Dear Franco,
I never believed you would actually come to this, but you did. In your personal quest to prove yourself as Malta's Messiah, you lost your sense of reason and logic.
We thought it was about the mess of the Public Transport reform. But in your landmark 50 minute speech in Parliament during the vote of confidence in the Transport Minister, you spoke about Lou Bondi, PBS, justice, the right of a lawyer's assistance during interrogation...and never about what was done wrong in the reform. No mention at how you expected things to have been done differently. No suggestion at how you expected the mess to be resolved. And then, we realized it was not about the reform. It was about Manwel Delia's interest in contesting your district. And we were disappointed.
Then we thought it was about the division of the Justice and Home Affairs portfolios from the same Ministry. You decided you should give a deadline. You extended it. The Prime Minister, who had already said he was considering the proposal back in November, implemented it just after the Christmas holidays. Still, you were unsatisfied. Contrary to any sort of logic, the day your proposal was implemented, you withdrew your support to the Government. Two months after you expressed that "Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was doing his best and was focusing on jobs and the economy", you expressed your complete lack of confidence in Gonzi and that you "would support anyone but Gonzi". And since you got 73 in Maths and your logic is not so messed up, we realized it was never about the separation of the portfolios. It was about you being Justice Minister. And you disappointed us yet again.
You mentioned the Cabinet's honoraria to justify your loss of confidence, just when you knew the Prime Minister was going to retract it. But you never spoke about it in the previous two years. Not once. You actually voted against the opposition's motion to have it retracted. So it wasn't about that either.
If you really were after the country's best interests, and you really wanted to change the current political mentality, you could have campaigned for a myriad of illegalities that both main parties close their eyes to in fear of losing votes. You could have spoken about the thousands of private bore-holes illegally extracting our water. You could have spoken about the illegal buildings squatting our land. And you would have found many people four-square behind you. But you had nothing to gain from these issues. So you stayed mum.
Instead, you kept insisting for the division of Justice and Home Affairs portfolios, arguing that it is causing the whole country undue hardship, pain and suffering. Hardship, pain and suffering...because the portfolios are under the same Ministry?! But that's what you were after: the Justice Ministry. It was so obvious in your last press conference. Franco, it's not the separation or not of the portfolios which was causing us pain. It's your state of mind.
It was a farce when you used to show your Form 2 report to people within the Party to prove that you are intelligent and should be listened to. It was a farce when you told people within the Party that you should actually be leader because in that Form 2 mid-year report, you got better marks than Joseph Muscat, the Opposition Leader (who probably got better marks than you in Form 1, 3, 4, 5, and in the annual Form 2 report, since you have decided to show only that particular one). And then we understood that the only reason you were in politics, was to continue your rivalry with your ex-classmate and keep inflating your self-pride. That's why you were so proud to be the youngest MP in Parliament before him. Until he became party leader, at a younger age than you, and your envy was re-ignited. And now that it has gone public, it has stopped being laughable.
Your petty school-boy rivalry is not a farce anymore. It's a tragedy. A national tragedy. Please Franco, don't let your unstable personality de-stabilize a country during the worst economic crisis of the last century. That instability would really cause us undue hardship, pain, and suffering.
Reality is Franco, that a 37 year old flailing around his 25 year old class report as proof of his sanity and intelligence, actually proves the contrary.
Franco, deal with the fact that you'll never be Minister and you'll never be Prime Minister, because the only ones left admiring you now are either megalomaniacs who assimilate themselves to you, or those who want Labour in power at any cost. And the ones who voted for you are actually the ones most disgusted. Deal with the fact that Joseph Muscat will beat you to it...again. And this time, ironically, it will be thanks to you. But please, deal with it alone, and don't drag the whole country into it. Leadership is not gained with Form 2 report cards. It's gained with other qualities and personality traits.
The people who elected you instead of Louis Galea have taught us one very important lesson: change for change's sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is. May the people keep that in mind when they have to choose who will lead the country in the next election.
Take good care of your health, and hope you get well soon,
A Nationalist councilor who initially believed that yours was constructive criticism, until you started blackmailing the Prime Minister and he discovered that yours was only power-hunger coupled with a 25-year old personality problem. And he was disappointed.
In the meantime he submitted his resignation and wasn't accepted.
ReplyDeleteFrom a megalomaniac.
Mark, whilst understanding your indignation and agree that Franco's behaviour and antics are for the most part incomprehensible, that does not make him of an unsound mind. It only means that you do not understand him or his motives. You are not a psychologist or a psychiatrist and thus do not have the capability to judge medically; and if you are, professional ethics should stop you from divulging such sensitive information in the media. Calling him names does not help you convey your message. Saying that he is doing what he has done because (i) he wants to become a minister and (ii) this in order to fuel his rivalry with Joseph Muscat is speculation of the highest degree as it is sustained by neither direct quotes or publicly known stories and episodes. It is simply what you think based on your own assessment of what the past events mean. I do not say they are based on logic since theoretically the outcome of logic should be the same to everybody if the variables used are the same. However since I arrived to a different assessment then yours and presumably I based myself on the same variables (at least the public ones unless you are privy to others thanks to your position within the party) then it is clearly not a matter of logic. And seriously when was hard, rationale logic a good explanation to human behaviour? Ask any decent philosopher.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that you should not criticise Franco (I actually partially agree with what you have written), even publicly given your own official position, but resorting to name calling and insults does not flatter you; especially since these are simply regurgitated statements from other bloggers infamously known for their insulting qualities. They may score you votes from the party hard liners but no praise from the politically moderate base which is an ever growing segment of the population.
