Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1013924
25 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 AUGUST 2018 OPINION and not decide, on the spot, that Muscat's Labour is actually the better of the two options? Especially when, at the end of the day, the PN is not actually telling us anything about itself at all... other than it is 'not Labour'? That brings me to a sec- ond, rather obvious flaw in the political strategy. How would you react if – in an- swer to the question, 'Who are you?' – I reply, "I'm not Arnold Schwarzenegger"? Well, for starters, you couldn't possibly accuse me of lying. I am very emphatically NOT Arnold Schwarzenegger... in fact, there probably isn't even enough of me to fill out one of the smaller muscle-bulges in his pectorals. But then again: what does my answer tell you about who I really am? What does it do to inspire confidence that I am not, for instance, 'Jack the Ripper' or 'Hanni- bal Lecter', either? Nothing at all. I may as well declare that 'I am not a glass of water', or 'I am not a lesser-spotted Polyne- sian gerbil' (hang on, wait... maybe I am...). But you get the point: it is a perfect non-answer, of the kind that would certainly elicit 'a big... fat... (all together now)... ZERO' from Mrs Baldac- chino in Year Six. Still, however, we are far from achieving our desired 'A+'. For there is another, altogether more sinister problem lurking in the slo- gan: 'if you can't beat them, shame them'. (Actually there are several, but I'm running out of space). It starts with the 'firm belief' that one is 'automati- cally right'... and continues with the ghastly deduction that "everyone who disa- grees with me is automati- cally wrong, and therefore" – herein lies the rub – "a legitimate target for 'sham- ing'." It doesn't exactly take a star pupil to point out the glaring pitfall. By Karol Aq- uilina's own admission, the PN can no longer identify with any major cause or policy, other than attempt- ing to elevate itself by belit- tling others. And having spectacularly failed to achieve that goal with Joseph Muscat, the 'anti-Delia faction' – for want of a better description – is now turning its guns onto what little remains of its own, shattered party. Ultimately, the target of that headline was not Joseph Muscat at all, but Adrian Delia (whose great crime, in- cidentally, is being 'another Joseph Muscat'... once again, reinforcing the negative self- identification of the PN as 'anything but Joseph Mus- cat'). But the strategy itself remains the same: social ostracism, extending – as was the case with Muscat – to the PN leader's children, extended family, friends, acquaintances, professional partners, etc. At this point, it would be bootless to remind the PN that a strategy that failed so abysmally once, will defi- nitely fail a second time.... and a third, and a fourth, etc. But all the same: it must be pointed out that the only possible outcome is a gradual shrinking of the 'in- ner circle' of this self-styled party 'elite'. To 'shame' the political other is to 'exclude' the po- litical other... really, it's not that hard to understand... and when the 'political other' happens to represent roughly half your own par- ty... well, what sort of result can you possibly expect? You should have worked it out for yourselves long ago, but I'll spell it out anyway. It results in an already tiny mi- nority, ensconced within a larger (yet still tiny) minori- ty – just getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller... until it eventually disappears altogether. And this, by the way, was all spelt out for us from the very start, in Aquilina's choice of headline. The reason the PN fails to 'beat them', is precisely because it knows no other strategy than to 'shame them'... which, for all the reasons outlined above, is a losing strategy, in and of itself. There: now, I think we've done enough to earn our 'A'. (Unsurprisingly, seeing as we marked our own exami- nation paper ourselves). See you all at prize day, folks... The 'anti- Delia faction' – for want of a better description – is now turning its guns onto what little remains of its own, shattered party 'beat them'