Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495215
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 MARCH 2023 COMMENT Mediocrity in politics SANDRA GAUCI INTERVIEW PAGE 11 The Skinny Malta, shrunk down MICHAEL FALZON Regulating the construction industry PAGE 7 SAVIOUR BALZAN What a mess! PAGE 5 EDITORIAL Abela's poisoned inheritance PAGE 2 JOSANNE CASSAR Contrived news, sensationalist headlines and twitter 'rage' PAGE 6 "People have already 'cut the umbilical cord' from the Red- and-Blue mentality. Now, it's up to us to offer them that 'wing', under which they can seek protection." What are we skinning? Prime Minister Robert Abela enu- merating all the things that Steward actually did, during a parliamentary sitting large- ly defined by raucous Op- position-organised protests happening outside... which protests were defined by pre- cisely what Steward in fact failed to do. Why are we skinning it? Be- cause it displays a remarkably paradoxical spectacle: Abe- la appears to be both bullish and hopelessly submissive at the same time. How so? Well, by refusing to show contrition for the Labour Party's role in spearheading the disastrous hospital deal, Abela appears to be entirely unwilling to show any sign of humility. But in choosing to go about this by actually highlighting the 'good work' that Steward did, he is also striking a very abject figure... Especially given that Steward are getting testy and combat- ive in the wake of the ruling. Yep. They haven't exactly been holding back on giving the government a strong lash- ing. Only to find Abela effec- tively rooting for them in par- liament. What does Abela hope to gain from this, exactly? It's likely an attempt to puncture some holes in the PN's unexpected leap back into some form of political relevance follow- ing the resounding success of Adrian Delia's legal battle against Steward/Vitals. Bit of a petty thing to focus on at this stage in the country's fresh political cycle. Perhaps, but it does betray that the fight is most certainly ON. How do you mean? Now that the government is cornered, it's gonna fight dirty. We've seen it before and we're see- ing it again. To say nothing of the drub- bing in the polls that Labour got... That's exactly it: we're gonna see more and more of these kind of weird games of political aggression going on. Speaking of aggression, that protest came with a gener- ous dollop of, erm, bile, did it not? When I said it's gonna get weird, I meant from all sides. An older PN protester spitting at a ONE journalist is the kind of grotesque that isn't even funny. Yeah, it's the depth of sadness. An old-school atti- tude that's hard to feel nostal- gic about. But then, what can you ex- pect when tribalism appears to be the default mode here? Abela certainly activated that very same knee-jerk antag- onism by choosing to list the GOOD done by Steward, just to piss the Nationalists off. Wouldn't that be cutting your nose to spite your face? We'd need to acknowledge that the nose is actually part of our faces, and as a country, we don't seem to be ready to do that just yet. Do say: "While Abela was within his rights to list the things that Steward actual- ly did for us, we would all be hard-pressed to believe that this was done in the in- terest of dispassionate com- prehensiveness. Such a sad re-enactment of tribalism is a bit dispiriting to witness at a time when humility and uni- ty should be the order of the day." Don't say: "It's great to know that come rain or shine, our prime minister will be at the ready to defend the rights of the weak and downtrodden. In parliament, no less!" No. 183 – Stewarding Scandals in Style