@Pawlu:
ReplyDeleteThat's what he said. What the Nationalist Party said is that he submitted his resignation from the party more than once and then withdrew it. Is there a reason why the Party wouldn't accept it? No. Probably he always withdrew it because he still hoped he'd make it to the Cabinet. As he told us yesterday, "even journalists told him he deserved the Justice Ministry".
So I know who I choose to believe.
@Jonathan:
ReplyDeleteJonathan, believe me, I hate to discuss persons themselves. I have been looking at this blog-post for two days before pressing the publish button. But the thing is, that when the issue is nothing but that person's behaviour, and when it's that behaviour that is damaging my country, than there's no option but to discuss that behaviour.
The only speculation is the part I myself declared to be probable and not confirmed (that Joseph Muscat got higher marks than him in the other classes). But given the behaviour and evidence, it is very highly probable.
When someone believes that meritocracy implies that because he got better marks than the Opposition Leader in Form 2, he merits to be our Party Leader, I don't need a psychologist's report to tell me that there's something in his thinking which is not functioning probably. Yes, maybe it's not "megalomania", maybe it's some other condition, and I don't have the competency to assess what exactly it should be called. But I can tell when someone's behaviour does not make sense, and I'm sure the politically moderate base does as well, and when that behaviour is wrong and is affecting the country, someone ought to show it up to him.
One final point: I truly hope that politically moderate base keeps growing, maybe one day their vote will count much more than the votes of those we close our eyes to, and both parties finally act on these long-standing national issues.
So glad about your final thought there! We definately stand on same ground here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going into the merits of what Jonathan suggested. Seems to me you had your good share of explaining your views there.
What is really annoying to me is this:
1. If you withdraw a resignation, it means that you actually submitted it. Thus, it's only if it's not accepted that gives you the time and chance to take it back. I heard what the party said and it sounded even funnier to me! I have the impression Franco was being kept under observation for quite some time, so why didn't the party sign off his resignation immediately - in that case?
2. When he spoke about meritocracy, i'm sure he wasn't referring to his secondary level result - but to his overall career so far! Come on! And still, why is it that his tail plumage display is given more importance that the light he cast on quite a few irregularities? Don't we all show off at times? Didn't Austin show off many times? Why didn't anyone say Austin is/was megalomaniac?
On a final note - thanks again for your feedback and for sharing our comments.
Usual character assassination tactics. I stopped supporting Gonzi the day he closed Upper Barrakka Gardens to the public for a private party on the EU accession festivities. That event showed me what Gonzi will be up to. He managed to redivide the political cast from the others - something which EFA was great enough to eradicate. Suddenly we found ourselves second class Maltese citizens and this continued up the the present day with continuous hiding and playing around of figures.
ReplyDeleteJust watched this clip this morning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4l2W-ndMUa4
ReplyDeleteHe makes it too obvious deevee74 that what I'm writing here is true. It's not character assassination, it's character suicide.
Usually I try to subscribe to the creed that we should discuss arguments and not persons. But when there aren't any arguments left (as I have shown here), than it's the person and what is triggering this unexplained behaviour that's left to discuss.
If he accepts the Party's invite to publish all the emails and SMS exchanged between him, Gonzi and PBO, I bet we'll have a nice treat of laughter.
@deevee74
ReplyDeleteIf somebody is
(1) standing in the way of the electorate's democratic choice of a government.
(2) disturbing the stability of the country when there is going to be such an economic turmoil,
(3) and presenting not so convincing reasons to justify his behavior as my colleague opined in his blog (though this is our opinion, which we stand to be proven or dethe contrary)
Should we just stay idle? It is in times like these people should stand up to be counted especially if you are an official representative of the party like Mark and myself are.
While I hasten to disagree with slanderous language being used by some over Facebook, there is nothing wrong in criticizing a behavior which whether we like it or not is affecting the country and the party we represent. It is the essence of politics once one joins the fray he or she gets subject to scrutiny when that behavior has public consequences.
What we have witnessed lately reminds me a lot of Roberto Saviano´s ´Macchina del Fango´. The arguments put forward by him are completely disregarded on the premise that he is a traitor, megalomaniac or of unsound mind.
ReplyDeleteA very important part of being a leader of any sort is that of being able to control the people under your command. It is quite clear to me that Gonzi has failed to do so with FD throughout this legislature.
The arguments put forwarded by him were adhered to. They are there no more. So it's not the implementation of those proposals that he was after. Someone who believes that whatever he says is right, and all the others are wrong, has an over-inflated sense of himself which I called megalomania, and which I think is a personal problem. What Gonzi could have failed to do was recognizing FDs problem before accepting his candidature with the Party.
ReplyDeleteWithin a party, no individual is greater than the party. An individual makes his proposals, believing they are right, and so do many other individuals. It is up to those elected to decide to see which to apply, which not, and at which particular time. It is not possible to adhere to all the individual requests of everyone. The individual must accept that though he should contribute and do so with persuasion, he cannot see the big picture as much as those superior to him can. So he must either accept that, or it is himself that has to resign from that Party, like Lino Spiteri and George Abela did in 1997.
Well written blog...
ReplyDeleteI also gave you a quick mention in mine - http://melahart.com/2012/01/10/franco-debono-and-the-social-media-reward/