Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1268420
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 JULY 2020 OPINION Saviour Balzan @saviourbalzan THESE last days, the only words of consolation and sup- port for the PN leader Adrian Delia were hardly audible or visible. The lonely figure of Censu l-iswed, a colourful and un- couth character, together with a merry band of angry, loud and oversized men and wom- en could hardly be described as the heart and soul of a par- ty. Defiant until the very end, Adrian Delia has refused to bow down and leave. This kind of freak show is now the joke at every dinner table and family reunion and the only words of consolation are to be found in Labour circles who pray that he hangs on for the good of their own party! Citing the PN statute and in- sisting that he was elected by the members of the party, De- lia has shown that he has no self-respect and wants to hang on whatever the cost. The un- fortunate reality is that Delia has been shunned by a certain boisterous and entitled seg- ment of the party from the very first day, and his image had by far been crystallised in the first few days of his leadership by his scathing portrayal of Daph- ne Caruana Galizia, who died in a car bomb hardly a month after his election. The old guard of the PN nev- er accepted him and the media were never kind to him. His only ally, ironically, came from the PL media who described Delia's opponents as the bad guys. Naturally, Delia's embat- tled image suited Labour just fine. After all, it seemed both Delia and Labour had the same enemies. Since that day the Nationalist Party has spiralled dangerously and perilously close to a dan- gerous split that kills its elec- toral chances for the foreseea- ble future. At a time when any decent opposition party would be riding the wave in the wake of the Muscat downfall, the PN finds itself squabbling inter- nally about everything but the political topic of the moment. Delia refuses to go but his days are numbered. It is a mat- ter of time until he is aban- doned even by those who tag along with him. Only those hotheads with PN tattoos like Censu l-iswed will probably stand by him. But it looks more apparent that his reasons to stay on are simply egotistic, and he knows that he cannot muster any credible opposition to the supremacy of Labour. His on- ly asset is his ability to keep a straight face in the midst of a political earthquake, and weaponise the party structures to their logical extreme, with all this party infighting serving him to prop him up as long as he remains PN leader. The answer to Adrian Delia so far has been Therese Comod- ini Cachia. As a human rights lawyer and crusader for good governance, she has upheld the Caruana Galizias' battle for justice for their slain mother. Certainly, she will have to wid- en her horizons be- yond the im- m e d i a t e audience that was o v e r - joyed at her nom- i n a t i o n . To win the hearts and minds of first the Na- tionalists and then float- ing voters, takes more than flying the flag of a select part of the PN. If she re- peats the mistake of former PN leader Simon Busuttil by con- structing her political strat- egy only on the expectations of media-literate, middle class aspirations… she is doomed to fail. She needs to do more than that. This country does not only have governance issues at stake and most of the elec- torate is simply unwilling to discard its 'vote of allegiance' over the singular issue of cor- ruption. That is not me talking, but political electoral trends of the last forty years. The bread- and-butter mantra… well, it's very real. So it will be a tall order for Comodini Cachia. Of course, when it comes to lashing out at the government over the latest corruption revelations there are few in her party who have the right credentials for the job. She might not be at first glance as eloquent as Adrian Delia, but those character traits did not seem to have got him very far. What is clear is that the Nationalist Party needs some stability and credi- biliy. Adrian Delia cannot provide this. His best-be- fore date expired last Wednes- day. Today's political scenario is difficult. If the Nationalist op- position fails to regroup and focus the prospect of having a very imperfect democracy gov- erned by an omnipotent party is a reality not only a possibil- ity. If President George Vella finds that Adrian Delia must go and that Comodini Cachia is the new leader of Oppo- sition, this country needs to enter a period of democratic calibration. The country needs to have a serious appraisal of why we were landed with the biggest scandals to ever hit this country and why the guilty ones never got apprehended. It cannot be that we talk of corruption scandals but never get to see the people respon- sible for these actions. This might not be bread-and-but- ter, but it certainly is brass talks: police work, investiga- tors, scary justice and deter- rence coming together as an unstoppable force that flush- es out the bad boys. Certainly enough, this can be something the PN can start dealing with, in language that does not alien- ate other voters. Yet beyond this, Therese Co- modini Cachia must appreci- ate that on most other issues the electorate does not see a big difference between the two political par- ties. Neither party will change the dominat- ing skyline of tow- ering cranes across Malta and Gozo. And neither will our style of government, our ingrained nepotistic structures and our incestous habit of serving our electorate as if they were the shareholders of a company. Not unless we introduce wide-ranging rules of ac- countability that curtail the liberties of our political class, of course. The Nationalist Party needs to start by eating some hum- ble pie and admit it was, and is, part of this culture of business interwined with politics. And that it also bent over back- wards to make it happen for the big boys. How far is it ready to turn its back on this reality? This country needs vision, and this means that one needs to a dream for the future of this country. Sure, we need to change in nearly everything. But it would be a change that will benefit everyone – a change untainted by the ulte- rior motives of those who set out to enrich themselves in the crudest of ways. The dodo of Maltese politics