Why should your average citizen have taken an interest in the PN leadership contest? Yes, it turned out a bit like a Dan Brown novel with ‘The Establishment’ featuring instead of the Illuminati and more secret societies and alleged freemasons than you can shake a stick at. And it also channelled a bit of Miami Vice and ghetto sagas with ‘bros and hos’ aplenty.

But besides the voyeuristic aspect of watching a car crash in slow motion, there are good reasons to have been concerned with both the development and outcome of the PN leadership race. That’s because a solid, reputable Opposition led by a decent and forward-looking leader is important for the nation as a whole.

At the moment the PN is too taken up with its internal convulsions to offer any sort of meaningful or rational opposition or constructive criticism to the government. While civil society, and the parties AD and PD are making valid contributions to issues of national importance, the PN is silent, trying to ward off attacks from within and without as the king-making process unfolds. Maybe these intrigues and wheelings and dealings are to be expected at such a time, and the party will stabilise itself once the new leader is elected.

However, there is another worrying aspect about the way things have panned out. This relates to the ‘surprise’ revelations of alleged peccadilloes, wrongdoing and lack of probity of people who had previously been considered as stars in the Nationalist firmament. From being a vote-catching MP/multitasking mother/economist/new face, Kristy Debono is being criticised for not turning up regularly at her taxpayer-paid job at the Gaming Authority.

Similarly, the PN Whip David Agius – previously considered to be Dependable David and a party rock – is being bollocked for allegedly doing the same thing, and for being boring. Mario Frendo, once a Nationalist hero demonstrating journalistic derring do for donning a towelling robe and interviewing prostitutes in a German brothel, was written off as an Adrian Delia sycophant. Debono’s husband, Jean Pierre Debono, had his years of working as PN assistant secretary general dismissed with the allegation that he was merely a mole or a fifth columnist working against the interests of the party leader of the time.

The man in the street is distrustful of the political class

It went on in much the same vein. Many of those who were lauded before the leadership race, were maligned, with declarations that they should never have been tolerated to sully the Stamperija with their presence.

Now this could mean one of several things. It could be that the sources who outed the so-called “traitors”, State leeches and deeply-flawed characters (according to the same sources) were hopelessly uninformed as to the true nature of PN party exponents. The sensational information which surfaced via online searches recently may not have been available until the leadership contest was announced. The rumours about repeated absence at work may not have been on the grapevine until the last few weeks. The targets of these allegations may have dissembled and concealed their behaviour so carefully, that their disloyalty was never in evidence before. The fluffiness of Frendo’s towelling robe may have blinded viewers to the fact that he is not Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame.

Or maybe not. Judging merely by the fact that many of the allegations being flung about now from PN quarters had been widely aired long ago on Labour social media, it makes it seem unlikely that Nationalists had no idea of what was going on within their party. More to the point, many of the ‘revelations’ are – and always have been – easily ascertainable. It is pretty easy to check if an MP is campaigning at the każin instead of at work. The same information which is being picked off the internet has long been available. The national rumour mill has never stopped churning.

The likelihood is not these are not surprising or new revelations, but that many were aware of them and consciously chose not to highlight them. This could merely have been an attempt to keep the peace while the PN sailed through difficult times, or it could indicate something more ominous. Belated revelations could be the result of stockpiling of information for the selective character assassination of rivals at the right time. In other words, keeping tabs on others not for immediate public disclosure but for strategic benefit.

This is a discomforting thought as it may well mean that the same people who are being lauded as champions and the epitome of integrity are already compromised. And what’s worse than that is that this is known to many and tolerated for the time being, simply because information is power to be exercised only at suitable times.

It’s no wonder that the man in the street is distrustful of the political class as useful information is only leaked in dribs and drabs when it suits political game players. The euphoria surrounding the crowning of the new PN leader will evaporate eventually.

The take-home lesson from this tragicomic contest is that citizens should do their own information-gathering and scrutiny to be appraised as to the suitability of their political representatives.

drcbonello@gmail.com