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EDITORIAL | Wednesday, 12 March 2008 ‘Young blood’ in short supply
As the dust settles and the debris of Monday’s celebrations is cleared away, the people of Malta will most likely take stock of the implications of last Saturday’s election result.
At face value, it represents a monumental victory for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who has pulled off a remarkable win, made all the more memorable for having been largely against the run of play. Working against Gonzi was the law of averages, which in Malta has always (until last Saturday) militated against the possibility of a single party winning three consecutive elections… not to mention five in the space of just over 20 years. Also working against the Nationalist Party was a systematic smear campaign against a number of key Cabinet ministers and members of parliament. For the past five years at least, individual MPs have been targeted by a campaign of muckraking and charges of corruption. Sometimes these involved gratuitous and unwarranted allegations, but in many cases the accusations were substantiated. Gonzi’s earlier resistance to change any of his misbehaving ministers may have paid off in the short term, but the incoming government must also accept the fact that some of its members now come with baggage which makes them unsuitable for reappointment as ministers. Given the enormity of the challenge, it is not surprising that Lawrence Gonzi’s bid for re-election would be characterised by an inordinate number of campaign pledges: 353 in the PN manifesto, to which must be added a number of off-the-cuff promises including a long-overdue White Paper on rent reform… and a public consent to the “deal” of reinvigorating the Cabinet with young blood. With hindsight, this latter promise may well have reassured a number of wavering PN voters… but it remains to be seen whether Dr Gonzi will be able to deliver, considering that Saturday’s election has not replenished government benches with an overabundance of untested MPs. As the trite cliché has it, the people have now spoken… and even if the resulting verdict has not entirely been favourable towards the PN (which has lost 4% of its 2003 support) the fact remains that most of Gonzi’s disgraced ministers have been returned to Parliament. Former ministers such as Jesmond Mugliett, Ninu Zammit and Giovanna Debono were all besmirched by allegations of corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Mugliett in particular had even tendered his resignation, which Gonzi turned down. Still, all three have survived the electoral test, albeit with smaller vote counts. Ironically, among those to pay the ultimate price of the GonziPN gamble was none other than Louis Galea; a veteran Nationalist of the old school, who can be said to have engineered this latest victory on at least two counts: coming up with the fatal “repeater class” slogan, and defusing Dr Sant’s health cabinet memo bomb by revealing that he had personally sent it back before Cabinet discussion could take place. But perhaps the most indicative case is that of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, the Nationalist backbencher formerly viewed as potential environment minister material. Over the last two weeks Pullicino Orlando was at the centre of a veritable cyclone of pre-electoral controversy, after Sant produced document after document to reveal his involvement in an application to develop a large open-air disco in Mistra Bay: one of Malta’s environmentally sensitive beauty spots. Admittedly, Sant’s endless accusations of “corruption” were at best weak, considering that the documentary evidence produced to date does not add up to any law-breaking on the MP’s part. But in consistently denying knowledge of the Mistra permit application – only to be exposed as signatory to a contract which specifies that his land is to be leased precisely for such development – the otherwise affable and popular Zebbug politician has dented his own credibility and annihilated all his green credentials in one fell swoop. It is also true that Pullicino Orlando was nonetheless elected from two districts; but from this newspaper’s enquiries (see page 6) it is estimated that outside the periphery of PN hardliners, Pullicino Orlando’s antics have also cost the Nationalist Party dearly in terms of national support. From this perspective, Gonzi’s outright, a priori exclusion of a Cabinet post for Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando suggests that the Prime Minister has taken the general message on board. More importantly it signals that Lawrence Gonzi is intent on making a fresh start for his second term of office as Prime Minister – as he had in fact promised before the election. This is welcome news, and a brave step for the newly sworn-in Premier. However, it also leaves Gonzi with limited options when it comes to forming a Cabinet which can really give that much-needed impression of novelty. A cursory glance at the composition of parliament will in fact reveal only two entirely new Nationalist MPs to speak of – Franco Debono and Beppe Fenech Adami. Of the rest, there are many who are capable, but none who can realistically be described as “young blood”. By distancing himself from Pullicino Orlando, Prime Minister Gonzi has already given an indication that he genuinely intends to strike a different course. Today we shall see just how “new” his future way of doing politics will be. Any comments? |
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Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email
Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email