programme on the PN station and I do not resort to snide innuendo, homophobic insults and downright lies to make my point (Grima saying that I am controlled by Mr Cachia Caruana is a downright lie)
And while on the subject of lies, it is a lie and the person who wrote it a liar, that I have held official roles within the PN, unless being involved in the electoral process up to 1998, simply as a volunteer, is what is being referred to: I am not even a member of the PN, for Heaven’s sake.
And just for the record, if the PM wishes to distance himself from my opinion, rock on – I have every confidence that at least on this side of the political fence, freedom of expression is respected, so we’ll remain bosom buddies.