1976 and 1992 revisited

Well, of course you have to have reached a certain age to remember them and, more precisely, to have experienced them, but the similarities in circumstances – both social and political – surrounding the current electoral campaign and those of 1976 and 199

While the tactics and tools have changed drastically since then, a country’s political cycle is not something that can change overnight. Parties and politicians know this more than anyone else. It is why the “Feel Good” factor has never really gone out of fashion. One successful government after the other everywhere in the world has, since the first time it was uttered by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in his famous 1957 campaign declaration that “most of our people have never had it so good”, resorted to it for its undoubted special effect.

In this back-to-the-future portrayal, fast-forward back to 1976. Mintoff’s Labour Party was facing the then electorate after five years of economic boom, an explosion of new social benefits and social housing and huge foreign investment had culminated in a general uplift of the working population’s status. The Nationalist Opposition, still smarting from the 1971 debacle it had suffered, despite blatant attempts to thwart a Labour victory with the introduction of a sixth seat in districts the PN was destined to lose (until then it was OK to win power with a majority of seats, not votes), was caught trying to reassemble under the same tired, gentlemanly leadership of George Borg Olivier.

I had just been entrusted with my first newspaper column which, rather unimaginatively, I wrote under the title “The 76 Column”. Ordinary people could feel the going had been good until then, so it was no surprise to anyone that Labour won again with an increased majority. There is always a glitch, however. I remember having a post-election chat with the then (West) German Ambassador on the Island, Kurt Schmidt, who had already done his homework with statistics. He smiled at my electoral euphoria, remarking that while Labour had won, the hidden math had shown it had not won the younger vote. The new generation that, from 1981 onwards, was to eventually sway the political rhythm away from the incumbent, was growing up fast.

The same “Feel Good” factor was fundamental in the 1992 general election. People had been nurtured off imposed time in lieu and back into paid overtime. This helped create a sense of reawakening and individual liberty. Between 1987 and 1992, the then PN Government had made full use of the Lm600 million left in the national kitty by the previous Labour adminis- tration. That certainly helped, as the election result had shown.

Shift swiftly back into presentday mode. The Labour Party has grown into a national movement, made up mostly of the vast army of loyal PL followers abetted by the infusion of a large number of ex-PN or apolitical citizens who by 2013 had had more than enough of the inertia, corruption and arrogance of the later Nationalist administrations.

The past five years have seen the country break all the records in employment, in foreign investment, in the provision of better social benefits and services. Infrastructural projects are carried out at a much higher efficiency level (the current Kappara project is the perfect example), and in economic proficiency via the process of reduced taxes, comprehensive use of EU funds, and sustained competitivity. Indeed, people have never had it so good.

In contrast, but in amazing synch with the 1976 and 1992 scenarios, the Nationalist Opposition has still not recovered from its 2013 electoral fiasco. It has carried a leader who was already a leader of sorts within it more than four years ago, so much so that he was publicly acknowledged as having written two defeated manifestos, 2008 and 2013. Like poor George Borg Olivier in 1976 and the misunderstood Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in 1992, Simon Busuttil has wolves around him not so secretly snarling at their leash, wannabes in the wings who view this election as more of a springboard than a way to redemption.

Labour’s worst enemy this time round can be complacency. We may all play with figures and comparisons, such as I have after all been doing in this very piece, the fact is that people, from workers, farmers and businessmen, to mothers, fathers and young dreamers, need to go out and vote, to con- firm what they have enjoyed experiencing the past four-plus years.

Nothing can ever be taken for granted in a Maltese election, even if revisiting the past always helps with trying to understand the present.

Rediffusion days

As if we haven’t revisited enough for today, I was delighted to attend the official launching at San Anton Palace of Toni Sant’s book “Remembering Rediffusion in Malta – A history without future” which, of course, took me back to my broadcasting days.

It is a book that does not challenge the many issues which for many decades has hounded the Maltese broadcasting scene. Toni Sant has typically chosen to avoid getting into this unnecessary quagmire and wisely taken the route of academic research and analysis, and of nostalgic recollection minus the syrupiness that can easily put you off.

Old polemics aside, Rediffusion in Malta was a milestone few can disregard. I was openly for the State’s takeover in 1975, when, as a young journalist, I was delivering pastizzi to the sit-in workers there and, at the same time, to the students’ sit-in at University. Remember this was the Leftist world of the 70s! But then as much as today, I was highly aware of the immense contribution those Rediffusion days had made to the media sector, thanks to such stalwarts as Effie Ciantar, Charles Arrigo, Fr H. Born, Carmen Carbonaro, Kelinu Vella Haber, Joe Grima, J.G. Vassallo, Charles Abela Mizzi, Harold Scorey, Charles Clews, Johnny Catania and several others.

Suffice to say that when I eventually got into broadcast management, I could easily tell which of the employees had been trained by Rediffu- sion and those who weren’t. There was this obvious professional touch, a sense of belonging and serious commitment which identified them from the rest. The few who bothered to learn from them did eventually gain those same attributes.

Toni Sant has never looked back from his first days at Radio Malta where I had the pleasure to greet him and a host of other new-wave broadcasters who included, among others, Carlo Borg Bonaci, Joe Tanti, Eric Montfort, Claudette Pace, John Bundy, Alfie Fabri and Noel Camilleri. His move into digital excellence and the opaque world of creativity has certainly not surprised me.

The book shows he is not just a learned doctor of the profession, but also a benign ventriloquist for several generations.

Sad, but...

How sad to realise that 10 years have passed since threeyear-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in Portugal, with no trace of her being found since. Nothing worse can happen to a family.

What irks many people about this case is how the international media continues to focus on it when children all over Europe disappear in this brutal way every day, but what often remains about them is a stale police report. No front page stories, no incessant display of photographs, no financial aid from governments (the Met Police investigation of the Maddie case alone cost over €11 million), and if their story ever makes it to the media, it is soon forgotten as run-of-the-mill.

Is it a question of available family riches? Anglo-Saxon predominance of the media? Whatever it is, let us not forget there are scores of Madeleine McCanns waiting to have their fate known for their families to either finally embrace them or get to know the bitter truth.