And we still don’t know the reason why
As the entire country – the world, really, given the extensive coverage – knows by now, Malta goes to the polls on 3rd June. And we still don’t know the reason why.
www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com The story reported most widely in the press is that the decision is linked to the brewing Egrant Inc scandal, but that is definitely not the case. The Prime Minister had been gearing up towards a general election between the end of May and the middle of June for some weeks already when that hit the news.
The story was just a stumblingblock in his already-laid plans. I had been picking up on dates and whispers for a while.
But of course, the biggest clue that the Egrant Inc story had nothing to do with the decision was the fact that the launch of his precious power station was scheduled for Monday last week.
The aim was to launch the power station and head straight into an announcement of a general election. In the event, the power station launch was completely overshadowed by the scandal – most people didn’t even notice it – and the general election announcement was similarly delayed.
So we should still be asking ourselves why Muscat called the general election almost a year early. Please don’t ignore the question, because the answer, even if we don’t find it, is important and almost certainly bound to be extremely worrying if not downright frightening.
Let’s put it this way: it is frightening enough to drive Muscat into shaving almost a whole year off the power-stint he loves so much, and ruin the final two months of Malta’s presidency of the European Council, after they made so much fuss about it and spent so much money on setting things up and promoting it to the domestic audience.
For Muscat to kick all that aside, he must be extremely worried by something else that’s biting him badly. We need to know what it is.
We can consider Air Malta’s looming bankruptcy, but he would still have to deal with that if he’s re-elected. There has been talk of internal dissent and pressure put on him to get rid of the two henchmen permanently glued to his side.
That might be a bit of a factor, given that he’s said a vote in his favour in June will be a vote not just for him but also for those he trusts.
But again, that’s not serious enough to make him abdicate his final year of power and turn his 15-year plan into a 14-year plan, with the ever-present risk that it might actually be a nineyear plan.
This is what is bothering me most about this general election: we need to know why, but nobody’s asking.
Instead, everybody is focused on the terribly short electoral campaign period, the minimum possible at law. That short campaign, too, is linked to the decision to make things snappy and get whatever nightmare it is off his back.
All the indications are that the answer is not pretty. I would say that far from being embarrassed and upset at all the international coverage linking the snap election to the corruption scandal which has now affected him directly, Muscat is probably pleased because he thinks it will stop us looking for the real reason he’s been driven to this desperate measure. For yes, it is a desperate measure.
It smacks of Alfred Sant’s screaming and shouting scene down at the Birgu Waterfront in the summer of 1998, when he called a general election to get Dom Mintoff off his back, and lost the government instead. I get that feeling somehow, except that Muscat is not the sort to lose his temper in public (I suspect in private it may be a different matter) and show his hand.
Why is it important to know? Of course, it is – because when we vote, we need to know all the important information there is to know, so that we can consider all factors. If something is looming large in the Prime Minister’s life and causing him to fear another year in government without a fresh mandate, then we have to be told what it is, and if we are not told – we won’t be, because this government loves to keep secrets from us – then we should set about finding out for ourselves, with help from the press, whose job it is to do so.