The recent outbursts by former PN politicians and activists against the direction taken by the PN should not have come as a surprise to the PN leadership.
The writing has been on the wall for many years as disgruntlement grew and spread among PN supporters. In their vociferous criticism of the PN, Carmel Cacopardo (former PN candidate and official), Jo Said (former PN activist), Dr Josie Muscat (former PN Member of Parliament), have only been articulating what thousands of PN voters have been feeling about their party at least over the last five years.
A common thread that runs through the criticism of Cacopardo, Said and Muscat is that the PN is no longer the party they believed in and work hard for. This is what many PN activists had already told the Commission appointed by the PN to analyze why the PN lost the election for the European Parliament in June 2004: “the party in Government had lost its ‘soul’… Even top party officials admitted to us that they feel that the PN has lost the ‘high moral ground’, which means that the party has cut itself off from the values it embraces.”
Many PN activists who spoke to the Commission said: “the PN has been too long in Government, surrounded by the same people, there are no new faces in the agencies and the parastatal corporations and the Cabinet. This can give the PN the image that its expiry date has passed, that it is cut off from reality and it does not understand the problems of people… The feeling that the PN is surrounded by cliques of persons whose appointment to such posts cannot be justified, is getting stronger not weaker.”
In September 2004 when it presented its report the Commission concluded that throughout 2003 the PN failed to take any new bold and imaginative initiatives to renew it. “The Party should have started making itself seem to be on the side of the people, and not defend those who the people feel are responsible for wasting public funds, and for taking strange and unfair decisions, persons who are perceived by the general public to be untouchable and who in most cases occupy positions they have neither the qualifications nor the skills for.”
More than three years have passed since the PN leadership was given this report and instead of acting on its recommendations and learning from its heavy defeat in June 2004, Dr Gonzi and his inner circle decided to look the other way. They are now paying the price for failing to renew the PN and address the problems brought about by being too long in government with the same set of people in the Cabinet and in government agencies, authorities and public companies.
Lack of accountability has brought in its wake the charges of corruption, arrogance and incompetence levelled against the PN leadership by an increasing number of PN activists and supporters.
In his resignation letter to the PN 10 days ago, former PN candidate and official Carmel Cacopardo castigated the “nonchalant manner in which the PN as government (and as a party) is tackling misconduct of public officialdom.” He has since decided to join Alternattiva Demokratika.
PN member and activist for 40 years, Jo Said, has publicly stated how he has lost faith in the current PN administration because of poor governance, corruption across the board, and the lack of measures taken by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to address this festering problem. When I met him for the first time a few days ago he told me that he has not decided yet who he will be voting for in the general election but he will definitely not vote PN.
Former PN Member of Parliament, Dr Josie Muscat, left the PN to set up a new party - Azzjoni Nazzjonali - because he feels that the PN is letting the country down.
People like Cacopardo, Said and Muscat are just the tip of the iceberg that will sink the PN Titanic, even if every effort is being made to keep as many passengers as possible happy by pandering to their wishes. Many other PN supporters are also disgruntled and disenchanted but they remain silent in public, as the PN in government can still use its power to reward and punish through the way it uses its patronage networks. As the election approaches the PN is busy trying to widen the circle of those who benefit from its patronage to try and win back to its fold those who have traditionally voted PN but now feel let down by their party. Will the PN’s frenetic use of clientelism be enough to melt the iceberg that is threatening it? It probably is also too little and too late.