Joseph Muscat is a political phenomenon

Dr George Vital Zammit

Faithful to his decade-old pledge to institute an ‘earthquake’ in the structures of the Labour Party, Dr Joseph Muscat unpacked a party stricken by a series of electoral defeats, and called for a movement that to date, has made Labour the natural home for the (large) majority of voters. There are many ingredients to this recipe, and Muscat’s vision played a fundamental role in crafting a catch-all party that portrays a sense of inclusion. His greatest ability has been to forge ahead with policies that were anathema to traditional Labour (pro European, pro business, pro privatization), without alienating his support base. This did not come without a very careful political stratagem tailored to omit controversial policies such as the privatization of the Power Station, Medical hospitals, and the Individual Investor Programme - that eventually commodified national citizenship.

Muscat cruised through ups and lows, hammered by an attentive independent media, but glorified by an expanding followership that tuned in to unprecedented prosperity and employment. His stellar rise, Machiavellian handling of power, and unscrupulous use of incumbency, made him an unstoppable machine. Whereas conventional wisdom holds that even the prospect of leaving power (he already announced retirement) might dwindle a leader’s political influence, this is clearly not the case with Muscat.

The Prime Minister’s record will be hard to emulate. He transformed Labour into a winning machine, scoring two consecutive landslides, decimating the PN in the process. Just like Eddie outlived three leaders from the opposite camp, Muscat is already facing the third, within a shorter span of time. But the price to pay for this meteoric success, (at least for posterity’s sake) has been very high too.

Muscat has significantly contributed to the erosion of trust in state institutions. Allowing (by design and not accidentally) the Police and Army to be hijacked by political intrusion is grave. The national security of the country cannot be allowed to be compromised by incompetence due to patronage and tokenism.

The late Mario Cuomo once remarked that campaigning comes as poetry, whilst governing comes in prose. Muscat’s ora- tory prior to 2013 called for principles of meritocracy, accountability and transparency, three tenets of good governance, thrown out of the window by retaining his two right hand men in public office. His inability to remove them cast a shadow on his tenure, one he could have avoided, sparing the country from unnecessary embarrassment and humiliation. The disregard for public land, in a country facing a population boom, will also rank Muscat’s administration very low in the protection of the environment.

On a final note, Dr Muscat is eyeing for an exit with a number of issues still in the offing. How these issues will be determined might one day seal his legacy. If he is cleared, the nation will owe him an apology. If not, he will have disrespected the honour and prestige of the most important public office in the country.

Meanwhile, studying Joseph Muscat in our politics classes, will remain a must.