Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1208901
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 FEBRUARY 2020 OPINION THERE is something vaguely apt about the timing of the lat- est crisis to engulf Adrian Delia's leadership of the PN: coinciding, as it did, with a fundraising event for Eddie Fenech Adami's birth- day. Inevitably, this prompted com- parisons between that former grandee of the Nationalist Par- ty – the man who shaped the PN into the formidable, elec- tion-winning juggernaut most of us grew up knowing – and the party's present leader: who seems to have reduced the PN to the lowest-ever ebb of its 125-year history. In memes and online com- ments, many were moved to wonder how the once-glorious PN could possibly have gone from the sublimity we still asso- ciate with Eddie Fenech Adami, to the ridiculous situation it is clearly in under Adrian Delia today. And I have to admit it is a per- fectly appropriate question to ask. But comparisons are odi- ous for all sorts of reasons: not least, because they can always be tweaked to produce opposite results. There is another level at which Delia's career almost mirrors that of Eddie Fenech Adami… at least, insofar as how those two politicians came to be leaders of the Nationalist Party in the first place. All these years later, we tend to forget that Fenech Adami – when still relatively unknown and untested – formed part of an orchestrated manoeuvre to oust another incumbent PN leader, after another succession of stinging electoral defeats. Admittedly, the circumstances are not interchangeable. Unlike Simon Busuttil in 2017 – who had lost the only election he ev- er contested as leader – George Borg Olivier clung onto his posi- tion despite losing both the 1971 and 1977 elections… at a time when there was universal con- sensus that he couldn't possibly have won in 1981, either. Nonetheless, Fenech Adami's subsequent career has overshad- owed the circumstances of his victory in 1977. No one seems to remember that he wasn't the favourite in that contest by a long chalk: the main contenders being Guido de Marco, and the vastly more experienced Censu Tabone. From this perspective, Fenech Adami's ascendancy bears far more resemblance to Delia's, than to either Busuttil or Law- rence Gonzi before him. Like Delia, Eddie was an outsider in his own leadership race; also like Delia, he was challenging a party establishment that had been en- trenched for decades. Both also unexpectedly defeat- ed party veterans (Chris Said, in Delia's case) for the post. That, however, is more or less where the similarities end. For unlike Delia, Fenech Adami went on to successfully rebrand (if not entirely reinvent) the Nationalist Party: transforming it into a force that could easily stand toe-to-toe with Mintoff's MLP, and win clear majorities in five out of six consecutive elec- tions. Again, however, comparisons can be deceiving. For on anoth- er level, Delia can quite easily be cast as a latter-day Borg Olivier: i.e., someone who can't quite grasp the fact that his own po- litical era is firmly over, and who eventually has to be shown the door (if not booted headlong out of the building). This view, however, only re- inforces the sheer anomaly of the PN's current predicament – which, to be fair, is not entirely of Delia's own making. Personal- ly, I can't exactly fault the logic of today's PN 'rebels', who view Delia's leadership as a guarantee Raphael Vassallo 'Barra, Barra!' is not an end in itself Senior Technical Officer - ICT • A-level in ICT or a relevant recognize qualification in ICT at MQF level 4 or higher • Able to speak in both Maltese and English • One (1) year of experience in ICT systems support administration. Job Title: Qualifications: Experience: JOB VACANCY MAIN JOB PURPOSE: Responsible and oversee the day to day running of the Computers, Telephone Network Infrastructure and Network services and to ensure that they function smoothly. The job holder will be supervising the available resources (human, material and systems) in the diagnosing, maintaining and repairing, digital equipment and / or any ICT related Hardware pertaining to Lands Authority related parties and reporting status and analysis. Jobsplus permit no. 33/2020 Closing Date: 17th February 2020 Apply at: hr.la@landsauthority.org.mt https://landsauthority.org.mt/about-us/careers/ To stand any chance of surviving in years and decades to come, the PN will still need to confront the demons of its recent past. And it cannot possibly hope to overcome them, just by shouting 'Barra, Barra!' from the rooftops