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Once upon a time, a German President addressed a crowd in Liberia and said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Negroes...”
He will be remembered as a humble dude. Heinrich Lübke cannot be compared to our President, who is far from humble or a dude, and who will be remembered for his supercilious self-righteousness to suggest that the Maltese bishops should part with their present obligations and call it a day – because of age.
His comments were revealed in an interview to The Sunday Times.
Dr Fenech Adami’s burlesque suggestion the bishops should consider leaving led me to choke on my corn flakes last Sunday. Here is a man who made it known to his former acolytes in not very subliminal terms that he wished to be appointed President, leading poor Lawrence Gonzi with no alternative but to suggest his name for the presidency.
Since then, Eddie Fenech Adami’s presidency has been as exciting as a sun-dried tomato. Here is a man who spent his last three years as Prime Minister obsessed with European Union matters yet with little time for the principal issues linked to governance.
Eddie was a man who refused to read the writing on the wall. The writing was simple and clear: it read that his time as Prime Minister was up and that he had served as leader of his party for up to quarter of a century, far longer than any democratically elected leader in Western Europe.
And after all that he had the gall to pontificate over whether the bishops should come or go.
He led everyone to believe that he could do the job as Prime Minister best. Now, Alfred Sant, who has problems of his own and who thinks that he is already Prime Minister, has banned himself from passing comment on ecclesiastical matters for politically correct reasons. Indeed any politician who is remotely red or pinkish in their political creed is disallowed from passing commentary on the Church. But Fenech Adami can say what he likes.
And this is grossly unacceptable.
More so because in my view there should be a distinct difference between State and Church and the State has no right in hell to interfere with the Church and I would imagine the same applies for the Church with the State.
When we prayed for an end to the era of Fenech Adami and Mintoff and for a new brand of less confrontational politics, we sincerely hoped for an end to stuffiness and a modern approach where social issues could be afforded a less Taliban-like treatment and where meritocracy and not party membership and networking counted more.
Now, in comments to this newspaper, Fenech Adami insists that for the next four years (his tenure as President) there is no chance that Malta will have divorce.
Who is he to say so?
Who is he to impose such a diktat?
Effectively the way I read it is that the President is stating that if any politician including Dr Gonzi considered legislating divorce he would not give the President’s consent.
Or is he saying that Dr Gonzi would never do such a thing because he shares his views? Which is where Dr Fenech Adami is probably wrong.
Lawrence Gonzi does not share Eddie’s views. He cannot say it, but I will say it. He will not say it, but everyone in politics knows that Gonzi is desperately trying to rid himself of the image of being a Fenech Adami clone. Gonzi does not want be led by a Richard Cachia Caruana.
He wants to be his own man. Gonzi truly believes in deficit cutting.
His decision to take on Skanska after the soft glove approach by Eddie is noteworthy. Too late and too little but definitely different.
Surely, his critics will argue that Gonzi was deputy Prime Minister and a cabinet minister and cannot be declared not culpable for the cock-ups of the Eddie government.
There are marked differences from the Eddie years. Gonzi truly believes in electoral reform. Eddie does not, he was adamant that it should not kick off. Gonzi inherited the most unbelievable decision, the RCC-blessed embassy complex in Brussels aptly called Dar Malta – a major Eddie-RCC mistake. Fenech Adami could never come round to containing the drive and ‘projects’ of his right hand man.
And if there is proof of Gonzi’s determination to come down to ground zero it was his decision to close down the Hungarian and later the Swedish embassy.
And to his credit, Gonzi truly believes in woman participation. Differently to Eddie who is still is entrenched in the qoffa culture.
Now, I would hope that these will be the questions asked on PBS next Tuesday in a public funded TV programme that has invited the President. Thankfully for most of us we will be eating popcorn and watching Inter playing Milan, after which everyone can of course continue having some fun watching Int X’tahseb on Smash TV.
Unlike Fenech Adami, Gonzi does not quite still understand the politics of politics, the meaning of being a true Nationalist and the networks that support the ‘traditional’ political party. He may be a Machiavellian when it comes to ridding himself of contenders, but he lacks Nicolo’s streak to woo over his internal opposition and turn them into an advantage and convert them to his friends and backers.
The problem with our politicians is their obsession to win. There are fewer politicians who talk about projects instead of winning elections. To be fair, the media does little to crown those politicians who take decisions for the good of the country and not of their constituency or electoral survival.
In the long run, Gonzi may have one consideration that is probably correct. He has come to learn that Alfred Sant can only win by default, that Sant’s obsession to win at all costs may be his worst enemy.
It is a tragedy for the Labour party and for this country, if power were to remain yet again within the grasp of the same political party. Yet, it appears that the Labour party needs that extra oomph to be able to convince voters that it can govern at national level.
Gonzi may know this.
Alfred Sant continues to place minefields in his path. He decided to publish a document on economic policy written by economists or financial advisors (could he have written the document?) who are more rightwing than Enoch Powell in a tame mood.
True, it is a think-tank document, but why present it to the public if it is a think-tank document?
And if that was not enough, he is now calling on his Eurosceptic Labour delegates to support him on the European Constitution when there is a very fine chance that the European Constitution may not pass in the first place because it may be blocked by the French electorate.
Sooner or later, both major political leaders will realise that the general public have no time for their political machinations. They are only interested in moving on, improving their quality of life and living their life to the full.
This is the secret of politics and winning.
qoffa – a traditional Maltese reed basket used by village housewives who buy groceries
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