Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1264355
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JUNE 2020 OPINION for let's face it: Mizzi not only survived all that for four whole years; but he also gained enor- mous grassroots popularity in the process. There is, however, a reason why it worked so well; just as there is now a possible price to pay for that success. The Labour Party's media strategy was all along root- ed in the language of political warfare: it fed into the them- versus-us motif that sits so comfortably with all our other manifestations of cultural tribal- ism – rivalries between football clubs and fireworks factories, for instance – and which has, in any case, always underscored all Malta's political controversies in the past. The same motif can be traced all the way back to such classic Mintoff slogans as 'He who is not for us, is against us'… and even Eddie Fenech Adami's cel- ebrated 'Is-Sewwa Jirbah Zgur': which conjures up images of a 'battle between Good and Evil' (later echoed by Simon Busuttil in 2017, etc. etc.) While it may not have had the desired effect in all those cases, this strategy tends to work be- cause it appeals to a much deep- er, more primal urge among Malta's typical diehard political fanbase (regardless of political allegiance…still less, any con- cern with 'ethics', or 'doing the right thing'). And that is the desire to be part of a winning team… cou- pled with the sheer pleasure of celebrating the defeat of 'the other side'. (Or, as Conan the Barbarian once put it: 'to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamen- tation of their women…') Hence the political price to be paid. For in the end, the same strategy worked so very well, that it is now fuelling the very 'wave of criticism' that threatens to gnaw at Robert Abela's own popularity. Evidently, there are swathes of Labour supporters who gen- uinely believed that Konrad Mizzi really was the victim of a plot by the enemies of Labour; and from their perspective, his dismissal from the party will be viewed as both a capitulation, and a political injustice in its own right. I suspect, however, that there is a larger cohort which never really believed that about Kon- rad Mizzi at all… but went along with the strategy all the same, for all the reasons outlined above: i.e., because it sated their appetite for political victory. And this in turn spells out even more trouble for Abela: because if he is really being gen- uine with his claims of having 'set new ethical standards' for the Labour Party… well, that can only mean distancing him- self ever further from the Jo- seph Muscat era – and with it, the much-cherished 'L-Aqwa Zmien' myth, on which so much of Labour's recent political suc- cesses have depended. But as a direct result of the success of his own party's own media strategy, that's not what Robert Abela's supporters ac- tually want; nor is it what they were promised at the last lead- ership election… still less what they have been brought up to expect from their party leaders, over decades of careful media grooming. To make good on Tuesday's 'ethical standards' boast, then, Robert Abela will have to dis- mantle part of the political ap- paratus that has stood the La- bour Party in such good stead in recent years… running the risk of destabilising his own party in the process. Having said that, though: at this stage, it is impossible to pre- dict the full extent of any possi- ble fallout. I, for one, am not naïve enough to believe that the level of discontent will reach the same (or similar) crisis propor- tions as it did within the Nation- alist Party, since Adrian Delia's election in 2017… though some- thing tells me that the real chal- lenge has yet to be faced; and it will come if (some would say 'when') Abela is forced to make a similar decision with regard to Joseph Muscat. The overwhelming likelihood, however, is that all such griev- ances will be promptly forgot- ten, the moment Robert Abela fires the starter-pistol for the next election: and the same La- bour supporters suddenly catch the whiff of an umpteenth elec- toral victory in the air… where- upon we'll all be back in our re- spective political trenches, and the urge to 'crush our enemies' will once again take the upper hand (as it always does, in the end). If so, however… well, it would only further underscore what last Tuesday's volte-face had al- ready made abundantly visible: that this was never about 'eth- ical standards' to begin with. It was always just about winning, whatever the cost. The Labour Party's media strategy was all along rooted in the language of political warfare: it fed into the them-versus-us motif that sits so comfortably with all our other manifestations of cultural tribalism MCAST is an equal opportunities employer. MCAST IS RECRUITING • Project Administrator - ERDF 9.036 (Jobsplus Permit Number 679/2019) Closing date Wednesday 8 th July 2020 by 12.00pm. 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