PN – The sound of silence

It can be treacherous on the part of the perpetrators and devastating on others in search of enlightenment. Public recognition of one’s failures is often a half-way prescription in an individual’s voyage. This also applies to the political society.

The leadership campaign debates notwithstanding, it is the general impression that the party core group remains in denial and moreover believes that resignations have wiped out any traces of arrogance of power. Trust and collaboration among party key players, humans and Christians, were often lacking. This subjective painful statement is delivered with respect and empathy towards all who may have acted in good faith. But the silent crowd that follows the party has tacitly recognised the party’s malfunctioning over the years; and hence lost faith culminating in a massive protest vote, abetted by the party in government’s incumbency.

Now is the time to plant the roses, even if by now these should have been already flowering. The leadership election is the last opportunity that cannot be missed; for the sake of the country, mainly its democratic freedom, and for the country’s political scenario. The PN’s priority is not just returning the party to government but to reignite faith and hope among both the civil and political society. The situation calls for the interim party core group, if this were the case, to be asked to desist using the whip. And this notwithstanding, the thoughtful, unassuming and patient politician can still maximise on the positive outcome of silence.

The political whip, whether used in parliament or elsewhere, is the price an influential member of a party needs to settle unconditionally with a view to maximise on number of members canvassing as directed by the party. Often this is complemented with rewards. But new thinking considers the whipping as being the root of the current malaise since the power of the whip still rules supreme, inhibits democracy and encourages a herd instinct and mindlessly partisan behaviour.

The party is still in its majority made up of honourable individuals who in the public eye raise palisades in defence of a political institution that for over a century has founded political milestones and instilled faith and hope in the various strata of civil society and the political society itself. And so also are all the four candidates; indeed, in such critical circumstances, in their damage control efforts avoiding delving into the heart of the matter, they would all have considerable expansive chapters behind their facades that need to be explored.

It is incumbent on party councillors and tesserati to attentively and critically decipher the untold volumes and peruse deeply the unwritten small print that underscores pronouncements and debates. This is like literary writings where it is left to the reader’s intellect to interpret and expound on incidental life happenings and historical-cultural connotations with the hope of unearthing this wasteland.

However, in these critical foreboding times of questioning on perceived hidden personal and group agendas, further deep soul-searching processes would only lead to pointing fingers on individuals who may have acted in good faith. It would be like laying a film of oil on a watery surface where visibility is already distorted.

This sound of silence is indeed the transcendental vehicle that, rather than silencing the individual, it empowers him to again start believing in himself, and enjoying that much valued freedom of thought and action towards the attainment of mutually agreed objectives.

The party is under siege, not as a result of an electoral defeat, but as a result of the reaction by politicians, activists and party followers, abusing the power of social networks, who because of deep frustration, loss of direction and anger, have transformed what should have been an intelligent discussion into an assault on the very heart of the party. With one conspicuous exception, even leadership candidates have entered the frail and firmly believe that the leadership election is a very personal objective. How things have changed since the times of those gentlemen of the seventies.

The Christian Democratic values are not addressed solely towards society at large; they need be practiced within the party itself.

The situation at party level is such that it calls for a mutually agreed collective political initiative even if this turns into thin air personal ambitions. The candidates’ call “that no one is greater than the party” needs to be acted upon collectively. It is recognised that the vast majority of that silent crowd that follows the party through the media and rumours may be uninitiated to the rumblings currently going on; brainwashed only by negativity rather than the positive outcomes of this happening.

It is imperative that the candidates themselves explore avenues as to how work out a winning formula out of this episode. If it were the executive and councillors voting for a party leader, one would have already believed that the formula was being worked. This is a mission, a disturbing and complex mission at that, that the interim core group strategists are tasked with the need to distance themselves from unless in consonance with the principled goals of the formula devised.

So what appears to have been an imposition, the sound of silence could indeed be interpreted as a solution towards the much needed unity in the party.

The prospective party leader has to be a politician with a sound party background, who can act as a common denominator among the leadership candidates, the outgoing party administration and the very valued party functions. He has to be an individual with whom the people could relate even if not always in agreement with his thinking and political action. It is an onerous task that calls for difficult decision-making and restrained discipline.

The party has to collectively continue to have faith, hope, determination and commitment towards holding high the Christian Democratic values that have characterised its relevant historical political paths.