The rift in our society goes deeper than party politics

For decades Gibraltar has enjoyed a reputation as a harmonious microcosm of what the World could and should be. We were - and to some extent still are -  regarded as a tolerant melting-pot of cultures in which there was little ‘class' distinction and there was no friction between a diversity of races or among a pantheon of religions. True, there were political differences, but these were not destructive. For within the community there was a sense of caring and sharing which - with the other ‘virtues' - contributed to a strong sense of nationhood that, from the era of Sir Joshua Hassan and Peter Isola (Sen) onwards, drove the Rock forward towards greater independence and autonomy.

A Divided Nation

But we are at risk of becoming a divided nation - a development largely, but not entirely, driven by the ego and spendthrift ways of Chief Minister Peter Caruana... and contributed to by the unbending determination of the ‘Old Guard' of the official Opposition. For the time has come, not only for Caruana to be ousted from his empire at No 6, but for younger and more modern leaders to emerge from Joe Bossano's shadow and take control of the GSLP...bringing with them new policies appropriate to the metamorphosis of the Rock and the 21st century.

Ironically, the threatened rift in the community was powerfully illustrated by the messages issued by Caruana and Bossano for last Thursday's National Day  -  a celebration itself divided by two disparate political concepts which are dominated by their approach to Spain and our relations with our neighbour.

Bossano's ringing call not to give an inch to Spain and to continue our determination to retain links with Britain while moving away from a ‘colonial' status (which we reported in last week's issue of VOX) contrasts bleakly with the Chief Minister's call for appeasement and a softening of attitudes towards a regime that persists in infringing our sovereignty and which - for all its protestations of ‘good will - continues to argue that we are in fact Spanish and eyes us like a particularly succulent morsel of tapas on a bar counter waiting to be gobbled up by an ill-mannered road worker.

And it is mainly Caruana's appeasement of Spain, his buttering up of his amigos in Madrid and has scantily hidden ‘Polomo' convictions as much as his squandering of the taxpayers' cash and failure to keep promises which widen  the rift within our nation - a crevasse that goes deeper than party politics, for its strikes at the national soul of Gibraltar.

His speeches - increasingly more like dictatorial\ exhortations than the political'orations' of the past - are lengthy and often turgid, prompting the question: Does the Chief Minister actually listen to what he is saying? What precisely does this extract from his National day message mean?

"But, equally we must avoid allowing the position and attitudes of others towards us, which we reject, to dictate how we do things here in Gibraltar. The more that our national day celebrations resemble the normal way that other countries do it, the more Gibraltar will seem to others to be a normal country, and thus the more the position of others towards us will look abnormal. In the Government's judgement the continuation of the political rally in its old format risks condemning Gibraltar to a state of perpetual, defensive revindication, and thus oxygenates the theory of others that there is a problem that needs solving."

Resonant but pompous codswallop? Probably. However, bunkered in his self-content, does the Chief Minister not realise that this very problem exists?

Political Event

Arguing that there was a place for civic events as well as for what he termed as "a political moment of reflection" and that these were "completely compatible in any modern society"  PDP leader Keith Azopardi last week encouraged Gibraltarians "to attend the political event at Casemates at 11am in mass numbers and then after it finishes to attend the civic event at the Piazza hosted by the Mayor."

It was the type of equivocation that increasingly colours the PDP's political image, suggesting that the part wants to be all things to all people - a banner which might work in a Utopian society but would have little more effect than a cheap plaster applied to the serious wound of our community spirit. But otherwise much of Azopardi's National day message not only makes sense in plain language, but it will also find echoes in the minds of an electorate...which, none the less, is unlikely to return the PDP to Parliament - even as an Opposition, let alone government.

"A political reaffirmation of what we are and where we came from is an important exercise in asserting our rights as a people," he said. "This would be important even if Gibraltar was an accepted member of the community of nations. As we are not it is an even more valuable statement of political intent by our small nation. Clearly the threats to our separate identity and our way of life continue. From simple harassment at the border to the undermining of our rights and the continued prosecution of a sovereignty claim over our land and our waters. These are daily manifestations of what we must fight against. It is to shut ones eyes to reality to believe that all has been achieved already."

Unfortunately, Caruana is blinkered, driven by his own self-belief and pro-Spanish leanings. And while he continues to promote these attitudes - and while a section of the community continues to accept them purely on his say-so - Gibraltar's core of national identity will continue to erode.