See how they run
The Prime Minister has declined in fact an invitation to be interviewed on The Malta Independent’s INDEPTH. He has also not showed up for a Times Talk interview.
At the same time he has criss-crossed Malta a dozen times and meets people by their thousands at the mammoth PL mass meetings.
At many of his press events, the Prime Minister is normally surrounded by journalists who tend to ask him all sorts of questions, usually not related to the subject of the press conference.
So it cannot be that the Prime Minister is scared of being asked questions or that the short election campaign he has triggered has exhausted him. Or that he has run out of time.
It can only mean his scorn and disdain at that section of the media that refuses to be subdued and forced to sing from his own hymn book.
He has only appeared at Xtra, run by MaltaToday’s editor and part-owner Saviour Balzan, apart from that vituperative appearance on Xarabank, which must rank as one of the worst, most acrid, bitter, personalised clashes in Maltese political history.
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The conclusion is quite obvious: Dr Muscat is quite happy to speak to massed crowds or to be interviewed by friendly media but ill-atease when confronted directly. Maybe (this is the benign interpretation) he is afraid of putting up such a bad show as he did on Xarabank. He claims he was provoked but a real leader of men should have enough selfcontrol to withstand provocation.
These however are no ordinary times and the charges raised against Dr Muscat, culminating in the allegation regarding Egrant and Mrs Muscat are indeed extraordinary.
The Prime Minister’s preferred oratory consists of declamation, many times delivered in stentorian tones, which seems well-suited to Dr Muscat’s vocal range.
It expresses anger amazingly well, just as it also expresses optimism about a future unlike any other.
There is (more than a tinge of) disdain. It seems to convey the impression he has persuaded all those he could persuade and is now so secure of winning he will not bust a gut to try and persuade the TMI or The Times readers.
The country’s leaders have reached such a sorry state, that whoever wins on Sunday will have to make conciliatory noises and bring together a people split as never before when the echoes of the leaders’ hatred against each other is still deeply ingrained in people’s memories. Whether on Sunday and afterwards the people remember the hate soundbites more than the conciliatory words has yet to be seen.
People will not miss Joseph Muscat’s nonappearance on INDEPTH and Times Talk. He has been all over the place, addressed countless crowds and pressed the flesh for all he is worth.
But even if he does take questions and even if some of these questions come barbed, that is no real alternative to being grilled by a nonfriendly but independent media.
In a way it is almost like how he has treated the Pana committee of the European Parliament. When the questions tend to be difficult, Dr Muscat tends to shy away. He even got a minister to replace him for the Broadcasting Authority press conference where there are more than enough safeguards he will not be swamped.