Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1513442
10 OPINION maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 20 DECEMBER 2023 Raphael Vassallo OH, all right, I know what you're all probably thinking. What's the difference, anyway? Aren't 'cabi- net ministers' (and politicians, in general) also 'acrobats', in their own right? Don't they all do a lit- tle 'juggling', from time to time? And why else would they keep 'bouncing' and 'swinging', from one policy-direction to another; if not because they're all engaged in precisely the same sort of 'tra- peze act', that we normally asso- ciate with… 'The Circus'? And let's face it: it's an associa- tion we all tend to make, far more often than we probably even re- alise ourselves. Consider, for in- stance, that every time one of you describes a certain politician (or all of them, for that matter) as a 'Pulċinell' – like most of you did this week, when Parliament unan- imously voted to allow 16-year- olds to become mayors – you will be: a) using the Maltese word for 'clown', and; b) name-dropping a fictitious personality from Italy's 'Comme- dia Dell' Arte' tradition (in many ways, the medieval progenitor of Italy's contemporary 'Circo Or- fei'…) In other words: I am hardly the first – and certainly won't be the last – to draw a comparison be- tween 'politicians', and 'clowns' (or 'trapeze-artists'), for purely sa- tirical purposes. But then again… that's not exactly what I'm doing, right now. No, indeed. Because it turns out that there's precious little differ- ence, in this scenario, between 'satire' and 'reality'. After so many years of their antics being derisive- ly compared to all sorts of circus 'stunts'… it seems that some of our Cabinet ministers have actu- ally started to embrace the role wholeheartedly, as their actual 'political vocation'. Simply put: they are beginning to believe that they really ARE the 'jugglers', 'clowns', and 'trapeze artists', that they have so often been likened to in the pas (and – more worryingly still – that they really DO possess the sort of 'su- perhuman skills', that are required for the impossible tasks they are now setting for themselves…) Examples, I hear you ask? Well: I'm almost reluctant to point the finger too directly at Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia – even if he did confirm my suspicions, in no uncertain terms, in last Sun- day's MaltaToday interview – for the simple reason that I don't even consider him to be the most 'skilled' of Robert Abela's ultra-tal- ented 'Cabinet of Acrobats' (not by a long shot, in fact...) He does, however, make a rather good example; so without further ado, onto the interview itself. At one point – while Kurt San- sone was quizzing him on the subject of the 'bicycle-lanes' he once promised (and which seem to have performed something of a 'vanishing act', since then) – Far- rugia had this to say: "Every day, I receive contrasting and diametrically opposed mes- sages - cycling enthusiasts tell me not enough is being done, while others urge me to remove cycling lanes to allow cars to pass freely. The country needs to move for- ward and I have to find a just bal- ance between the differing opin- ions…" Erm… see what I mean? It's al- most as though Aaron Farrugia himself genuinely believe that his own job, as Malta's Transport Minister, is… well, identical to that of any circus tight-rope walk- er, in the 'Circo Orfei'. That is, to maintain a precise 'balance' between the two extrem- ities he is trying to navigate; with- out ever giving any undue 'weight', to either one side or the other… At the same time, however: Aar- on Farrugia is not exactly the only Maltese Cabinet Minister, to have evidently misunderstood the na- ture of the responsibility that has been heaped upon his shoulders. You could, in fact, almost literally change the ministerial portfolio to any other of your choosing – and place the above words (with all relevant issues 'updated') into the mouth of whichever other Cab- inet Minister it corresponds to – and nobody, in the entire country, would ever even notice. Robert Abela, for instance, is on record (over and over again) tell- ing us that his government needs to somehow 'strike a balance', between 'the environment and the economy' - here and there, varying to 'economic growth, and quality of life' - and every Envi- ronment Minister we've ever had (including Aaron Farrugia him- self, when the role was his) has likewise argued exactly the same way, for 'hunting and birdlife conservation'. And in case you were wondering: this is one of the many, many are- as where there doesn't seem to be any difference at all, between Mal- ta's supposedly 'polarised' political duopoly. I'm old enough to re- member former PM Eddie Fenech Adami saying exactly the same thing as Robert Abela (in exactly the same words, too)… not once, not twice; but countless times, throughout the entire 10-year buildup to EU membership: from the mid-1990s, to 2004. Even as we speak, Bernard Grech still insists that part of his own vi- sion, as PN leader, is to somehow strike a balance between 'limiting immigration', and 'meeting Mal- ta's current labour-force needs' (for all the world as though any such thing were even remotely possible, to begin with…) And I can assure you, the list goes on and on: ALL our politi- cians, it seems, share this absurd delusion that their own role is merely to 'try and appease all sides', in any given issue: by sim- ply 'drawing a straight line down the middle'… … instead of what their job, as Cabinet Ministers, is all along sup- posed to be: i.e., to try and actually steer the country in a consistent policy-direction (which, quite frankly, hasn't happened since Malta's aforementioned EU acces- sion bid, more than 20 years ago). But like I was saying earlier: though not perhaps the best ex- ample, Aaron Farrugia does none- theless embody this delusion bet- ter than most. So let's go back to what he told Kurt Sansone last Sunday, shall we? 'Balancing' is the job of a circus acrobat, not a cabinet minister