Continues from yesterday’s article on ‘Children of the Moon’
Adrian Delia will not only be a liability for the Nationalist Party but will also become a threat to the future of democracy in Malta.
If despite the MEP election results, Delia vows to stay on, it will only infuriate the Nationalists further, making matters worse. This would add credence to the suspicion that Delia is in a secret agreement with Labour to award them a two-thirds majority and thereafter walk into the sunset with his hefty financial reward from Labour. In the immediate aftermath of the MEP elections, the traditional Nationalist have a very valid casus belli to honourably retire Delia. Adrian Delia’s adherents’ counter-arguments cannot hold any water. They were given a chance but failed. In the interest of the party’s future, they must tacitly acknowledge the sterility of their well-intentioned but mistaken policies.
The Nationalists made two mistakes that led to the current mess.
- Simon Busuttil naively opening up the leadership race to paid members.
- The lackadaisical attitude of the executive committee headed by a former luminary despite ruling that Adrian Delia was an unsuitable leadership candidate.
If Delia still refuses to exit, then the Nationalists have to take drastic action. There is a precedent after all when the mellowing Ġorġ Borg Olivier was replaced against his will by Eddie Fenech Adami. It would be irresponsible of the Nationalists not to do so. They owe it to the electorate to make up for their two mistakes.
The stakes are too high for the next general election. The risks are twofold: the collective political suicide of the Nationalist Party and the handing of a two-thirds majority to Labour leaving them the sole custodian of a Putinesque constitution.
It would be equally irresponsible of the Adrian Delia clan to gamble with the future of the Nationalist Party and with the future of what’s left of democracy in this country.
The 1978 Jonestown tragedy was not only the largest civilian mass death in American history until September eleventh. It was also the demise of America’s only Stalinist party. Jim Jones convinced his followers that their collectivised community will see better days if they just changed their cosmic address by committing mass suicide. There were many of the 900 members who were sceptical of his claims but still went with the flow, for the sake of unity.
That done, the Nationalists have to concentrate on retaining a sizeable minority sticking to their true ideals and being an effective opposition. I would like to see more votes of no confidence in Parliament, a programme of passive resistance and maybe even boycotts as in Dom Mintoff’s time, more mass meetings if they can afford them, more protest marches. Why shouldn’t the Nationalist Party be organising the monthly Daphne remembrance vigils? The question is: will the people arise from their apathetic defeatist mood?
With time, Labour will self-destruct. The cracks in their monolith are already starting to appear. Labour has neutralised all checks to their absolute power devised by the previous Nationalist governments, such as the Ombudsman, the Auditor- General, the Commission against corruption, the Broadcasting Authority, etc.
The only Nationalist-devised check they cannot counter is the EU Parliament and that infuriates them. That is why the upcoming elections are so important: it is the first parting shot in a long series of battles that a newly regenerated Nationalist Party will have to face.
Just as Eddie Fenech Adami’s entourage was Mintoff’s bête noir, the current Nationalist MEPs and Daphne Caruana Galizia are Muscat’s contemporary bête noir. It is imperative that the right Nationalist MEPs are elected and we must absolutely not risk electing any independents. It’s true that the EU is frustratingly passive, but that is our only open channel of effective opposition.
The EU moves frustratingly slowly but it moves in the end. Witness the recent revised Whistleblower Act and the groundwork for an independent EU inquiry through Europol in seeking justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia. Both these initiatives can override the local government’s obfuscation tactics.
All this is courtesy of the hard work of the incumbent Nationalist MEPS. Labour’s irresponsible and reckless behaviour in the European Parliament is only provoking the EU more and the threat of suspension is not to be taken lightly.
The EU’s patience is being stretched and will one day run out.
Continues tomorrow.