Malta Independent on Sunday
Oct 4
All this ado, over what exactly? It was not a cabinet minister, or even a backbcncher, who crossed the floor, but a failed election candidate who has changed sides, so why the fuss?
Frankly, because many of us prefer a good gossip to serious business. Claudio Grech’s resignation as Smart City’s CEO hardly raised an eyebrow.
Prominent ex-Labour minister Joe Grima who, while it was obvious that the PL was not going to make it and that he had lost influence within the party, ran a chat show on the PN’s channel Net TV and has now moved to the PL’s One TV, also sparked little media interest.
I could have started my column like I did last week: “Round and round we go.”
Now that the PL – provided that they seriously get their act together – should really win the next election, it is no surprise that a number of ambitious people would be looking to securing their future.
We are going to see more and more people being less strident in their criticism of the PL and more cautious in their praise of the PN, ensuring they do not lose their lucrative posts or contracts under a different administration.
Marisa Micallef is no victim. She is a survivor. If she did lose her job in the UK, she had to look around for her best option. According to PN general-secretary Paul Borg Olivier: “She was unhappy the government was not able to provide her with a job.” Let’s face it, there are not many places to go here, are there? If you are neither Blue nor Red, your chances are even more restricted. So she went for Red.
Marisa is also one pushy lady, so she probably orchestrated the hype about her defection to Labour.
As a columnist, her writing had veered sharply towards the PN, since she was a Gonzi acolyte and had been rewarded with the chairmanship of the Housing Authority (of course it was a political appointment, Dr Gonzi). It was her consolation prize when she failed to win a parliamentary seat as a PN candidate.
My hunch is that she will try to get her media platform back. That is one card PL leader Joseph Muscat, with his new technicoloured coat on, will be banking on.
Now that he is her new guru and paymaster, Marisa’s writing will have to bolster the Labour Party, which will now be a little bit blue as well as red with streaks of green thrown in.
It will not be that easy for her, however, to persuade the more sophisticated of her readers that she was so wrong in the past and is so right now.
A letter in The Times argued that she had “blurred memory”. It said: “Ms Micallef gave the impression that the best jobs are reserved for the blue-eyed boys and girls. She seems to have forgotten that she was chairman of the Housing Authority under a Nationalist government and, in the meantime, used to write loads of articles criticising Labour.”
Good point. And Ms Micallef knows full well that it is not only the PN who looks after its blue-eyed boys and girls – although there are far fewer blue-eyed girls.
She was one of the lucky few, being in the right place at the right time with the PN. Many of the other PN girls, who had been around for a lot longer, but were less forceful, did not get any rewards.
Now she has clinched it again with the PL.
But does she really think she would have been offered the job, had she not crossed over? Of course not. She would not have been of any use to Joseph Muscat.
Also, if one of her reasons for leaving the PN was because the right people were not being rewarded, did that worry her when she was doing well with them? Is the PL any better?
There are loyal women as well as men, at least as able, who have served the PL for a long time, who could have filled the post she has been given more than adequately.
Marisa, however, has the edge on badgering editors to publish her stuff, although I am not sure she will be as successful this time around. But you never know, everyone can go around and around, including editors.
Having said that, I have no problem with Ms Micallef landing herself a well-paid job. Everyone has every right to work for whom they wish. And it is great if you can have your cake and eat it.
She has also managed to get all that attention from a male-dominated chauvinistic media.
Malta Today gave her extensive coverage and on Wednesday dedicated two whole pages with opinions from 12 male commentators, plus Joseph Muscat, about her move. The paper could not manage the opinion of one single woman on the issue.
Probably l-orrizont will now be having articles in English, or have someone translate Marisa’s articles into Maltese – unless Joseph is planning on his own English language paper.
But will Ms Micallef help the PL or hinder it?
Besides banking that she will have space in The Times, The Independent and lots in Malta Today, Mr Muscat thinks that she will persuade those of her ilk (upper middle class) to vote Labour, come the next election.
That is where other, more deserving Labour women, were pipped at the post. In fact, the post was probably created for her. Her asset is that she is what used to be called “tal pepe”.
“The Labour Party had suffered in the past because it failed to connect with certain sectors of society, which felt that the PN was their natural home”, Mr Muscat said when explaining her appointment in an interview on One Radio.
Does he really think that because Marisa has moved over, many PN supporters of her breed will follow? I don’t think so.
It is when he starts to demonstrate that he has sound policies, which he can galvanise to show that he is really different and can transform things, that he will persuade some of the upper-class PN voters to change the way they vote.
Their disgruntlement with the Party is not enough, as the last election proved. The PL has not managed to attract the English-speaking upper middle-class in the past with the likes of Mary Darmanin, an intellectual heavy weight by comparison, and Gillian Bartolo, a better writer, not forgetting Marie Benoit.
Besides, the Opposition leader must be careful now that he is aiming to please the upper class that he does not lose support with Labour’s grass roots.
I fear that, just as George Abela, now President, upset many Labour Party members when he made excuses for the bad behaviour towards former PL leader Alfred Sant by so-called PN “puliti” (as in upper-class, not clean), Joseph Muscat might be upsetting the grassroots by giving a top job to someone who has been so dismissive of their party in the recent past.
