I'll show you mine if you show me yours

Boys will be boys. When we were kids, the bold kid in the group would turn to the other eight-year-olds and taunt them. 

"Show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Thankfully, it was just a phase. Otherwise...

Watching PL leader Joseph Muscat yesterday, I really wanted to hit myself.

Working up the courage to watch Xarabank was bad enough.

I make it a point never to tune in to TVM, let alone on a Friday.

It reminds me of bad old days when we would call TVM 'Xandir-Dardir': the irony being that the same person who protested against TVM before 1987 is today contributing to TVM's partisan slant.

But duty is duty, and so I had to watch.

Muscat continues to repeat the argument that he will only present his manifesto of proposals when the PM presents his.

Puerile is too kind a word to describe this stance. Muscat is right to focus on energy as a major concern, but he has to come up with the beef.

I know that, with the likes of Joe (aka Peppi) Azzopardi, Lou Bondi and Natalino Fenech, he does not stand a chance on TVM. But he cannot continue to talk about new policies without stating what they are.

As things stand, he is not helping himself and his party.

The other thing that stands out when he speaks is that he thinks like a journalist, is too polite and thinks that Lawrence Gonzi is a piece of cake.

Gonzi is not. He is a master orator - full of gas if you ask me, but he can present an argument even when he has no argument at all. And he has style: like, for example, mentioning a Brazilian company but providing no details about it. And he was out on the offensive when he should have been on the defensive.

I dug my face in the sofa cushion and started to cry, watching Gonzi score points when he should have been thrashed.

Michael Briguglio sat impatiently on the sofa next to the two leaders. He spoke well and had good arguments, but is too close to the PN. I have to say that when he talked about consistency, he must have been referring to Alternattiva the party, and not himself. Yet, he was focused.

In 1996, Alfred Sant was elected after a campaign against VAT and hunting restrictions.  I will always remember Michael Briguglio not only praising Labour, but literally rejoicing at Labour's victory in 1996, with that unforgettable scene of him waving the Labour flag. I do not forget, because in 1996 I was with AD and I felt miserable seeing all those protest votes slide from the PN to PL.

Consistency was always AD's strength but not for many of the people who migrated through AD and to the other parties or institutions.

Now, we can spend endless hours analysing how biased Joe Azzopardi is as a host, and who fared better or worse. But this is not the point.

The truth is that Malta is crying out for someone to expose the failures of the Gonzi administration, and more importantly, the crass mismanagement that pervades this government.

We also need to hear what could be the solution to managing this country better, in using people's taxes in a more equitable and sensible way, in having more meritocracy. 

Joseph Muscat is fixated on electricity, water and pretty much nothing else.

Muscat needs to take a short break and realise that he is no longer a journalist: that he should treat people like Azzopardi with aloofness and consider Gonzi a worthy opponent.

He needs to be aggressive but not rude, loud but not hysterical and determined, not gracious. Azzopardi is unquestionably a PN apologist, but it appears he is here to stay. He has plenty of airtime in his hands and Muscat needs to do away with his inferiority complex and tackle him head on next time round.

If he doesn't, we might as well have a one-party State with Gonzi as prime minister and Simon Busuttil as deputy prime minister, and as President someone who goes off to Peru when everyone is talking of Constitutional crisis. A country run by sycophants, and all the propaganda in the hands of the same posse of bootlickers that have made a killing from our taxes by taking over TVM.

***

I have yet to understand what goes on in the mind of PN backbencher Franco Debono.  He seriously thought that he had a chance for the deputy leadership of the Nationalist Party. It is either a question of being extremely naïve or else having such a super ego that he cannot see further than his nose. Does he not realise that it is over for him in the PN?

Franco Debono has great talent: he has the gift of the gab, he is a great orator: fast, impulsive and colourful. He would make a great TV host.

He could also be a renegade politician. Someone who could scoop up a multitude of protest votes but will not, because he is too scared to go it alone.

It is a shame that Franco Debono's political arguments are clouded by his political ambitions. 

I guess his biggest drawback is that he is not surrounded by people who advise him to slow down. To take a closer look at his actions, and to think before he acts.

***

The other day, the MaltaToday Wednesday edition reported how The Times decided to issues a garnishee order against the company (Network Ltd) that print The Sunday Circle.  The amount exceeded over €620,000. There are other garnishee orders against this company and yet Bank of Valletta chose to sponsor the Boat Show organised by the same company last September.

Strange but true, and if anyone digs deeper they will know why.

Well, nothing fresh about the person who owns and runs the company, who is renowned for not paying his bills and getting away with it. (What is even more inexplicable is  that after this garnishee order, The Times carries another edition of The Circle and wonder of wonders, guess who's on the front page? Our own Minister of Finance Tonio Fenech). That I have no interest in this story would be a blatant lie. The same man once owned MaltaToday, ran it aground and gave me an opportunity to salvage it.

Needless to say, anything that appears in print or online reverts back to me.

So when the story did get published, I was the first to receive a phone call early in the morning. A close relative of the person who had this garnishee order had the civility of calling me a f****** asshole, among other fitting adjectives, some of them reserved for my family.

Understandable. It would have been more appropriate if the hysterical woman had phoned up Austin Bencini, the director at The Times, for having issued the garnishee order.

All this speaks volumes about the Maltese culture. It is not wrong for someone to go on spending but never pay his dues, and to trade with other people's money. But what is 'unacceptable' is that we talk and write about such people.

Garnishee orders are public domain issues, so anyone can report them. But once again, the Maltese promote omerta. More importantly they love to protect those that somehow represent the privileged class.

If the person involved were a lesser mortal from Bormla, there would be little pity for the man or woman.

People have gone to jail for as little as €1,500.

But with the 'fanfaruni' and those that represent the upper middle class, we take umbrage if they are taken to the proverbial cleaners.

I have a feeling this caste mentality is prevalent and also spills into the political arena.