Mumble Mumble Mintoff Mumble

Sometimes I wonder whether it is just my very personal fixation. Am I the only one to be bothered by the numerous PN contributions to the press reminding us of Mintoff, the MLP and the halcyon Macina days? Am I the only one to be particularly miffed at this paternalistic attititude by the people who should be more preoccupied by the problem of today's governance? The Americans have a new term: "bandwidth". Not the usual bandwidth we are used to. It is being applied to government and administration - to question whether an administration has suffient "bandwidth" to deal with the issues before it.

Whenever I see articles like Victor Scerri's in yesterday's Times I really begin to wonder. Incidentally VS is President of the PN clan - and he is basically writing to tell us why we should vote Gonzi and not Freddie. Here are some juicy, appetizing snippets of what has become run-of-the mill issue from the PN trash machine....

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The 'perverse' election result of 25 years ago.
[Or why I am pervertedly fixated with the past and still cannot think up something new 25 years later - incidentally why is perverse in quotes?]

It is often said that history, being written by the victors, is a highly subjective recording of events as seen through the eyes of the writers. Being a Victor myself [But please note that the history has constantly been written and re-written and re-reminded by the losing side in this case - which is why we need the Victor pun] , I have taken it upon myself [ two myselfs - one sentence - god, lornism is contagious] to record what I remember from the days, when as a 16-year-old student, the political developments were unfolding which grasped my full attention [The lessons I was missing which let slip my shaky grammar] and sucked me into the world of politics [sucked?] , convincing me of the adage that for evil to triumph, all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. [Or for fixated men to write like this]

(...)

The election result of 1981 was the fruit of ten years of rule [He does not stop referring to a government elected democratically for ten years between 1971 to 1981 as some Junta that had taken the reigns of power from Borg Olivier with the use of guns] that should have been the bottom of the barrel, as far as democratic practices are concerned, but we were in for a nasty surprise. The five years and five months that followed dragged up the worst that any undemocratic regime could offer [Now. I might agree that 1981 to 1987 were not the brightest years in our history... in fact forget Might , I DO agree... but between that and "the worst any undemocratic regime could offer"... lie a couple of Kims, Saddam Husseins, Robert Mugabes and Augusto Pinochets to name a few] . This dark period of Maltese history, during which I progressed from the age of 16 to 21 [progressed from 16 to 21?] , saw people arrested for broadcasting, protesting against water cuts and for owning a cordless phone that allowed one to make a conversation from the sitting room instead of the kitchen! This was then considered to be a subversive tool to bring down governments. [I like this one. Had forgotten the good old "The Manic Dictator has no right to steal my Cordless" fundamental right].

(...)

The change did come, when on May 9, 1987, the election swept the Labour Party out of power, and the forward-looking [the irony of it all] Nationalist Party in. Twenty-five years later [He means 19], we have an infrastructure to be proud of, a vibrant and growing economy and we are proud members of the European Union. One final comment. One might ask what is the relevance of those days now? [No. We have actually given up asking Victor].The relevance lies in condemning those corrupt practices and the style, or lack of it, of government of the time [And who doesn't? And what happens when we do? Do we win a set of back issues of "In-Taghna"?.] We would do well to keep these facts firmly in mind, lest we ever forget which party is trying to win power again. [Lest we forget? Hmm. I know which party is trying to win power again. Actually, I can name two off the cuff... and yours is one of them!]

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On a more serious notes. Before any Nationalist lackey decides that I am in any way supportive of the negative, dark, Darth Vader side of the Mintoffian era, particularly between 1981 and 1987... let me say that I am not. I too was active in the early days of the Nationalist revival. I too was an MZPN member - sitting on the same National Executive as our friend Vitor here. The difference between myself and Victor, David and other like minded churners of the Nationalist trash-spin is that I have moved on... and still expect the best for my country.

There is no denying, from my comfortably objective non-voter (!!!) point of view that Alfred Sant's incongruous band of spinners is no good alternative for the nation (quote this one too Aaron). People like myself look for vision when deciding who to vote for. I can see none in either of the MLPN. I am not sure I see a strong, concrete one in AD yet either. If I had the right to vote I would vote AD as a message for change.

There are many ways ofdoing so. There is the half-hearted way (for the ones who keep the party flag stashed in the drawer) : you can choose one of the unelectable dorks who the parties decide to pressure into running for election as your first choice (and thus giving your coveted number one to the party) and then give your number two to an AD guy. If there are sufficient dorks to split this kind of vote and sufficient AD number twos you will have an AD MP before you can say "alfossa".

For the more courageous among you, nothing beats the good old number one for AD. In any case Victor... my point is that we have had it up till here hearing about the heroics involved in watching people get arrested. We would like to know what you have done to continue the dream we shared in 1992. The dream of a better Malta. Of Solidarity always and everywhere. Of the Change that Continues.

Why don't you start by explaining why your government has done nothing to change the anomaly that disqualifies hundreds of people in Brussels and Luxembourg from voting come next election? Then maybe you can start lecturing me and others about undemocratic regimes.

Ta ta!