Most importantly, the upper middle-class will need much more than Ms Micallef’s insistence that the PL has the answers to our woes.
pamelapacehansen@gmail.com
Oct 4
All this ado, over what exactly? It was not a cabinet minister, or even a backbcncher, who crossed the floor, but a failed election candidate who has changed sides, so why the fuss?
Frankly, because many of us prefer a good gossip to serious business. Claudio Grech’s resignation as Smart City’s CEO hardly raised an eyebrow.
Prominent ex-Labour minister Joe Grima who, while it was obvious that the PL was not going to make it and that he had lost influence within the party, ran a chat show on the PN’s channel Net TV and has now moved to the PL’s One TV, also sparked little media interest.
I could have started my column like I did last week: “Round and round we go.”
Now that the PL – provided that they seriously get their act together – should really win the next election, it is no surprise that a number of ambitious people would be looking to securing their future.
We are going to see more and more people being less strident in their criticism of the PL and more cautious in their praise of the PN, ensuring they do not lose their lucrative posts or contracts under a different administration.
Marisa Micallef is no victim. She is a survivor. If she did lose her job in the UK, she had to look around for her best option. According to PN general-secretary Paul Borg Olivier: “She was unhappy the government was not able to provide her with a job.” Let’s face it, there are not many places to go here, are there? If you are neither Blue nor Red, your chances are even more restricted. So she went for Red.
Marisa is also one pushy lady, so she probably orchestrated the hype about her defection to Labour.
As a columnist, her writing had veered sharply towards the PN, since she was a Gonzi acolyte and had been rewarded with the chairmanship of the Housing Authority (of course it was a political appointment, Dr Gonzi). It was her consolation prize when she failed to win a parliamentary seat as a PN candidate.
My hunch is that she will try to get her media platform back. That is one card PL leader Joseph Muscat, with his new technicoloured coat on, will be banking on.
Now that he is her new guru and paymaster, Marisa’s writing will have to bolster the Labour Party, which will now be a little bit blue as well as red with streaks of green thrown in.
It will not be that easy for her, however, to persuade the more sophisticated of her readers that she was so wrong in the past and is so right now.
A letter in The Times argued that she had “blurred memory”. It said: “Ms Micallef gave the impression that the best jobs are reserved for the blue-eyed boys and girls. She seems to have forgotten that she was chairman of the Housing Authority under a Nationalist government and, in the meantime, used to write loads of articles criticising Labour.”
Good point. And Ms Micallef knows full well that it is not only the PN who looks after its blue-eyed boys and girls – although there are far fewer blue-eyed girls.
She was one of the lucky few, being in the right place at the right time with the PN. Many of the other PN girls, who had been around for a lot longer, but were less forceful, did not get any rewards.
Now she has clinched it again with the PL.
But does she really think she would have been offered the job, had she not crossed over? Of course not. She would not have been of any use to Joseph Muscat.
Also, if one of her reasons for leaving the PN was because the right people were not being rewarded, did that worry her when she was doing well with them? Is the PL any better?
There are loyal women as well as men, at least as able, who have served the PL for a long time, who could have filled the post she has been given more than adequately.
Marisa, however, has the edge on badgering editors to publish her stuff, although I am not sure she will be as successful this time around. But you never know, everyone can go around and around, including editors.
Having said that, I have no problem with Ms Micallef landing herself a well-paid job. Everyone has every right to work for whom they wish. And it is great if you can have your cake and eat it.
She has also managed to get all that attention from a male-dominated chauvinistic media.
Malta Today gave her extensive coverage and on Wednesday dedicated two whole pages with opinions from 12 male commentators, plus Joseph Muscat, about her move. The paper could not manage the opinion of one single woman on the issue.
Probably l-orrizont will now be having articles in English, or have someone translate Marisa’s articles into Maltese – unless Joseph is planning on his own English language paper.
But will Ms Micallef help the PL or hinder it?
Besides banking that she will have space in The Times, The Independent and lots in Malta Today, Mr Muscat thinks that she will persuade those of her ilk (upper middle class) to vote Labour, come the next election.
That is where other, more deserving Labour women, were pipped at the post. In fact, the post was probably created for her. Her asset is that she is what used to be called “tal pepe”.
“The Labour Party had suffered in the past because it failed to connect with certain sectors of society, which felt that the PN was their natural home”, Mr Muscat said when explaining her appointment in an interview on One Radio.
Does he really think that because Marisa has moved over, many PN supporters of her breed will follow? I don’t think so.
It is when he starts to demonstrate that he has sound policies, which he can galvanise to show that he is really different and can transform things, that he will persuade some of the upper-class PN voters to change the way they vote.
Their disgruntlement with the Party is not enough, as the last election proved. The PL has not managed to attract the English-speaking upper middle-class in the past with the likes of Mary Darmanin, an intellectual heavy weight by comparison, and Gillian Bartolo, a better writer, not forgetting Marie Benoit.
Besides, the Opposition leader must be careful now that he is aiming to please the upper class that he does not lose support with Labour’s grass roots.
I fear that, just as George Abela, now President, upset many Labour Party members when he made excuses for the bad behaviour towards former PL leader Alfred Sant by so-called PN “puliti” (as in upper-class, not clean), Joseph Muscat might be upsetting the grassroots by giving a top job to someone who has been so dismissive of their party in the recent past.
Most importantly, the upper middle-class will need much more than Ms Micallef’s insistence that the PL has the answers to our woes.
pamelapacehansen@gmail.com