Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1072992
25 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 OPINION Administrative Council has come out in unanimous sup- port of Adrian Delia – and therefore against his multiple detractors within that party – what happens if (or when) the PN elects a leader from the other faction in future? Would the entire council have to follow Adrian Delia as he walks the plank? Or would the same council members hurriedly approve a new, equal and opposite resolution: this time dutifully pledging their wholehearted support to the new (anti-Delia) leader instead? It is a situation from which only impossibilities and contradictions can possibly arise. And the staggering irony of it all is that all the above issues were already in place (and fully visible) long before Adrian Delia even took over as party leader. Indeed, some of them were even spelt out by the PN's own internal post-mortem, following the 2013 election defeat. Curiously, however, a size- able faction within what remains of the PN's voter- base insists on holding Delia responsible for all of that party's current predicament: like it was Delia who alienated huge swathes of Nationalist voters by building an entire campaign out of insubstantial allegations… resulting in the worst electoral defeat in the PN's entire history. Or who, for that matter, bankrupted the party through decades of financial mismanagement… More bizarrely still, some of these people even think that the problem could be 'solved' simply by removing Delia as leader, and replacing him with someone else. Yet most of them cannot name a single candidate – from within or without – who might possibly bridge that party's internal di- visions. And the few who can, tend to cite Simon Busuttil himself as a possible succes- sor to Delia… totally disre- garding the undeniable fact that Busuttil was the architect of all the circumstances that led to Delia's surprise victory in last year's leadership race. At this point, you will have to forgive me for resorting to the word 'deluded' (and 'delusional') so often. There is simply no other word to describe the level of unreality that these people seem to be inhabiting… But if you ask me – and quite a few already have – the real irony is that only 'AD and PD' seem to be contemplat- ing the formation of a new political entity to fill this void. Why only those two par- ties… and not, say, any of the hundred-and-one 'NGOs' and 'civil society organisations' (mostly consisting of the same old recycled faces) that formed precisely to demand 'change' to the current status quo? Why do we never see the same sort of pro-active commitment, initiative and dedication coming from groups like 'Il-Kenniesa', or 'Occupy Justice', or 'Repubb- lika'… all names, incidentally, which connote 'action' rather than just talk? In the real world, you would expect a 'kennies' to come complete with a broom to sweep with… and to actually use it every once in a while, too. (In fact, it is only in poli- tics – and Maltese politics at that – that you ever encoun- ter 'kenniesa' who just sit back and loudly insist that everyone else does all their sweeping for them). Likewise, one cannot expect to 'Occupy Justice' without ever physi- cally lifting a finger to actually occupy anything at all. And if we talk about a Maltese 'Republic' today… it is only because yesterday's politicians worked long and hard to achieve that reality in practice. It is certainly not because a small minority kept stamping its feet, in the hope that it would one day achieve all its political objectives, just by making a lot of noise. It seems that, for all civil society's grandiose talk of 'revolution' – so fiery and furious when it comes to demanding resignations, or insisting that everyone they don't like is automatically criminalised and jailed – their political momentum just fiz- zles out with a whimper, the moment it comes to building something substantial from the ground up. And this is hardly surpris- ing, either; after all, it is much, much easier to just smash someone else's crea- tion to atoms, than to actually create something yourself (and if you don't believe me, just look at the ease with which only a handful of peo- ple so thoroughly wrecked the once all-powerful PN). So, just to avoid repetitions of the same answer in future: if the PN's implosion has left you feeling angry, bitter, and 'politically homeless'… I would concentrate on build- ing yourself a new political home, instead of just carrying on demolishing your old one. After all, I have yet to hear of a single homeless person – anywhere in the (real) world – who has ever successfully solved his or her homeless- ness… by simply trashing someone else's house. But to be fair, these are issues than can always be ironed out through negotiation and compromise. And in any case: whether it turns out to be an alliance between AD and PD, or a new party altogether… there can be little doubt that the time is ripe for a serious discussion about the 'post-PN scenario' Put simply, the Nationalist Party now struggles to come up with convincing answers to even the most be-all and end-all of all political questions… like, for instance, 'Why should I vote for you, and not them?'