We could all learn a thing or two from Tal-Ajkla

I don’t want to be the one to turn the knife in or anything, so I’ll leave it to others to analyse what went so spectacularly wrong for the PN in last Saturday’s election.

It is not so much for lack of interest on my part, mind you. I am actually interested – very interested – as there was a time (not that long ago) when I felt politically comfortable voting for the PN. Like thousands of others in this country, I feel I also have a vested interest in the ultimate fate of that party. It was after all a political home of sorts for a while… at least, before it suddenly decided to pick up the broom and shoo so many of us out onto the street.

Although all that feels like a long time ago now, I still find it sad to see a once-redoubtable party reduce itself to the sort of comedy of errors that the PN has now become… especially when you also get the distinct sensation that it will fail to learn anything from those errors, but just carry on as though nothing happened at all.

But there are reasons why I don’t want to go there right now. It gets a little tiring to repeat the same thing every election, you know. How many times can you point out that the PN’s biggest enemy is not the Labour Party, nor the independent press, nor any of the dozens of individuals who publicly criticise what they feel deserves to be criticised in this country… but rather, its own attitude in simply brushing off any suggestion that it might on the wrong track?

It is that nasty habit – picked up from people no sensible political party would even touch with a bargepole – to simply assume that it is always right, while its critics are always wrong; not on the strength of any rational argument, but merely out of an ancestral, tribal prejudice that seeks to elevate itself only by belittling others.

But let us leave all that behind, for it is clear from the election result that that’s what the rest of the country is doing anyway. Besides: just this once I want to talk about winners, not losers. In keeping with a renewed drive on my part to only look at the bright side of life – I recommend it to the core strategists of the PN, by the way; it would work wonders for their image – I feel compelled to reflect on the true victors of this election. By my count there are only two, of which only one is (in my humble opinion, of course) actually worth celebrating.

That would be Nazzareno Bonnici Tal-Ajkla: even though the biggest winner in this election by far remains Norman Lowell… about whom I suspect we shall now be hearing a great deal more from the mainstream parties, seeing as how he managed to double his national support-base while both Labour and PN studiously ignored his existence for years.

What about Labour, I hear you ask? Nah. Not even remotely comparable. All too often people tend to confuse another party’s defeat with a victory for themselves… but, in politics as in football, the two things are not indistinguishable: indeed they hardly even resemble each other. Like I said, I don’t want to rub salt into the PN’s wounds, but the results speak for themselves. This was an election lost by the Nationalists much more than it was won by Labour.

There is evidence, for those who care to look, of disgruntlement with the Labour government… but it is clear that most of the disaffected voters preferred to stay at home rather than vote PN. It is also clear from the transfer of votes that many of Imperium Europa’s 7,000+ voters carried on their vote to Labour. There is a powerful message in there somewhere, and it is addressed directly to Joseph Muscat, Esquire.

So back to the true winner of Euro 2014. To fully appreciate the remarkable success story that is Zaren Bonnici, we have to retrace our steps to the cultural phenomenon’s distant, hazy origins... all the way back to just over one (1) year ago, when the unassuming little man from Zabbar contested his first-ever election, and polled only 80 first-count votes despite firing up impressive crowds at regular, colourful rallies all over Malta and Gozo.

I think we all remember that iconic moment when he was photographed at the Naxxar counting hall: alone, bewildered and utterly crestfallen, scarcely able to even absorb the fact that not even one of the thousands who attended his mass meetings went on to actually give him a vote.

That single image spoke volumes about us as a nation. It underscored that recognisable national trait of ours, whereby we enjoy jeering at the discomfiture of others more than celebrating our own successes (as we are seeing right now, and as I imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more in the near future, when Italy meet England in the World Cup). It also illustrated the apparent callousness whereby people are routinely exploited – in this case, for sheer entertainment value – without taking stock of the vulnerabilities of the individual concerned.

Well, now for the good news. A lesser mortal might have crumpled under the weight of such a dispiriting revelation about human nature. Not Tal-Ajkla, however. Undeterred by that electoral snub, he got over the disappointment in record time and evidently learnt from the mistakes of his earlier campaign. This time round he opted for a quieter, less burlesque approach… and the new strategy paid off handsomely.

With a ninth-count tally of 1,307 (1,028 number ones), not only did he comfortably beat off competition from all other microscopic parties and candidates – including one fronted by the nephew of Dom Mintoff (which just goes to show how political dynasties are on the way out) – but he even surpassed the PN’s undisputed star candidate in this election: Kevin Plumpton, who for some strange reason failed to live up to his party’s stratospheric prognostics, and was eliminated at the eighth count.

Even taking into consideration the difference between general and European elections, the improvement over Zaren’s meagre 2013 result represents the sort of surge in popular support other politicians can only dream of. It would be the equivalent of the PN winning 90% of the popular vote and all six seats in the European parliament… just 14 months after losing the general election by 36,000.

And suddenly, the man we all thought was out for the count is back in business. No longer caught on camera moping about with that vacant look of bitterness and disbelief on his face… but frolicking around the counting hall as if he owned the place, blowing kisses at all the female electoral commission agents, only to turn round with a flamboyant “see you all in five years’ time”, and be carried out shoulder-high into the sunset.

I imagine this means that the Partit tal-Ajkla is now a permanent fixture for the next few elections; and a damn good thing that is, too. In my books, anyone who can bounce back from a defeat of such epic proportions, and register such a historic election victory in just 14 months, is not only more than welcome to take his place in the annals of Maltese political history… he actually has a duty and an obligation to stay on: if nothing else, to serve as a beacon and guiding light to other political leaders who are in the same predicament, but lack his energy, charisma and boundless enthusiasm.

Not to mention his undisputed political acumen: which he displayed by first correctly identifying where his chief problems lay, then working tirelessly to address them all, with truly memorable results for himself and the country.

Most important of all, we all need Zaren Bonnici in politics because he has so much to teach us all about life: how to overcome challenges and setbacks, how to turn defeats into victories, and how to correctly read and reflect the popular mood, and how to make other people smile. We can all learn something from this undisputed master political tactician… though some of us might learn slightly more than others.