Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1399957
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 AUGUST 2021 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Hands off 'OUR' President! (Because he's OURS… not YOURS!) OH, don't get me wrong: I do vaguely sympathise with former MEP Marlene Mizzi's impas- sioned plea on Facebook this week: 'HANDS OFF OUR PRES- IDENT!' (her capitals, not mine). Nor, for that matter, do I even doubt the sincerity in her use of that all-important posses- sive pronoun, 'OUR'. If noth- ing else, because… well, her next sentence kind of gives the whole game away. "Trying to taint the reputation of a respected man of integrity, will only earn you the disdain and disgust of THE NATION" (my capitals, this time). See? 'The nation'. That, very clearly, was what Marlene Miz- zi really meant, by describing George Vella as 'OUR' Presi- dent. And it's only fair to add that her sentiment probably reflects both the Constitution- al status of the Presidency itself – which, regardless of occu- pant, is all along supposed to be a 'unifying force within the Republic of Malta', etc. – and also, the present incumbent: who… …um… … OK, let's just say that – like most, if not all, of his prede- cessors – George Vella has so far succeeded in parking at the door whatever political bag- gage he may have brought with him to that role… after literal- ly decades of service within (in this case) Labour administra- tions of government. And yes: this may well be be- cause George Vella never really had all that much political bag- gage to begin with. Certainly, the former foreign minister was never regarded as being one of the 'Panama Gang'… and nor, for that matter, was his face ever depicted 'behind bars' in any of those accusatory 2017 campaign billboards. In fact, now that I think about it… I don't actually recall any other time – in those parts of his 40+ year-political career that I do remember, at any rate – when George Vella faced any form of serious controversy of any kind whatsoever: still less, outright calls for his resigna- tion, of the kind he is facing today. And I find it somewhat ironic, that it is only now – i.e., that he occupies the largely ceremonial role of President of the Repub- lic – that certain people (you'll never guess who) are suddenly demanding his head on a plate. Erm… for what, exactly? On what specific grounds should President George Vella actually tender his resignation (so soon into the job, too)? Is it on the basis of something he himself has either said or done, in that role, to render himself unsuitable to occu- py it? And if not: is it because of something that may have emerged regarding his own po- litical past… some 'scandal' or other, that we were simply un- aware of when he became Pres- ident in 2019…? No, not quite. It would appear that George Vella's only 'crime' consists in his failure – back in 2016 – to actually foresee what nobody else could possibly have foreseen at the time: i.e., that a journalist would be mur- dered in this country the fol- lowing year… and that - anoth- er four years down the line – an independent inquiry would conclude (without the benefit of any hindsight whatsoever, of course) that 'the entire Muscat cabinet' was 'collectively re- sponsible' for 'creating the cli- mate of impunity' that resulted in that particular murder… etc, etc. Hmm. Ok, I suppose it would be easy enough to deflate the central premise of that argu- ment…. on the basis that – let's face it – not everyone out there automatically accepts the in- quiry's conclusions as 'Gospel Truth', anyway. And not without good rea- son, either: after all, some of us do remember that there were actually 19 car-bomb attacks – all allegedly attributable to the same criminal gang – be- tween 2010 and 2017: a time- span that takes us well before the Muscat administration ac- tually came into power… and during which nobody was ever arrested or prosecuted for any of those crimes, either… But no: the real problem is that - applied specifically to George Vella – this means that 'OUR' President should now resign, for no other reason than because he once voted – way back in 2016 – against a motion of no-confidence in Konrad Mizzi… …at a time, please note, when the allegations against that minister were far from 'prov- en'; …when the motion itself had been tabled by none other than Opposition leader Simon Busuttil (who, by an extraordi- nary coincidence, happens to be leading the cavalry charge against George Vella today); … when Labour politicians, in general, had good reason of their own to be (at best) 'suspi- cious' about the source of those allegations; …and above all, when – with the country fast approach- ing election mode – all Mal- tese politicians, Labour and Nationalist alike, would no doubt have done exactly the same thing: i..e., instantly ral- ly around their party flag, the moment their own government is under attack. In other words: George Vel- la should resign today – not because of anything he ever did or said, himself – but sim- ply because of who he was in 2016… and what he is still evi- dently perceived as being today ('President of the Republic', or no 'President of the Republic'): a former minister in the Jo- seph Muscat administration, who behaved just like all other former ministers in that Cabi- net…. (Or as Edward Zammit Lewis might have put it, in another 'off-the-record' private chat: "George Vella should resign, simply because he is a 'Ġaħan Laburist'." Nuff said…) But hey, tell you what: let's not make the mistake of get- ting bogged down in the actu- al political controversy itself (trust me, it's never worth it in the long run). No: as far as I'm concerned, the truly inter- esting question is not whether George Vella should, or should not, actually resign… but rath- er, what it all tells us about the office of the Presidency itself. Because if you ask me: those resignation calls – and all the reactions thereto – have al- ready succeeded in achieving something quite important, in this young country of ours. They have finally exploded – and quite emphatically, too – that old, cherished political 'myth' of ours…. … you know: that the Office of the Presidency, in and of it- self, as if through some kind of 'magical power', imbued within it by the Holy Constitution of Malta, somehow 'absolves' all incumbents of all the collective 'sins' of their former, political selves... In other words, that we are all somehow expected to simply 'forget' – just like that, from one moment to the next – everything 'OUR' President has ever said or done, at any previ- ous point in his or her former (invariably political) career… and, even more poignantly, an- ything that had ever been said or written about them by oth- ers, too.