Bernard Grech: A post mortem | Frank Camilleri

Frank Camilleri is a Business consultant

Bernard Grech’s potential resignation had been simmering below the surface for some time. Nonetheless, with the Nationalist Party under his leadership showing a common front, no one wanted to bring the issue to the front.

However, I dare to say that the writing for his resignation had been on the wall since he started his crusade to rebuild the PN. The realities resulting from this adventure eventually led to Grech’s downfall. One can classify these realities in three categories.

The first was Grech’s big mistake to alienate most of those elements that formed the party’s base—ex ministers, former parliamentarians and activists. These stalwarts and their numerous followers of the old guard suddenly found themselves feeling unwelcome at Pieta.

Such savage uprooting of well-established trees left gaping holes in the ground. Many who owed so much allegiance to these party emblems, suddenly were left without a sense of direction, resulting in apathy. Hence the poor attendances at whatever the PN organised.

The new team did indeed consist of intelligent and well-meaning candidates but these hopefuls were mostly young, politically immature and with no voter allegiances to fill the gaping political holes.

Grech perpetuated his own demise by dismantling the old guard and failing to establish a new base of devoted activists, followers and fanatics. Eventually he realised that he was running out of time for his dream plan to come to fruition, that of winning the next election. His only option was to resign.

The second reality is that Grech did the impossible during his five-year tenure as leader. He took over a dispirited party, broken up by internal factions, financially broke, and without direction. He succeeded to steady the boat (although in the wrong way) and present a united front where nobody continued to talk about leadership conspiracies. He started to create a calm and steady policy with regards to Malta’s reputation abroad, the economy, corruption, immigration, transport and the many other prevailing problems. He preserved the impression that all is steady as you go. But was it?

Also, to his credit, he did manage to force Prime Minster Robert Abela into a number of U-turns on key issues while managing to secure a third seat for the PN in the European Parliament election held last year.

Starting from ground zero, Grech did wonders, politically. He changed the game by forcing accountability on a ruling party that thought itself untouchable.

But unfortunately, these substantial successes failed to instil voter enthusiasm in the party’s message and Grech’s image.

Under the pressure of this consistent reality, Grech found himself with no alternative but to resign. The alternative would have been another humiliating defeat at the next general election.

The third reality is that the PN propaganda and communication machine is one of the weakest points of the organisation.

It was not creative or professional in any form; it lacked imagination and was not capable of organising a decent meeting or party event. In short, it lacked the knowledge and professional experience to create the right perception of the party and Grech. Indeed, it failed disastrously to reinforce Grech’s persona despite the relative successes. This section of the party is the one that really led to Grech’s downfall and eventual resignation.

One has only to look at the daily news bulletins on NET TV and NET FM. They are as stale in creativity and content as a month-old loaf. The newsroom seems only interested in some old man falling off his ladder or some old woman being hit by a car, events which are then repeated ad nauseam.

The name of Bernard Grech was hardly ever mentioned and this would go on for three or four days in succession. Honestly, there were times when I wondered if the PN still had a party leader. Whether by oversight or by intent it’s anybody’s, guess.

For many, Grech may indeed have lacked the desired political charisma the way we want to see it, but the PN communication and media section did nothing to help compensate for this.

I think it is really the main reason why the electorate did not like the messenger so much and consequently failed to appreciate his valued messages.

History shows that many battles are won or lost on perceptions. Grech won many political battles previously thought unwinnable but he lost the war on perception thanks to the inadequate and highly inefficient PN propaganda machine. As a result, the wrong perception creeped into the electorate—he was seen as weak, with no persona, no sense of direction and hardly ever credited with the successes he achieved.

Bernard Grech was right to call it quits thus saving the party a potential political thrashing at the coming election, which would have sent the PN into political oblivion.