Politics is a brutal business

到了選舉年, 醜聞特別多。Mor Sir 被黨友螫到滿身傷痕, 本來是黨同伐異的, 現在卻同室操戈。繼上一篇講Mor Sir被新省前省長及不知名的內閣部長形容為terrible person 及psycho, fraud等, 現在又流出副首相Barnaby Joyce在去年3月, 曾經形容Morrsion為"a hypocrite and a liar", 不是匆速的定論, 而是經年觀察的心得:

“He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time.

“I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie.”

這內容傳達了甚麼訊息? 這短訊發出的時候. 兩人在政壇已共事了14年, 真的屬於長時間觀察的結果。為了聯合政府的執政前途, 為了選票, Joyce立即發聲明道歉, 還說要請辭云云, 有文為證:

“While the text message was supposed to be private, what I said in that message was wrong; and I have unreservedly apologised to the Prime Minister for my comments. It is common knowledge that in the past the Prime Minister and I had not always seen eye to eye.

“But I have worked extremely closely with the Prime Minister over the last seven months since I returned to the role of Deputy Prime Minister; and the Prime Minister is a person of high integrity and honesty in what is possibly the most difficult job in the nation.”

把市民看作3歲的笨小孩, 白癡才會信這些說話。 Joyce原本的短訊才是肺俯之言, 訊息的對象是投訴在國會內被強姦的女職員, Joyce不滿Morrison的處理方法才會說他是虛偽的大話精。現在為了政府的前途才說開脫的話, Morrison被各方貶斥個人誠信(外國總統、前首相、新省前省長、現任聯邦政府的部長及副首相), 還沒有包括反對黨在內, 已可以說prima facie guilty as alleged。

Barnaby Joyce也不見得可信。這聯合政府由兩個政黨Liberal及National組成, 前者黨魁是Morrison, 後者是Joyce, 兩黨的凑合也不是很協調的。為了此事, Joyce "offered his resignation", 當然也是在演戲, 真的請辭, 就會做戲做全套"tendered his resignation", 而不是"offered"。 他這樣做戲也引起National的黨友不滿, 他們覺得要請辭也應向自己的黨請辭, 而不是向Liberal的Morrison。

抓爛了臉皮後, Morrison和Joyce又怎再共事下去呢? 別擔心, 搞政治的人自有政治EQ。今早Morrison去完崇拜後公開面對傳媒, 講了以下一番大道理:

Politics is a brutal business.

Anyone who pretends it’s not, and anybody who pretends that from time to time people don’t get angry or bitter ... if you can’t accept and understand each other’s frailties and be forgiving in those circumstances, then, frankly, that says a lot more about you than it does about others.

Human frailty. It’s real. We all share it. We all live with it. And we all need to be more understanding of it. And politicians are no different to people watching me now.

What people send around in texts, I, frankly, could not care less about. And, frankly, Australians are far more interested in their jobs and their lives than what people are sending in text messages to each other.

,,,,,,

沙士比亞出場: "Frailty, thy name is woman", 改了一個字: Frailty, thy name is human. 人總有軟弱的時候, 在Morrison眼中, 在他背後發短訊貶斥他的人就是弱者, 他不terrible, psycho及fraud, 也不是hyprocrite及liar。如果不是選舉在即, 不是民調不利, 他就不會使用這種打圓場的口吻了。他也很清楚, 兩人再共事的機會也很渺茫, 選情十分不利之外, 就算能再當選, 兩人都頗大機會被自己的黨友扯下馬來。 Politics is a brutal business.