Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1450614
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 FEBRUARY 2022 Raphael Vassallo OPINION 'God is on the PN's side?' That explains a heck of a lot… CALL me a Doubting Thomas as much as you like (I've always considered that to be a compli- ment, myself)… but I wouldn't have believed it for half a mo- ment, had I not 'heard it with my own ears'. But yes: it turns out that Claudette Buttigieg really did become the latest Nationalist Party spokesperson to loudly proclaim that… drums roll- ing… "Alla Magħna!" ['God is with us!']: in what seems to have been the starter-pistol, for the PN's entire electoral cam- paign. Oh, OK: I am well aware that she was only quoting the (somewhat ossified) official PN anthem, which goes something like: "Ejjew Nazzjonalisti! Ejj- ew bl-eluf minn tagħkom! Ejj- ew għax Alla magħna, ejjew ħa nirbħu żġur…" But to properly reflect both the meaning of those words, as well as their tone and overall cultural resonance… the Eng- lish translation would have to sound like something out of the King James Bible (1611 edi- tion): "O Come, All Ye [Nationalist] Faithful! Come forth in your untold multitudes! For veri- ly I say unto thee: the Lord is With Us! Arise! For the hour of our final victory is now at hand!" (All sung, by the way, to a tune that sounds suspicious- ly similar to Romina Power's 1982 disco-classic, 'Il Ballo Di Qua[ck] Qua[ck]'…) Honestly though: don't these people even realise how hope- lessly out of touch with real- ity they appear… by clinging to such absurdly anachronis- tic, proto-Fascist, and (quite frankly) embarrassing views of themselves? And do they not even pause to consider how those words may actually sound: not just to the ears of self-avowed secularists such as myself – who, though we be a small minority, actually have more claim to God's sup- port, than the PN itself [For as I recall, God Himself did once argue – and I think, rightly – that we should "Give Unto Caesar, That Which Is Cae- sar's…"] … but even to the ears of those Nationalists who actual- ly DO believe that 'God is (or should be) on their side': but who then turn around, only to see stark evidence of the con- trary, almost everywhere they look? Nonetheless, I will concede that – 'ancient' and 'mouldy' though that vision may seem, in the 21st century – it remains the rough equivalent of simply 'throwing in a Biblical quote', for dramatic effect… All the same: it is still how Claudette Buttigieg conscious- ly chose to end that rousing speech of hers… in a thunder- ous crescendo, that got her au- dience cheering on their feet. And she even preceded it with that other archaic Nationalist Party battle-cry, 'Is-Sewwa Jir- bah Zgur!' ['Truth (or Right- eousness) Will Prevail!']… … you know: just to leave us in no doubt whatsoever, that the Nationalist Party really does 'believe' – to some degree, at least – that it is: a) aligned with the 'forces of Good'; b) pitched in an all-out, Ar- mageddon-style, 'Final Battle against Evil', and (more bi- zarrely still); c) pre-ordained, by Divine Decree, to actually emerge triumphant [!!!]… even as St Michael is destined to finally crush Satan underfoot, on the Day of Final Judgment itself (as foretold in The Apocalypse, etc.) Well, what can I say? Psychi- atry has come a good long way since the Middle Ages, you know. There is now clinical- ly-approved medication that can be prescribed, for people suffering from such glaring, psychotic delusions… But if I find all this surpris- ing (and verily, I do)… it is not so much because the PN still clearly believes – in spite of everything – that what it is ac- tually rehearsing for, is not an 'election' at all… but rather, a historical re-enactment of the flipping Crusades… a 'Holy War' against the 'Accursed In- fidel'… or yet another remake of Ridley Scott's 'Kingdom of Heaven' ('The Divine Cut', this time…) No, what astonishes me more, is that… erm… really, Clau- dette? 'God is on the PN's side'? Erm… since when, ex- actly? And what makes you so certain, anyway? Reason I ask is that… from where I'm sitting right now, it sure doesn't look that way, to me. But let's take a step back, and examine that quote in its wider context. A few seconds earlier, Claudette Buttigieg had also invited us to 'open up the newspapers' – presuma- bly, a reference to our poll last Sunday – and digest the reve- lation that: yes, actually. The Nationalist Party has managed to claw back around 10,000, of the 46,000 votes it needs to just draw level with the Labour Party (let alone to defeat it out- right, in a 'Battle to End All Battles'…) But let's be honest: if that's the best that the Nationalist Party could achieve, in the near-dec- ade that it has been trying to reduce that deficit – and with 'God on its side', no less! – well, it doesn't exactly say very much for God's capabilities as a polit- ical canvasser, does it? For as far as I can make out, the Supreme Deity we're actu- ally talking about here, is surely the same God Almighty who is also credited with (among oth- er achievements) the, um, 'Cre-