Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/929711
maltatoday SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 Opinion 24 I suppose we can no longer be surprised to discover that... yes, actually, history does repeat itself. All the time, and in every imaginable way. Not a big mystery why, either. Things in general may be in a process of perpetual f lux... but human nature remains a constant throughout. In fact, we haven't changed a jot since Adam first blamed Eve for tempting him into eating that apple (and Eve, naturally, blamed the serpent). There: even in the earliest mythical accounts of Creation, you can already discern the same basic character traits that underpin all our actions and thoughts as human beings. We never take responsibility for anything we do wrong; and we always point fingers at others. And the finger-pointing was just the start. Let's not forget that both Adam and Eve had also tried to conceal their disobedience from God... they covered their nakedness, and hid behind a bush. (How many people have done that since, when busted in compromising situations? I shudder to even imagine...) But in any case: evidently, they sort of hoped God might not even notice at all. Which, I suppose, not only banishes any possible doubt that Adam and Eve were, in fact, human – be honest, you'd have done exactly the same thing yourself - but it also illustrates how much 'innocence' was actually lost that day. I mean, come on: you'd have to be pretty darn naive to expect someone like God (of all people) not to even notice that you were stark- bollock naked one second... then hiding your wiener with a fig-leaf the next... All the same, naivety is no excuse. So we must also add a lack of transparency, to the glaring lack of accountability later displayed by our earliest pro-genitors in the first-ever documented case of misappropriation. So who the hell can still be surprised, when the same basic traits continue to manifest themselves ever since? History is, after all, mostly dictated by the antics of the powerful. And while the individual people who occupy the seat of power may come and go... the effect of that power on all the human beings it touches remains virtually unchanged throughout recorded time. I suppose you'll have seen by now where I'm going with all this. Among the millions of transient 'changes', eternally revolving around this constant nucleus of human nature, is the periodic alternation between government and opposition parties in this country. Only it is not just that a Nationalist government sometimes gives way to a Labour one, and vice versa. Oh, no. It is that the Nationalist Party itself becomes the Labour Party – and vice versa – whenever that happens. As a feat of conjuration, it remains remarkable in that it continually succeeds in fooling the great majority of onlookers... election, after election, after election. All the same: it is a conjuring trick, nothing more. The reality is that government remains government (and thinks and acts accordingly) regardless which or how many parties occupy its parliamentary seats. And by the same token, opposition remains opposition. It is the parties themselves that morph from one mode to the other – with a spectacular suddenness that, I must admit, does sometimes take me by surprise – the moment they cross over from one side of the house to another. And vice versa, of course. But I'm tired of typing that, so take it as a given from now on. OK, now I suppose you'll need a few examples, won't you? Like, 'my word for it' is not enough, right? Funny, how some of these demands always come from people who are usually quite happy to accept the most outlandish claims imaginable, without even a trace of evidence. Raphael Vassallo The only 'vital' things are transparency and accountability The debate sounded uncannily familiar to my ears... only the party now in government was back then in opposition, and... um... vice versa 30th january 2018