Gentle reminder: politics is not an adventure, nor a game

My post on Eve Borg Bonnello has been met with a barrage of comments by her supporters asking me to “give her a chance”. Many defended her with claims that she has good intentions and goodwill and that she is also very “energetic”.

I haven’t read so much bullshit since Robert Abela tried to convince us he is the right man for the job as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister.

Apologies for repeating myself, but Labour has lowered the standards of politics with fraud, stupidity and corruption to the extent that the standards we expect from our politicians are at their lowest ever in history. Standards are so low that both voters and political candidates are starting to think that politics is some sort of adventure or a game to be played by nice people whom we get to vote for based on their likeness. This is exactly what Robert Abela wants: a political scene that is based on the likeability of candidates who do irrelevant things and are charmingly nice. Labour election candidates have even appropriated this infantile discourse on politics quite openly. Here is Oliver Scicluna, the co-opted Labour MP who claims that his “adventure in politics” is over.

People who support Eve Borg Bonnello seem to have the same mentality on politics as Robert Abela and his acolytes: it is an adventure or an infantile game to be played by likeable characters who are fun, nice and good-intentioned. Kemm hu orrajt, miskin.

There’s also another bizarre and fetishistic aspect to this infantilism of Maltese politics. The Maltese have a fetish for irrelevant records such as the “world’s biggest wine glass” or the “youngest MP in history”. Congratulations Eve. Now, we should also work for the record of the biggest mouth and the youngest CEO of a multi-national corporation to pair our previous records and find out their true value or significance.

There is nothing to be gained from having the record of the youngest MP in parliament other than showing our collective infantilism and immaturity by accepting to have MPs who are outright dumb and incompetent. The reason why most CEOs have white hair and wrinkled faces is that it gets to take a lot of experience to be able to understand the intricacies of leadership and responsibility. Leading an organisation or a government is not a game or an adventure, but a responsibility by which you can affect the lives of others. Wielding any form of power means you can help or ruin the lives of many people and anyone who is aware of this would be grossly irresponsible to hand over power to an 18-year old.

Our democracy and rule of law are in a serious state of crisis and the majority of the electorate seems to agree with this and hence why it didn’t vote Labour during the last general election. What should also come to pass at this stage is the realisation that it will take a very mature and competent group of people to lead us out of our crisis. This is why I supported people like Sandra Gauci (AD candidate) and Mary Muscat (the ex-police inspector) during the last election. PN seems to be struggling very hard to understand this and probably nostalgic feelings of the Eddie Fenech Adami era are thwarting them from evolving their party into a modern and uniting force for change.

Ask this question. Why was Chris Peregin brought into the PN as a chief strategist? The PN top-brass seems to know how to count the numbers and they know that their biggest deficiency is that they are losing support from the ever-growing liberal demographic. A large part of this demographic is located in the upper-harbour districts which traditionally have voted PN. PN failed to win back this demographic in the last election, but it should be obvious that bringing in a high-profile name of this demographic into the Party to work its electoral strategy is not enough. PN has to actually change its ideas and thinking in order to win back this demographic and it’s not going to do this by changing facades while conserving e same old substance. PN needs some maturity too as it is struggling to reconcile its nostalgic ideas of the past with what the country needs. PN won’t win the general election with a conservative stance and this is why Adrian Delia remains a Trojan horse: Labour knows very well that the conservative demographic which supports Delia is a dying breed which will never be enough for PN to win a general election. The more PN is convinced that it should stick to squalid conservative politics, the less chance it will have to win back the ever-growing demographic which is necessary for an election victory. This is why Labour is happy to support Adrian Delia and speak of the ideological division within the PN: it’s a perfect disruptive effect on a Party struggling to choose its direction. As Adrian Delia gets an electoral victory by winning a seat each from two districts, PN will become even more tempted to indulge in nostalgia for its squalid conservative ideas. Maybe, this is also why squalid conservatives like Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici are still clinging to their seats. Mifsud-Bonnici, a completely useless MP and a remnant of the Lawrence Gonzi era who throughout our rule of law of crisis was completely absent and uninvolved is liked by some PN supporters for his likeability. Kemm hu orrajt miskin, jaħasra.

Labour is greatly satisfied with PN’s delusions. While PN is beholden to infantile politicians and squalid conservatives, Labour is in a better position to consolidate its rent-seeking, corruption and cover-ups for criminal cartels.

The answer to this challenge should be very simple. We can not keep hoping that one day the PN’s top brass gets it right. People have hoped and waited enough, and a new political party should be formed by politicians who intend to capture the ever-increasing dissenting voter base and lead an organised and strong opposition to the government.