TELL ME WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE, AND ... Adrian Delia in a tight corner
There is a saying in English, as well as in Maltese, that goes you can identify the character of a person by their friends...tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.
That is where PN Leader Adrian Delia is suffering, highly evidenced by his continuing drop in the popularity charts. Unfortunately, it is not his fault and not of his own doing.
With “friends” like Simon Busuttil, Jason Azzopardi, Beppe Fenech Adami, David Casa, Roberta Metsola, David Thake and desperate hangers-on like Ana Gomes and Sven Giegold, his popularity with the electorate is likely to keep falling and falling.
Is there anything concrete he can do about it? Does he have a plan? It’s all very well pressing the Government to reveal their “Plan” about immigration but what is his plan to jettison these burdensome individuals and start seeing the light of day again?
And that’s the rub ...as William Shakespeare wrote – what can he do about it? These people are known to find it difficult to keep their mouths closed. At every opportunity they take the advantage to try and glorify and project themselves with the populist elements of the electorate. BUT, that is not the requisite of a political party which has a Leader and has principles and practices.
How can Adrian Delia reach out to the electorate when he is constantly being undermined from within by “colleagues” whose main interest is that of putting forward their own individual agenda?
Anyway, that is for him and his real friends to worry about. HOWEVER, sometimes, he does no favour to himself.
I have said before and will say again, the people appreciate his support for the Government in the immigration sphere. The people do not mind that yesterday he pronounced the words of the late Dom Mintoff that Malta’s interests must come first and foremost despite the continual efforts of Casa and Metsola to denigrate Malta’s interests in the international sphere.
Unfortunately too, sometimes I think his advisors are giving him the wrong tips. Yesterday he came out calling for “a Government Plan on Immigration”! This included queries and requests for “clarifications”.
In one such “clarification” he wants the Government to declare whether any agreement had been reached when Renzi was Italian Prime Minister that all immigrants be taken to Italy. If that is the case, he maintained, the agreement still stands.
Does it really matter now? New Italian Internal Minister Scavolini has decided on his own regulations – and that’s that as far as he is concerned.
As for a “clear Government Plan” – what plan? The United Nations does not have a plan; the EU does not have a plan; EU Member countries do not have a plan – except that they are all sick and tired of the situation.
Let us assume the Government does have a Plan. What use would it be when it is dependent on what Libya does, what Italy does, what the EU does and what the Member Countries do?
Let us assume further the “Plan” is to send all of them back to Libya – and the Libyan authorities say, “Oh no you won’t”. The same goes for Italy, Tunisia and the rest of the world. What if the plan is to let them all perish at sea? There would be an enormous worldwide outburst of condemnation.
So, what Plan?
Above all, PM Joe Muscat has already announced the Plan. Malta will follow and adhere to International Regulations – and that is as far as the Plan can be taken.
Without doubt, Dr Delia has not only to sort out and choose his proper friends; he also has to start choosing the most appropriate advisors.
Unless he does he will merely continue to wade in a stagnant duck pond.
ALBERT JEROME FENECH
