Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/315336
12 I t hasn't been the most exciting electoral campaign we've ever had, but it may go down as the most surreal yet. For instance: it's not every day that a prime minister suddenly starts singing the blues halfway through a political speech at a rally. Yet there was Joseph Muscat, bellowing 'Bring it on! (Yeah!)' in the context of an appeal to disgruntled voters to 'return to the fold' by voting Labour next Saturday. Whether Muscat was consciously quoting Sam Cooke (or even Led Zeppelin, for that matter) is of course debatable. But the overall sentiment was remarkably similar: "Bring it on home… bring your sweet luvin' to me… yeah… yeah…" Both outbursts clearly spring from the heart (this is, after all, the same Joseph Muscat who implored us to 'love one another' upon first becoming Labour leader in 2008) and both appeal to the same general sense of loss and yearning that pervades the good old- fashioned Mississippi Delta Blues. I miss you baby. I was wrong to treat you so bad. Just come back home where you belong, and everything will be all right… mmm, yeah… More pertinently, both Cooke and Muscat can also be accused of resorting to bribery to convince the object of their desires to comply… though Sam Cooke is just slightly more direct on this score: "I'll give you jewellery… and money too… and baby that ain't all, all I'll do for you…" No such blatant bribes were offered by Muscat is his otherwise soulful performance last Sunday; but implicit in the rest of his delivery (and even more clearly in a short solo recital by his backing vocalist, Alfred Sant) was the view that his government hasn't had time yet to dish out all the goodies that its supporters were so evidently expecting. Sant practically crooned it out for us: "You cannot expect a young government to solve everything in 14 months… to make good for the wrong that took place over 25 years…" And what was this 'wrong', if not endless accusations that the Nationalist government had monopolised the county's assets for its own benefit to the exclusion of everybody else… especially (but not only) Labourites? Ah but that's OK, because there's another four whole years for the same assets to be monopolised again, this time for the benefit of Labourites. Joseph Muscat hasn't forgotten that his government exists only to serve the demands of the Labour Party's most besotted political supporters; he just hasn't had time to grease all their palms yet, that's all. Meanwhile, just bring back your goddamn luvin'… bring it on home to Mile End, and after this election everything will just fine, I promise. Yeah, baby, yeah… That, I suppose, is the Blues interpretation of Muscat's live performance last Sunday. There is also a Heavy Metal version, which finds its root note in another (even more surreal) dimension of the same speech. Apart from appealing to disgruntled Labourites, Muscat also took the opportunity to 'challenge' Simon Busuttil to a showdown. "Bring it On (Punk)!" he roared. "This election isn't about Europe, or Malta, or any of this new- fangled politic BS. It's just about you and me, buddy… and how badly I'm gonna kick your ass next Saturday…" You can almost hear the power chords over the bass riff in the background. Like all good heavy metal, it is visceral and had-hitting: geared towards whipping up the audience into an impassioned frenzy of epileptic head-banging. And what better way to rouse flagging enthusiasm among an electorate that has clearly lost interest in political issues, then to simply pick a fight? Well, Muscat is certainly not alone in choosing the simple path of direct confrontation. Simon Busuttil started out his entire leadership of the Nationalist Party the same way: he was the first to insist that this election was a test of both his and Muscat's leadership credentials; and in his zeal to turn it into an opinion poll about himself, he very quickly forgot all about the European parliament he served in as an MEP for nine whole years. And though he now seems to have (yet again) changed his tune, it was the PN leader who first put the needle on the record with his "use this election to send a message to Muscat" motif. Joseph Muscat jumped on the bandwagon (literally) only when Simon's song began to falter. Either way, whichever musical style you prefer, whichever of the two vocalists you listen to, the song remains the same. This election isn't about Europe; it has nothing to do with electing the best possible candidates to form part of the smallest delegation in the European Parliament; it has no bearing on the future shape of the European Union, or the direction it intends to take vis-a-vis such trivialities as internet freedom, data protection, trade agreements with the USA or possible restrictions on Malta's financial services sector. This election is about promising to keep alive a tradition of political backtracking and a culture of political division. In this respect, neither Muscat nor Busuttil has actually advanced one inch from the days of Dom Mintoff and Eddie Fenech Adami. And because politics is also a matter of supply and demand, both Busuttil and Muscat evidently owe their inspiration to an overwhelming perception that this is actually what the electorate wants. Bullish attacks on the Opposition, emotional appeals to party loyalty… these things have always worked demonstrably well in the past. They have always shored up flagging support, and given people a reason to vote Nationalist or Labour regardless of their own personal circumstances, their actual concerns or even the issues facing the country. Yet there is evidence that all this is beginning to change, at least from the electorate's perspective. A news report this week quoted a mysterious survey which suggests that almost a quarter of the electorate – 24.7% – will not vote in this election at all. The same survey also paints a remarkable picture of popular views of the EU (though how accurately is impossible to say on the basis of the information provided). This is from the report: "When asked how membership has affected democracy in Malta, 31.2% of respondents said that Malta was affected in a positive way, 20.8% in a negative way and 20.8% in a very negative way." That's a rather large relative majority of the view that EU membership has eroded democracy in general… and it rises significantly in the context of particular issues and concerns: "A staggering 72.9% of respondents have said that Malta lost its sovereignty since it joined the EU in important sectors such as fishing, agriculture, finance trade and migration…" Views on the future of the EU were equally revealing: "5.2% said that the EU should become a political union, 15.5% feel the EU should retain its existing powers, while over 54% said that the European Union should be only a free market, and all the other powers should return to national and local authorities…" Are the views of Maltese citizens respected by the EU on most of the above mentioned issues? "14.9% replied in the affirmative while 81.1% replied in the negative." How reliable is this survey? I have no idea. There is no indication of the size of the sample, how it was selected, and how its response was adjudicated. We are not even told who conducted the survey... other than "a European political group which is contesting the European Parliament elections, and which is a non-eurosceptic party". Well, that narrows it down slightly… seeing as how there's only one officially euro-sceptic candidate in this election, who to the best of my knowledge doesn't actually have a party to prop him up. As for the others, I somehow doubt either Labour or PN would even bother trying to find out people's views on the EU, given that neither party leader appears interested in the subject himself. Intriguingly, the survey itself provides a clue: asking respondents whether "they will be voting for a new party that wants to return power to Malta in the upcoming elections. 52.2% said yes while 36.4% said no…" Having already excluded the Alleanza ghal-Bidla, that leaves only one party calling for a reform of 'Evropa' [sic]. Which, I suppose, colours the survey with a distinct tinge of black. Then again, regardless of who conducted this survey or for what purpose, we will very soon be able to verify a few of the statistics for ourselves. This poll is not alone is predicting a sharp nosedive in voter turnout; and if, on Satruday, 75% or less turn out to vote, it will be a reasonable endorsement of the rest of this survey's findings, too. Where would this leave both Simon Busuttil's and Muscat's claim that this election is ultimately not about Europe at all, but only about themselves? Over the hills and far away, I would imagine… maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 21 MAY 2014 Opinion Raphael Vassallo Opinion The song remains the same This election isn't about Europe, it's about promising to keep alive a tradition of political backtracking and a culture of political division Joseph Muscat appears to be channelling Sam Cooke: 'Meanwhile, just bring back your goddamn luvin'… bring it on home to Mile End, and after this election everything will just fine, I promise. Yeah, baby, yeah…