In just a few weeks, we will finally go to the polls again as a nation to elect our representative government. To compile the inevitable paper trail of proof on a result which is already projected and accepted by all and sundry.
I distinctly remember general elections being fought by the Labour Party under three different leaders. They will be four leaders if we count the coming general election. I played a varying role in some of them. In a number of previous general elections, the result outcome was expected by most political activists, albeit the art of knowing by how much a win would be registered at was not yet wholly mastered by past political gurus.
I remember the polished and formidable Nationalist Party machine that Labour had to deal with in past elections. I remember the thousands of volunteers on both sides of the arena who toiled and sweated for their party to win the elections: volunteers who worked freely and dutifully for their political party because they were filled with the principles of their political leanings and wanted to instil good in the country.
Times have changed. The invincible Nationalist Party contraption has vanished into thin air. Loyalist volunteers in both parties have been slowly but surely diluted and watered down with the introduction of irreverent mercenaries and career bootlickers.
Which gives the Maltese electorate a very dismal choice on who to entrust to lead our country in the next five years. The electorate has been rooting for Labour in each and every survey since the last general election of 2017. Even when the going got tough for the Labour government, all the surveys clearly showed that the Maltese electorate would not even entertain for one minute the possibility of letting the unreformed Nationalist Party regain the lead in popularity and electorate confidence.
Warts and all, Labour is deemed as a safe bet by the electorate. Robert Abela’s leadership in these last two years has given a sense of comfort and reassurance to an electorate which is basically only interested in enjoying a quiet and relatively more comfortable way of life than before. Without the stressful shrieks and fire-and-brimstone wailings and gnashing of teeth by an opposition which paints our own country as a fictitious astral plane which is even worse than Dante’s circles of hell.
Robert Abela’s leadership in these last two years has given a sense of comfort and reassurance.
On the other hand, the electorate has a bumper choice when it comes to the opposition party. It can opt for the PN group of so-called ‘blue heroes’ who took it upon themselves to not only orchestrate a leadership coup d’état but to also have the audacity of enthroning a leader who literally needs to take instructions and orders from third parties. Naturally, the opposition party has never heard of Mark Twain’s celebrated inspirational suggestion on the subject matter:
‘Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.’
In spite of Twain’s words of wisdom above, the electorate can opt to vote for the Nationalist politicians who are so crucial in ensuring that Labour wins by a landslide. PN spokespersons such as Jason Azzopardi, Karol Aquilina and Beppe Fenech Adami ensure that their brand of self-evident hatred and vindictiveness against anything which is Labour are constant reminders to the population at large that the opposition party has not changed one iota. It is still unrepentant in its foolish belief that it is the people who get it wrong in elections. They still belief in their supposed God-given right to govern.
The electorate can also opt to vote for PN front liners who will be inevitably dumped into the skip of obsolete politicians after the next election. The Party’s two deputy leaders fall under this category. If he does not play his cards right, even the present Party leader himself will be discarded as a political has-been, notwithstanding his relatively short period of time in the political limelight.
They can also vote for the politicians within the Nationalist Party who are biding their time and staying out of harm’s way for the moment. At least till after the general elections. When they would then do the inevitable political and mathematical calculations necessary for taking over what would be left of the Nationalist Party. People like Claudio Grech. Or Joe Giglio.
The electorate can also choose to vote for ex-PN leader Adrian Delia and his associates. His unashamed mission in the next general election is to get even more votes than the usurper leader in order for Delia to ‘justifiably’ show all and sundry that he was indeed ‘the real deal’.
What the electorate cannot vote for within the Nationalist Party come the general elections are the people who actually run the ship Titanic up each and every proverbial iceberg. The unelected Repubblika people. The unelected acolytes and operators of the PN establishment, mostly all disciples and devotees of Richard Cachia Caruana. The unelected previous persons of trust of past PN governments who sorely miss not partaking any more from the gravy train.
With such an exhaustive coterie of agendas and personalities and contrasting divergences within the Nationalist Party, it is no wonder that they are in such a sorry state. Their sorry state is indeed a huge loss for the country in general, which desperately needs a sane and composed opposition. At least, the population will be in a position to give Labour a consecutive third mandate in order for the latter to continue delivering its electoral promises and aiding and assisting the needy within our society.
But wait a minute. The electorate can also opt to vote for a Swedish super group acronymic ‘political’ party with long ties to the fringe River of Love cult. At least, with such an electoral choice, we would have a government with a direct line to God himself. Not even Donald Trump mastered that during his tempestuous presidency. It might be well worth it, even though we might have to give a tenth of our wages as tithes to avoid eternal damnation in a hot, burning hell.
