Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/874823
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2017 24 Opinion O nce, many years ago, I said to myself: 'If I ever end up quoting Jon Bon Jovi in a headline... well, that's when you'll know we're approaching the very end of the very end.' And oh look: I've just quoted Jon Bon Jovi in a headline. What more evidence do you need? End times are clearly at hand. So let's not all pretend – as we usually do – to be 'surprised' when the whole shebang comes crashing down in flames about our ears. And let's not delude ourselves that this is just a minor 'blip', either... a slight irregularity that will adjust itself over time. No, no, no. The changes now affecting Malta's political landscape are of a permanent and irreversible nature. As of tomorrow – when the newly elected PN leader officially takes up office – the bipartisan political system we have all known since Independence will be no more. Already there are graphic indications that one of the two major parties can no longer scrape together (or even come close to scraping together) a national majority. The last time the Nationalist Party won an election (2008) was also the first time it had ever governed without commanding more than 50% of the national vote. Over the next 10 years, its slice of the electoral pie has consistently diminished. In 2017, the PN even managed to lose two seats in what was previously – previously, mark you – its biggest stronghold: the 10th district. It has, in fact, been in complete free-fall for the better part of a decade now. There is a fairly straightforward reason for this, and it is the same reason I quoted Bon Jovi, above. The next line of that song goes: 'It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not'. Put those two verses together, and you have a reasonably accurate description of the entire Nationalist modus operandi at the moment. 'We will doggedly stick to the only strategies and tactics we know... regardless if they actually work or not'. Now: this wouldn't be such a tragically fatal outlook, if the strategies and tactics in question were worth keeping. I won't begrudge Simon Busuttil for sticking religiously to the old mantra of 'attack, attack, attack'. It worked admirably for Eddie Fenech Adami in his time. And though I disagreed with the approach, I could still see a certain logic in the assumption that a once-successful strategy might conceivably work again. Besides: even if there were all along clear indications (i.e., the Gonzi experience) that times had changed, and that the approach should really have changed with them... well, these are realities that only become fully visible with hindsight. Simon Busuttil did not have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight until last June. (Sadly, he also lacked the faculty of foresight at any time before that; which explains why he went on to lose by an even greater margin than his predecessor.) But this only emphasises the urgency of the problem today. Chris Said and Adrian Delia do not have Busuttil's excuse. They do possess the benefit of hindsight. They have all the indicators they need – not least, the election result – to come up with a new (and above all different) trajectory for their party. Yet what are they both proposing? What did they actually come up with over some six weeks of intense campaigning? In the last debate on NET TV last Thursday, both contestants were repeatedly asked to outline their vision for the future of the Nationalist Party. In two whole hours of talk – and tiresome talk it was, too, seeing as how they both heckled and interrupted each other incessantly – neither of them breathed a single word about the future at all. Everything they said centred on the need to go backwards in time, and rediscover a forgotten age when the PN still knew how to win elections. Chris Said even said so explicitly, in no uncertain terms: his strategy to 'return to winning ways' involves rewinding the cassette to the last point at which it had played a victorious tune. Even his chosen slogan, 'The Right Way', is nothing but a deliberate rehash of Eddie's 'Is-Sewwa Jirbah Zgur'. It might have meant something 40 years ago... but we're not exactly living 40 years ago, are we? The bigger surprise, however, came from Adrian Delia. Again, Chris Said has an excuse which simply doesn't apply to his rival. He was a veteran of both Gonzi and Busuttil's administrations: which also means that the (limited) successes of those administrations – but also their many manifest failures – are in part attributable to Chris Said. It is for this reason alone that Said has no choice but to present himself as a 'continuity candidate'. He cannot consign the old ways to history, without also consigning himself to the same fate. 'We've got to hold on to what we've got' In two whole hours of talk – and tiresome talk it was, too – neither of them breathed a single word about the future at all Raphael Vassallo SALES EXECUTIVES MediaToday is a media company involved in the publication of newspapers, magazines and TV programmes. These include MaltaToday, Illum, Gourmet Today, Xtra and Dwarna. Vacancies have arisen for sales executives. Experience in the sale of advertising space is an asset. Candidates for the job must be assertive, outgoing and in possession of a driving license. Only selected applicants will be summoned for an interview. Closing date: 09/22/2017 Please send your applications to: The Managing Editor MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016 Or email: info@mediatoday.com.mt