Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/972198
Opinion 25 maltatoday SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018 they will tell you – with utmost authority – that the murder was commissioned directly by Joseph Muscat, to stop the victim from making further damning revelations about his government or himself... next, they will point fingers at Chris Cardona, quoting articles by the Daphne Project which claim he was seen talking to the murderer some weeks after the crime. Those two scenarios imply vastly different motives – one highly political, the other highly personal – yet they also converge on the same party, which means (according to the same inescapable syllogism) that they can be used interchangeably, in the same breath, to secure roughly the same outcome. And of course, it is no comfort whatsoever to see the same departure from reason prevail on the other side, too. It's very easy to argue that 'Adrian Delia must have done it, because that's who Daphne was attacking at the time.' That sort of reasoning can only ever resonate with people who strongly desire that to be the true scenario. The reality, however, is that scenarios do not become 'true' through the force of sheer volition alone. 'Truth', in something as technical as a murder investigation, requires the presence of this poorly- understood phenomenon called 'PROOF' (look it up: I assure you, the word exists). But it seems I 'shock' people whenever I say this, so let's go back to the part about how people prefer basing their own opinions on their own wishful thinking. What do they actually want, anyway? This one's easy: that their own party emerges the ultimate victor in the ongoing war of total annihilation. What else? Isn't that what the word ' justice' means in the first place? Applied to all those people I shocked so much, it translates into the instant collapse of Joseph Muscat's government. And OK, fine, so be it... let it come tumbling down, by all means. Lock them all up, and throw away the key. But... what happens then? This, on the other hand, is a question that nobody ever seems capable of answering at all. Once again, I more or less understand. What answer can there even be, anyway? We re- elect the same political party that is directly responsible for almost all the institutional deficits we all now (but only now) complain about? Sorry, but that would a lousy answer even if the PN were still led by the man you all supported at the last election. Just imagine how much less convincing it sounds today, when the PN led by someone with just as many skeletons in his closet (of the same kind, too) as Joseph Muscat's Labour. And yet, sift through their (endless) online posts and tweets, and what actually emerges? Some kind of masterplan to deliver the country from the grip of two farcically identical (and equally unscrupulous) political parties? Some form of coherent political platform that can actually lead to meaningful change? Nothing of the kind. All these people want are a few political scalps to affix to their own battlements. They're certainly not suggesting anything else, are they? Well, maybe some people are. The only serious attempt at an answer I've seen to date – not specifically directed at any question asked by me, but an answer nonetheless – came from Lovin' Malta's Christian Peregin, who called for an internal purge by the Labour Party to 'clean its act up'. It was a valiant and admirable effort, no doubt... but it still doesn't address the core issue, does it? Labour cleaning up its act (even if done to everyone's satisfaction, which is in any case impossible) will still consign this country to the mercy of one political party, and one party alone... while the supposed 'democratic alternative' continues to fester in a quagmire of unelectable hypocrisy. Much more seriously, the ingrained system of nepotism and patronage that underpins both rotten parties will still be there, extending its unwholesome tentacles throughout the entire country. And it will still conduct the newly cleaned-up Labour Party along exactly the same trajectory that got it so dirty in the first place. Personally, I much preferred Peregin's earlier suggestion, of a totally new political force based on a totally new political platform. But... that was just an April Fool's joke, wasn't it? When it comes to serious matters, we still all look up to the 'real' parties, and expect them to do all the hard work for us... don't we? Now, I suppose you'll all be expecting a better answer to come from shocking little me. Fine, I don't mind repeating myself (I've only been making the same argument for 25 years, you know...) It is the system that needs to be cleaned up, not the parties... the parties only need to be thrown out with the rest of the garbage. To this end, the cleaning-up process would have to envisage an entirely new electoral law, designed with the specific intention of forever banishing this ghastly bipartisan stranglehold that has poisoned all our minds for so long, for so little gain, and for.. oh, so much loss. There: my own masterplan to end this nightmare once and for all. How shocking is that, huh? All these people want are a few political scalps to affix to their own battlements. They're certainly not suggesting anything else, are they?