Kurt Farrugia’s article ‘A great week for politics’ (July 21) ploughed new depths. When you think the Office of the Prime Minister cannot stoop any lower, it careers further down the abyss.
Farrugia is the head of government communications - that reads government. Our government. The government for the whole country. Not a chief propagandist for the Labour Party. Despite this Mr Farrugia indulged in a nasty grubby spectacle of demonising and ridiculing the leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil in an article lacking any factual basis but based entirely on the established spin of character assassination typical of Super One and promoted by the Labour Party for the last four years reaching its culmination in the last three months.
The article is littered with juvenile abuse and cruel revenge.
To pick only a few examples Farrugia referred to Busuttil as “a failed politician” needing “propping up”, “a weak leader” who ran the party “terribly”, that “Busuttil’s problems come down to personality”, that Busuttil “ran the PN into the ground”, that “Busuttil does not deserve any praise”, “the most divisive and negative Opposition leader in Malta’s political history”, that he “sowed division and instigated politics of hatred”.
He referred to Busuttil’s “anger and bitterness” and that he transferred this to the “PN’s ethos”, that he led “personal attacks on his opponents and their families” and a host of other accusations including “spiteful”, “uncertain”, “divisive”, “weak”, “vacillating”, “smug”, “bitter”, “anything but honest”, “sanctimonious”, “not one iota of humility”, and others.
He concluded that Busuttil “leaves a shameful legacy” and that “the country will be relieved to see Busuttil’s back”. All this in a short article - as head of government communications. No mean feat to get so many insults in such a short article.
Where do you start?
It is wholly inappropriate and unacceptable for a government official to write such partisan diatribes against the leader of the Opposition
Maybe if this article were written by l-Orizzont’s editor and published in that pillar of truth and correctness, nobody would have batted an eyelid. But this compendium of derogatory invective was written by a government official, paid by the State to serve the whole country. Or was it?
After all we do have an ex-Orizzont editor working at the OPM, now paid by the State and of course have an ex-Super One reporter for our prime minister. So was this sordid enterprise solely Farrugia’s effort? Is it possible that this article was penned and submitted without the knowledge of the Prime Minister?
Is it possible that the Prime Minister was not aware? Or is it more likely that this was written on the instructions of the Prime Minister? If it was published without the knowledge of the Prime Minister, will he take a stand and condemn Farrugia’s venomous language and the abuse of his position as head of government communications to get the article published?
Apart from the sheer distastefulness of the unashamed and shameful ruthlessness of the destructive streak coursing through the whole article, it is wholly inappropriate and unacceptable for a government official to write such partisan diatribes against the leader of the Opposition, whoever that might be, while paid by the taxpayer.
A basic principle that has never fettered our Labour government is the separation between the party and the government. The utter disdain for the Maltese public and the total disregard for the views of a huge minority (over 40 per cent) of the voting population is absolutely staggering. This is not done.
This should never happen, to use Farrugia’s words, “in a strong and stable democracy”. But a lot of things should never happen - and they seem to be happening on a regular basis. Anybody with a basic understanding of what a strong democracy is about would flinch at the thought of the head of government communication unleashing a tirade of invective and obnoxiousness in the direction of the leader of the Opposition.
What was the objective of this article? What was the Office of the Prime Minister trying to achieve? What important message to the Maltese population was the head of government communications trying to communicate? Was it intended to insult and hurt that considerable proportion of Maltese voters who supported Busuttil? Was it intended to bring unity? Was it intended to dispel hate from the political discourse? Or was it intended to deal the mortal blow to a wounded adversary?
It is impossible not to sense the crude sense of revenge in this. It is clearly aimed at demoralising and injuring not only the leader of the Opposition but the whole of the Nationalist Party. It is also sounding a warning to the prospective leader of the Opposition that this is what you will expect from Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party.
The disregard for the separation of party and government, the lack of sensitivity towards a large minority of the population, the utter ruthlessness is not unintentional and sends one clear message. We will stop at nothing to destroy you. We will bend the rules, we will break those rules, but we will get you.
Is it not ironic that an article oozing hate accuses Busuttil of bitterness, vitriolic politics, dividing the country, personal attacks and being negative?
As Orwell pronounced: “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”
Farrugia’s article may have the Labour Party stalwarts drooling and if that were its intention it has certainly achieved it. What is obvious however is that for those with a basic shred of decency they can only squirm in revulsion at the gory spectacle of a victorious Prime Minister using a government official to stick the partisan boot into a defeated but honourable Opposition leader.
Kevin Cassar is a consultant vascular surgeon, associate professor of surgery and a PN election candidate.