Letting things slide is not an option

When staunch supporters believe body and soul that “their” party is the only right one to lead the country, they invest a lot emotionally and psychologically; they scour headiness and reports and quotes to support why their party is the best, and why they were so right to vote for PL or PN, whatever the case may be. Loyal unwavering support of a political party validates their entire belief system; it fills them with pride to be a part of the winning team, and they enjoy rubbing it in the face of their political adversaries (take that, you losers!). Because, yes, for too many people, all of this is the equivalent of siding with Milan or Inter, Man United or Chelsea.

Here’s the thing though: unlike football, the lingering effects of what an administration does once it is elected does not stop when the game is over and the crowds go home (or turn off the TV). With politics, the game is never over, because the ‘game’ has repercussions which affect us as a society for years to come.

And while there are those who enjoy the trading of insults and the scoring of political points as a kind of sport, there are many others who don’t. We are well and truly sick of it.

What I notice over and over again with those who are blindly partisan (as opposed to those who simply vote and get on with their life) is that they have a problem with admitting when their party has erred, because they believe that by criticizing a wrong decision their entire loyalty will be called into question. It is as if the whole political system is a fragile House of Cards which will collapse with the slightest breath of dissent. This, I have never, and will never, understand.

Let’s take what is happening now. The way I look at it, when one points out any wrong decisions by this government (of which there have been several) one is simply stating a fact and not trying to undermine the entire Labour party or calling into question last year’s sweeping victory - and yet to see the reactions of the hardcore it is as if the merest whisper of “that was a mistake” is comparable to a huge bulldozer which is going to obliterate the government. The immediate knee-jerk reaction is “the PN did the same (or worse)” or “what do you want, the PN to be back in government again?” or the inevitable, “u iva, but Muscat has done  a lot of good things too”.

(Uncannily similar, in fact, to how Nationalists used to defend Gonzi, come what may - talk about déja vù).

If Labour party cannot quite understand why there is such apathy about the MEP elections maybe it should go on a brief retreat, evaluating where it has gone wrong

Apart from what has now become a seriously boring tit-for-tat type of debate (it’s like saying we can go around murdering people because others have done it too), the fallacy of these kind of arguments is that they are missing the whole point. It is very possible to criticize a party for what it does wrong, while still acknowledging what it gets right – the two are not mutually exclusive. But nor do they cancel each other out, either. Yet too many people seem to think that you cannot both praise and criticize a government by taking each decision on its own merit; it’s as if you have to opt for either one or the other. To quote a famous slogan used in Mintoff’s heyday “Min mhux maghna, kontra taghna” (those who are not with us, are against us). But, in my view, nothing, lest of all politics, can ever be that black or white.

I get into arguments all the time with people about this sort of thing because for them, it’s all or nothing. Or else, if they grudgingly (ve-eery grudgingly) admit that Muscat was wrong about keeping Cyrus Engerer on board (to cite one example), they will clutch at something to throw back at me which is, to quote the latest buzzword, “positive”. So where does that leave us exactly? Are we supposed to let the wrong decisions slide, because they are supposedly being compensated for by other things? I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. We cannot wave away what is wrong, closing our eyes to what is in front of our nose; not if we want a better country.

The Labour party was voted into power by the kind of majority Malta rarely sees – that result alone endowed it with the kind of power which (while undeniably heady) needs to be handled with extreme care and caution. It takes a very grounded person to be in possession of such clout and remain level-headed but, unfortunately, recent decisions by Muscat and his ministers seem to indicate that it has already gone very much to their heads. That didn’t take long did it?

If the Labour party cannot quite understand why there is such apathy about the MEP elections maybe it should go on a brief retreat somewhere away from all the fawning adulation and take stock, evaluating where it has gone wrong. Here I am not talking about Labour supporters who feel “hurt” (now where have I heard that word before?) because they have been left out in the cold of lucrative jobs and positions. I’m talking about people who voted for a better government which would act fairly towards everyone, only to get more of the same.

It is our duty to make politicians know that we will not just sit back and passively accept decisions which are patently wrong

It is only by criticising and voicing our objections at wrongdoings that we can push this administration (or any that follow) to do better. It is our duty to make politicians know that we will not just sit back and passively accept decisions which are patently wrong. Apathy and resignation will only make us sink further into a bottomless pit.

The biggest mistake that we can make is to allow politicians to lull us into forgetting that the power is really in our hands. Because this “game” they persist on playing is not about them at all, it’s about us.