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“A man is not either stupid or intelligent, he is either free or not free.”
I have no copyright over this phrase but I love it with a passion. It was graffiti in a public lavatory in Paris in 1968.
In 1968 I was too young to remember a thing, I was just six years old.
But thank God for that. Can you just imagine how frustrating it would have been to be twenty years old in a Maltese university in 1968.
In 1968 in Britain there was a sales tax of 12.5 per cent on skirts. In Malta mini-skirts were considered to be the attire of licentious girls.
1968 never came to Malta.
1968 was not a world revolution, it was a reaction to an authoritarian system that needed changing. It questioned authority, democratic systems and political domination.
It had no statutes, no corporate image, no particular agenda.
It happened in Prague, in Paris, Mexico City, Madrid, New York and countless other capitals.
The most unforgettable quote of that year has to be attributed to a six foot four Alexander Dubcek the Czechslovak secretary general of the Communist party later President of a free Czechslovakia, “The people were dissatisfied with the party leadership. We couldn’t change the people, so we changed the leaders.”
And if there ever had to be a six foot four Maltese Dubcek, he need only repeat those words.
This country needs leaders, many of them. At every level, from unions to political parties, to NGOs and the media.
The Oscar of the week lands without a doubt into the lap of the Nationalist party. Now, if anyone thinks that I am writing this because I am enamored with Labour I should refer them back to the 1968 graffiti in the Paris lavatory.
“A man is not either stupid or intelligent, he is either free or not free.”
Last Saturday the PN carried out one of the most hackneyed moves it could have made. Last Saturday, seven minutes before 7pm, Henri Darmanin, called on the Electoral commission, and withdrew two PN candidates from Zejtun and two candidates from Marsa.
Mr Darmanin had informed Central office, that by removing two candidates from each district, there would be no election in these two constituencies, renowned for their Labour majorities.
Jeffrey Pullicno Orlando appearing on a Broadcasting Authority discussion, evidently briefed by PN central office, defended the move by referring to what he called similar situations in Kercem, Fontana and Kirkop in past years.
I was well behaved, but I should have told Mr Pullicino Orlando; “Bollocks.”
Never before have candidates been withdrawn with the specific intention of derailing an election of a local council.
What the PN did was diabolical.
I do not know if there was a discussion, but it is apparent that depriving the people of Zejtun and Marsa an election, will benefit the PN, worried over a landslide defeat at the local council elections.
With these kind of games, I am not quite sure what politics is all about.
The other independent press did not pick this up.
The front page of one newspaper referred to the Iranian nuclear threat and the other to Middle East peace.
The other comment by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was about the candidates deciding on their own free will to withdraw their candidature.
Well, that is not what one of the candidates told this newspaper, which goes to show, that either JPO is not well informed or simply believes all that he is told from central office. And I would expect JPO to be serious enough to admit that he was misinformed.
Well, if you do not mind, I will return to my old graffiti in the Paris lavatory.
“A man is not either stupid or intelligent, he is either free or not free.”
All politicians, in all of the three parties, are not free men.
When you listen to what they have to say on the mike, you realise that the real stuff you would liked to have as sound bites are the ‘off the air’ comments.
If the PN has entered a phase that to win the next general election it can only play numbers games then give me Taliban politics any day.
We have reached a dangerous threshold. It is scary to think that the communications and the flow of information - the manipulation that is taking place - is controlled by party media and disseminated by a national station by the name of PBS. Which in turn is run by individuals who have delegated the transmission of discussions to the same group of people who have constantly avoided embarrassing the establishment.
TVM is not an exciting subject to discuss, it is as drab as the ugly rundown building that hosts this national tragedy. But it is the heart of all that needs changing. Not from a fiscal point of view but from a content point of view.
The people who run PBS, and the others who are paid plush sums to dress up in black and discuss Nazi lovers who would be better suited in a theatre of the absurd, continue to defend the national station and insist that it has improved.
In 1968 the writer William Burroughs wrote: “Who owns communications now controls the country.”
Which is one other reason why we need to release TVM from its prostituted role to government and give the people the chance to at least listen to the truth.
Then we can pass to Alexander Dubcek’s famous words:
“We couldn’t change the people, so we changed the leaders.”
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