Misplaced triumphalism and pyrrhic victories

There were two official losers this week, and of course there were two winners.

The losers were the No to spring hunting campaign and the other was Simon Busuttil, who spoke of a winning situation, and the official winners were the hunters as Iva and Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister.

The fact that we all had to wait for a week to start following the counting of the votes cast in the local elections eight days ago, is a sad reflection on the electoral commission.  

Why this should happen is inexplicable.

There is no justification to wait for a week to have a count.

PN leader Simon Busuttil was all smiles yesterday, attributing his so-called win to his policies and charisma.  

He has every reason to feel relieved. With an 8.5% difference, down from 17% from three years ago, he has good reason to breathe in and breathe out.

That is about it.

We all know that is not the whole story.

When Busuttil talks about honesty, he knows that most people out there have little awareness of its existence in the political class, they all believe that honesty is best reserved for saints.

The real reason that Nationalists flocked to vote was just the referendum on spring hunting. If that was not the case why did 70% of all Sliema and Birkirkara vote in the referendum when they had no local election. It surely was not because of Simon Busuttil.

Had the referendum not been held I have every reason to believe that Labour would have retained its 57% lead of 2013, and Busuttil would have faced serious pressure to resign. 

Busuttil also added that the reason that Gozo was lost to Labour was because of the very serious and awful ‘mud-slinging’ cast before the local elections.  

I believe Busuttil was referring to the facts presented, which show that the husband of former PN Minister Giovanna Debono was directly involved in documented and flagrant abuse of power. It was more than an abuse of power, it was friggin corruption, at the taxpayer’s expense. 

These were allegations that had been presented by a Gozitan whistleblower and published in MaltaToday. Instead of pointing a finger at ex-minister Giovanna Debono, who by the way voted Yes for hunting, he pointed a finger at the messenger.

So typical.

Busuttil tweeted soon after the result, making it a point to state that Muscat was no longer invincible. He may have tweeted that tweet rather prematurely.

Before I parachuted into the SHout coalition against hunting, I had warned everyone that Joseph Muscat was in an invincible situation. And it would be an uphill battle.

It turned out to be true. In life there are victors and losers. No one in between.

Last Sunday I was very unhappy with the result, but then another side of me told me that it was a pyrrhic victory for the hunters.

For it galvanised the environmental lobby in no uncertain terms. It was a first for Malta. 

I felt at the time that our chances of winning were similar to the chances of not being hit by shrapnel if you were a soldier in a trench in the Somme. The fact that we, (SHout), managed to get out the vote in localities that had no local elections was an amazing feat. 

That indirectly helped the PN greatly, I have to admit that there were so many more PN voters who understood our message than Labour voters.

Simon was all smiles yesterday. But he should not get too carried away.

He has survived this local councils round but in the last two weeks of the battle for minds he did not even cross swords with Muscat in this campaign. Let alone have a taste of a campaign. 

When he does next time, which will be the national election, Muscat will be waiting for him.

I too have many questions and queries about Muscat, but my problem is that it will take more than a Simon to breach the walls of Joseph’s Jericho.

In Gozo, the pre-eminence of the Nationalist party has been wiped out.

One can blame the power of incumbency, and of course the hunters’ lobby, but in 2013, Labour was not far off from gaining complete control and at the time it did not have Giovanna Debono’s ministerial wand to do wonders.

That nepotism plays an important part in swaying Gozo’s electoral base is a fact, but this time round, it was not only the campaigning in Gozo by Muscat that confirmed his overwhelming supremacy but his flirtations with the hunters.

I found that disquieting and disgusting, and I have had no qualms making it known.

And of course there were his lieutenants who echoed his ‘IVA’ commitment like parrots.

The most noteworthy of all was Clint Camilleri, the Labour mayor of Qala, a hunter and also a trapper (even though he should not be entitled to a trapper’s licence since he could not have trapped before 2002 when the last trapping licences were issued). But then there were others, such as Deborah Schembri, who has become such an apologist, confusing a right with a privilege, that I really wonder if she still has a mind of her own.

And of course there was Roderick Galdes, the junior minister who is supposed to protect birds and who announced that he would vote Yes.

The referendum served to help both the PN and the PL, with the hunters voting in their majority for the PL and middle class Malta predominantly blue and Nationalist to vote PN.

Muscat came out strong after the referendum result and promised zero tolerance.

But just zero tolerance is not enough.  He has to do much more. He has to raise his environmental credentials.

Triumphalism exemplifies itself in stupid and ridiculous snippets. Simon Busuttil yesterday rekindled a pre-election habit of calling Joseph, Joe.  It may sound irrelevant, but it is as cocky as Joseph Muscat’s insistence that he is happy that Simon will now remain leader of the Nationalist party.

Both leaders need to be more mature, and perhaps with apologies to Joseph (not Joe), stop this PUNCH and JUDY match.

The one most important result in this voting spree was the referendum.

And it happened to be the 124,000 plus voters who sent a message to the political class. After the two leaders decided to say they would vote yes for hunting.

I still have to hear what both leaders have to say to this result. What I do know is that not one political leader, not Mario de Marco, not Leo Brincat, not Charlo Bonnici had the balls to state they had voted No. Indeed they probably voted Yes.

124,000 voters are completely unrepresented in parliament and no one is willing to listen to them.

Which is why it is so important that I get my act together and become actively involved in one of a handful of environmental groups. Here are my favourites: BirdLife Malta, Coalition for Animal Rights, Din l-Art Helwa, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, Greenhouse Malta, International Animal Rescue Malta, Nature Trust, and the Ramblers Association of Malta.

There you go, take out your wallet or purse and become a member, show them what we stand for!