Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1401709
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 AUGUST 2021 OPINION I still wouldn't be too quick to dismiss Robert Abela's apology as a mere token gesture, or meaningless formality… if nothing else because – and quite frankly, this took me by surprise, too – the Caruana Galizia actually accepted the apology. And as far as I can see: that really does put a whole new perspective onto proceedings Thank you... for having bought this newspaper mt The good news is that we're not raising the price of our newspaper We know times are still hard, but we have pledged to keep giving our readers quality news they deserve, without making you pay more for it. So thank you, for making it your MaltaToday Support your favourite newspaper with a special offer on online subscriptions. Visit bit.ly/2X9csmr or scan the QR code Same-day delivery by Miller Distributors is at €1 for orders up to 5 news- papers per address. Email your order, name, address and contact number to production@millermalta.com, and forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1914 Subscribe from €1.15 a week Same-day delivery from Miller Distributors and; d) end up becoming the "one opposi- tion party whose numerical strength in the House of Representatives is greater than the strength of any other opposition party" - Constitution of Malta, Article 90, Subsection 2(a). There. THAT – and in no other way – is how you really go about becoming 'Malta's main Opposition party'. And unless any of those conditions are already in place: the question in that poll may as well have been: "Should our current Prime Minister be replaced by a unicorn, a dragon, or a sugar-plum fairy? (Call now on 0800-GA- HAN to win fabulous prizes, etc.)" And I really mean it, too. The answers, in both cases, would be equally inconse- quential… Except that... um… in the case of the CSN poll, there have already been 'conse- quences' of a very different kind. Incredible as this may sound – because it really is the stuff of Muppets, you know – some people within the PN actually mis- took all the above (i.e., an entirely mean- ingless, worthless exercise in pure political fantasy) for some kind of 'genuine political threat'. Gozo candidate Alex Borg even went as far as to demand that the PN 'dissociate it- self' from CSN… AND Repubblika… AND 'other NGOs'… thereby automatically (and no doubt, intentionally) firing the starter pistol for the Nationalist equivalent of 'World War Z'. And of course – because they can't allow themselves to be outdone in the drama department, can they now? – Repubblika went ahead and swallowed the bait, hook line and sinker: even calling Alex Borg's outburst a 'fascist attack' (!), and demand- ing an 'apology' that it obviously knows will never be forthcoming… … and I can almost stop there, because – without even 'taking sides' in this unsight- ly fracas - you can already see, at a glance, that both those reactions are clear-cut cas- es of 'lines drawn in the sand'. They are both demands that can only ever be either met, in their totality; or re- jected, in their totality. In other words, a hopelessly unbridgeable divide… a circle that cannot possibly be squared… and as such, there can no longer be any realistic talk of 'compromise' (still less, 'reconcili- ation'). In a classic Spaghetti western, this would be the moment when the two rival duelists slowly approach each other at high noon, as the rest of the town watches nervously through shuttered windows, and vultures slowly circle overhead. That tense, awk- ward moment – which goes down so very well with an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, and maybe a bucket of popcorn – between the moment when the shoot-out becomes inevitable… and the actual shooting be- gins. And, well… small wonder the entire country would just drop everything, and tune in so eagerly to the latest episode of 'the longest drawn-out political suicide in Maltese history'. Especially now, when matters have finally (and so dramatically) been brought to a head… … by nothing more than a perfectly use- less, totally meaningless, and utterly illogi- cal 'online poll'. Go figure…