I didn't attend the protest last Saturday. I was in Gozo on Friday night for an excellent lecture by Joe Pirotta on Borg Olivier and the Innu Malti (you can buy the book) and then on Saturday evening we had the opening of Debbie Caruana Dingli and Andrew Diacono's small but fine exhibition at Arte' in Rabat.
Being essentially a lazy sod, I couldn't see why I should schlep into town, especially from Gozo, to add just a body or two to what would probably be a miserable showing. I know that if everyone thought like me, nothing would ever happen, but it remains a fact that Saturday 10 am is a pretty ridiculous time to be doing this sort of thing.
Anyway, I was pretty ambivalent about going to Valletta. The main organising components of the protest had themselves publicly snubbed the two previous national protests "because the PN were involved", and I had this sneaking feeling that they would seek to try to turn the thing to their own political advantage.
I wasn't wrong.
True to form, the leadership, in themselves about 50 per cent of its membership, of the Alternattiva Demokratika, Arnold Cassola and Carmel Caccopardo, saw fit to lump the PN into the same boat as Premier Joe's outfit. AD's watchword has been "a plague on both your houses" for years now, with a distinct lack of electoral success, for all their whistling in the dark.
Their "all politicians are the same" (except them, of course) is a refrain that is parroted by the unthinking and shallow as a fantastic reason for not being too bothered for whom they vote, though it hasn't translated into votes for AD. It is as untrue, and annoying as Mintoff's characterisation of Borg Olivier as a lazy and ineffectual politician. Again, you can buy Pirotta's book to see what I mean, and to see how Premier Joe's bunch have carried on in Mintoff's noble tradition of lying in their teeth for political ends.
Obviously, the PN had corrupt elements within their ranks, but Cassola and Caccopardo are unable, more accurately unwilling, to grasp that the political price has been paid, and how, for that. One should be thankful for small mercies and recognise that at least this past-their-sell-by duo didn't go the whole hog and follow Premier Joe's lead in attacking Demarco and Fenech Adami on grounds flimsier than a sheet of toilet paper that has been lying in a puddle for a week.
As you can see, I find intellectual dishonesty irritating. Simply bleating "different parties, same shit" is fine for naive young hippies whose take of politics is skewed by their lack of historical depth or knowledge and manipulated by the rubbish media they read.
Premier Joe's two sidekicks are embroiled in a scandal of global proportions, necessarily dragging him into it, whether he's actually involved or not
For supposedly more intelligent and definitely more experienced people to be doing the same thing is quite another pot of mussels.
Symptomatic of this malaise is the way certain types are reacting to the PN's call for Premier Joe to show us, the Great Unwashed, the receipts for his and his family's nice little week-long break at one of the world's more expensive hotels.
In itself, this would at first blush seem to be something of intrusion into the Great Man's personal time, but recall, if you will, the furore they had created about Tonio Fenech's €500 imitation antique clock and, in a separate context, his short trip to watch Arsenal (of all teams) with his son and a couple of business men.
Put together, the price of these two things don't even make up the price of one night at Premier Joe's hotel of choice in Dubai, and that's not even including the price of the flights. So, why is basing a good chunk of your electoral campaign on Fenech's silly lapses of judgement OK and asking Premier Joe to give chapter and verse about his little peccadilloes not?
As in everything, context is all.
Premier Joe's two sidekicks are embroiled in a scandal of global proportions, necessarily dragging him into it, whether he's actually involved or not. This is a stark fact and one that will not go away.
Herding his beholden subordinates into the House to succumb to the whip and having his faithful turn up in Valletta to screech and shout will not magically put Panama out of our minds, however much Premier Joe is panting for this.
As we know, Premier Joe's answer was to create smoke-screens (tax audit, anyone?) and manufacture spurious allegations about his no-longer-a Movement's opponents. This seems to annoy no-one at all but when the PN hit back, they're told that they're being negative and bitter.
This is pretty rich coming from a Premier whose trolls and minions consistently, and clearly with his approval, attack anyone who isn't on their side. These attacks, luckily, are often tantamount to being savaged by a dead sheep but still they often resort to insults and worse that are personal, even sometimes misogynistic or homophobic, and with an undertone of violence that is, sadly, typically Labour.
Cassola and Caccopardo's AD could have risen to the occasion and placed themselves on the right side of history. They missed their chance and Saturday's miserable turn-out just confirms that the AD is a spent force, if they ever were a force at all.
Andrew Borg Cardona