Bernard Grech’s first 100 days: the Sunday sermons

Sunday sermons on vision and values won’t do the trick. In the stressed situation the Party now finds itself, people don’t care about theoretical wannabes or entrenched formulae. The sympathisers need a way forward that might give them possibilities. It is about communicating a perspective in a simple way rather than as a simple vision. A vision can and needs to be big in politics. It is the way how this vision is communicated which is important.

A new leader should have been ever present for his sympathisers in his first days. He should have been there within reach clarifying his previous slip ups, explaining clearly his principles and be strong and prepared for though questioning from journalists and be able to reply in a confident manner. When a leader is unprepared, he will end up replying in an unconvincing manner. That kind of communication harbours many doubtful thoughts among his or her supporters.

Then there is the in-house aspect of communication where, due to previous circumstances, the absolute priority should have been a collective approach. Nationalists cannot continue being fed divisions, as happened lately with three MPs not being on speaking terms with their leader apart from infighting between the same klikka which seems to have become the norm. There was internal fighting in Sliema over a petty local party election.

In-house fighting is the worst thing that can happen to any Party: this needs to stop if the party wants to move forward. With these abysmal situations doing the rounds how can Dr Grech establish trust and clarity? Dr Grech was presented to the members as the saviour, but the opposite has ended up being the case.

Perhaps, Bernard Grech needs to change his attitude, his modus operandi, his communication skills with peers. The signals that he is sending are that he lacks modus operandi, lacks communication skills and does not adopt a positive approach.

When communicating with the general public, the golden rule is not to promise anything that cannot be delivered and not to commit to anything that can never be followed up. Communication is extremely important but needs to be effective otherwise it leads to total downfall.