With hindsight, everyone is right, although one must admit that whoever kept repeating Simon Busuttil’s battle cry was completely wrong.
Imitating someone will not make you a man. Until a month ago, I had thousands of people calling me and asking why I had made clear-cut declarations and hundreds more urging me to wait for the right time and then react.
The truth is that there is no right time in a dark era. The right thing to do is to end it. The Nationalist Party is exactly in the middle of such a process.
Like many others, I fought tooth and nail to get rid of all the negative elements that were still there till 2013. The best I could manage was to overcome the malicious obstacles as all the rest was in a checkmate and everything set to implode.
Since the very first day in the hot seat, I had asked Busuttil to avoid making any scenes. You could tell from his eyes that he did not know otherwise, though I wanted to give him time to prove himself. As he walked the talk we could see his lack of vision, his terrible sense of judgements and a softy trying to play the bully.
His insecurities rocked the party structures in a manner that anyone in his senses and with a hint of political acumen could clearly spot the writing on the wall.
Busuttil is politically incompetent and anything but a leader. He sheds responsibility on others, takes ages to decide on what is obvious while underestimating anyone who might have even the slightest touch of red inclinations.
There is no right time in a dark era
He kept unwanted fellows, like Paul Borg Olivier, Karol Aquilina and Michael Fenech Adami within the PN inner circles. In top positions, he added arrogance, mismanagement and non-starters with the likes of Ann Fenech, Brian St John and Rosette Thake. His ideas of fresh, innovative crowd-pullers meant Salvu Mallia, Wayne Hewitt and Angelo Micallef, among others.
Funnily enough, his biggest threat wasn’t Joseph Muscat. His constant nightmares were Mario de Marco, Chris Said and Claudio Grech. All three possess great qualities, which their leader lacks big time. On the other hand, he had a soft spot for the people who ‘raised’ him and put him at the helm. We could, thus, see constant mud-slinging vis-a-vis the three MPs coming from within the PN’s darkroom.
It is that same attitude that put me and many others off.
A clique that believes that people are mere sheep while they are the anointed ones to lead the flock.
A superiority complex that set them aloof to a level whereby the latest declarations coming from the leaders of the flock make the rest of the country wonder about their insanity.
Their credibility carries the certificate of the largest political defeat in history.
As we look ahead to succeed further together as a nation, we can only hope that this clique will not continue to hinder one of Malta’s glorious political parties.
Jean Claude Micallef is a Labour electoral candidate.