Decency is the way forward for the PN

Perhaps some of the most important political sayings that bear relevance to the political history of the Nationalist Party are to be found in the works of Seneca, the Younger. In this blog, I shall focus on three of them.

Dr Simon Mercieca is senior lecturer, Department of History

The first is “nemo autem regere potest nisi qui et regi”, which means “hence no one can govern without also being ruled”. For the party in Opposition, this means that it cannot dodge listening to its rank and file; that same rank and file that stood squarely behind the party during the worst moments in its history.

Many of the PN’s traditional voters today feel that the party is forsaking them in order to woo the liberal voters, preferring that section of the electorate that, in 2013, chose Joseph Muscat, and thus contributing to elect Malta’s most corrupt government in our history. This explains why Dr. Simon Busuttil had to react and issue a statement about the party’s position on abortion and euthanasia after the recent controversy on the subject.

Until the start of Malta’s presidency, PN strategists believed that these liberals are acting so to follow another of Seneca’s dicta, perhaps the most important. The strategists wish to replace traditional religion with liberalism. Europe persuaded the PN that these are the winning values until Juncker made it clear that in the next election, his Commission is going to be squarely behind Joseph Muscat, since the latter guarantees what the Italians love to define as ‘i poteri forti’.

According to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, religion and liberalism cannot go hand in hand. Seneca warns liberals that they cannot govern without religion. If they remove traditional religion, they are destined to create a new one, otherwise they will be the losers. For this reason, Seneca coined the famous phrase: “religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful”.

Until the start of the Maltese presidency, many a PN strategist believed they formed part of the wise and therefore religion appeared to them as something false. Soon Europe will realise that it can neither ignore nor do without some form of religion in today’s political arena.

What the strategist forgets is that religion or better still, Catholicism, has stood behind the PN during its worst and most challenging moments. In 1932, the PN was Malta’s most popular party. Its adherence to Italian culture led to its near extinction when, in 1940, Fascist Italy entered the War. However, the unthinkable did happen. After the war, it was the proBritish Party that became extinct and not the PN. I am here referring to the Progressive Party of Gerald Strickland. Indeed, Paul Boffa’s Labour Party was the victor in 1947. This party, in 1932, had risked being swamped by Strickland’s Party. No one would have ever expected that, in the next 17 years, Labour would obtain electoral results never to be rivaled in Malta’s political history.

Thanks to Enrico Mizzi’s personality and despite his admiration for Italian culture, he still succeeded in rescuing his party from the ashes. Despite the fact that his Fascist Italy bombed our homes, many Maltese still voted for Mizzi after the war because they saw in him a man of principle. Mizzi used his political astuteness to make political gain from Labour’s internal troubles. The overwhelming electoral victories of 1945 and 1947 became Labour’s worse enemy.

It was only after the Divorce Referendum that the neo-liberals within the PN began to voice their thoughts. They did so not because they believed in divorce, but because of their hatred for Lawrence Gonzi. Today, these same elements have taken control of the party machine. They think that they hold the magic key to the success of liberalism. Sadly, they have failed to heed the warnings given by their spiritual father, Seneca. If the liberal and the atheist want to rule, they still need religion.

This change in party policy has rid religion of a number of political hypocrites, who only gave religion lip service. This is why I think that religion and even the Catholic Church is destined to make a comeback. As for the others, the so-called intellectually wise, they are finding themselves stripped of political power and are becoming a source of crisis for our two main political parties. In the process, they are estranging their core supporters. This became extremely clear from certain posts that appeared on social media following Salvu Mallia’s controversy. Many of the PN’s loyal supporters are starting to feel that the PN is no longer their party.

It may be opportune for liberals to remember another saying by Seneca, “though the law forbids it not, yet decency forbids it”. Those pushing for a secular agenda within the PN and LP now appear amongst the moderate voters to be losing all sense of decency. The issue is no longer one of liberal expression. When a party loses it sense of decency, it is heading for trouble.

As a grass root member of the PN recently told me, when a party loses its decency, it ends operating a politics of convenience rather than a politics of principle. This is extremely dangerous. Nationalists are now asking even on social media - why their party is jettisoning its morals and values for which it once stood. In this situation, the PNnucleus is openly stating that the party is adopting the same Labour rhetoric! Therefore, how can the PN criticise Labour for being immoral when the PN is slipping into total amorality?

What the electorate is interested in is the fact that the PN is sending mixed messages. This is extremely negative for the party that suffered such a massive electoral defeat. Mixed messages are only good for a party that has experienced a major electoral victory i.e. Muscat’s Party.

In such conditions, the line of thought is not clear and the electorate becomes confused. The PN needs to decide where it is heading. It cannot serve God and the devil at the same time, even if its choice of candidates clearly indicates that it is running after the liberal voter.

The end result is that a segment of the PN Catholic voter is growing more disillusioned. The Catholic voter is not only disillusioned with the PN, he/she is also disillusioned with Labour but no one talks about it. The problem for the PN is that it is failing to convince those Labourites who are disillusioned with their party to switch and vote PN. Instead, the PN prefers to go for the liberals, who felt so comfortable ditching the PN and chose one of the most corrupt governments in Malta’s political history.

What the PN should be doing is to follow Enrico Mizzi’s political astuteness and ride on the internal divisions that a great political victory brings with it. Instead of following the political model of the 1945 and 1947 elections, PN strategists are seeking to re-invent the wheel or worse, imitate Muscat.

I hope that Juncker’s and Tusk’s support for Joseph Muscat has now opened the PN eyes. At least, Dr. Busuttil’s tweet of displeasure about the way the Commission reacted to the Power Station scandal seems to have brought the PN back to its senses.

If the Catholic voter stays home, the PN cannot win the next election. If the Catholic voter leaves Labour, Muscat will suffer a humiliating victory. I have no empirical proof, but I am sure that part of the reason for Muscat’s decrease in popularity has been triggered by the loss of Catholic voters within his party.

With the Catholic voter growing more disheartened with both parties, it is clear to me that Muscat will be playing on this factor to win next time round. It is also clear that he has been guaranteed the support from the EU Commission. In Juncker’s words, Muscat is the best politician in Malta. Muscat knows that Labour Catholics voters would prefer to stay at home rather than vote PN. In turn, PN Catholics will be doing the same; stay at home.

In this scenario, the outcome of the next election can be discounted. Labour will lose votes but as in the case of the European elections, it will still win with a wide margin.