Election Playbook: A lesson in how to sound suspicious

A lesson in how to sound suspicious: We have just witnessed a textbook example of how easy it is to spew words from your mouth without answering a question. On Thursday, Robert Abela tried to justify meeting a fuel smuggler by stating that his work obliges him to meet “everyone.” This comes one week after his admission to meeting a fuel smuggler who pitched him what he described as the same idea as the PN’s offshore fuel hub proposal. Abela’s discomfort when answering questions on his own claim was simply golden. I wonder who else Abela encounters on the campaign trail and beyond and how he would answer questions about such encounters. I imagine it panning out like, “Prime minister, have you ever had a meeting with drug traffickers?” “I have indeed met with humble entrepreneurs who happen to sell stimulants. But who am I to judge a fellow hustler?”

Anything to show we're hard on foreigners: The PN announced a proposal to create a new authority responsible for the population. It is amazing to see what lengths major parties will go to to address the electorate’s disgruntlement about foreign workers. While there are some issues like infrastructural pressures that merit concern, I have no doubt that the majority of complaints politicians hear about foreigners sound like, “all the waiters are Indian,” or “they’re going to take over this country.” This then inevitably urges the big parties to simply appear that they are addressing the problem, because they cannot admit that Malta needs foreign workers to keep its economy running. I hope this “population authority” wouldn’t involve dressing officers up like ICE thugs and reducing foreign-looking people to more degrading treatment and making a public spectacle out of it. But I guess I’m expecting too much from a party that is all too comfortable sitting back and watching as a barrage of xenophobic comments against someone from the opposing party. As long as it’s working in our favour, to hell with the foreigners!

The importance of taking a joke: During the first week of the election campaign, we jokingly told Momentum to print out stickers of their campaign and slap them on garbage as a PR stunt. That way they’ll be helping the Cleansing and Maintenance Division to identify garbage that needs to be picked up, and they can claim responsibility for making Malta cleaner. Imagine my surprise when I saw Momentum taking up the idea and making it a reality. It was reassuring to see that some people are capable of taking a joke even if it’s at their own expense. Before I began writing this daily piece, I didn’t fully grasp the fact that politicians and their PR employees cannot stand a joke, let alone criticism. I hope other politicians can learn from Momentum and stop taking themselves so seriously.