Victor Scerri – the PN president who is building himself some silly contraption, sanctioned by MEPA, in the pristine setting of Bahrija – stated in a comment that the landslide victory for Joseph Muscat was not a vote of no confidence in Lawrence Gonzi. If Victor Scerri believes his own precious words, then really it is high time for him to retire once and for all from politics and set up a permanent residence in Bahrija. (Oh and by the way: pity Alan Deidun, the not very successful PN candidate, did not have time to look into this interesting piece of development. Nor for that matter did the PM, who is supposedly responsible for MEPA.)
Seriously, if Scerri believes that the thousands of Nationalists who voted Labour, and the thousands who chose not to vote at all, were not transmitting a message to Lawrence Gonzi, then he must be right.
Surely the 35,000 odd Labour majority must all be voters with a secret fetish for Joseph Muscat.
Yesterday was the clearest message of no confidence in GonziPN possible, and no matter what is said or stated, Gonzi has a serious problem of legitimacy.
He has no one to blame but himself. And if he thinks he can walk away from this one, he is very mistaken.
I remember years back when Pierre Portelli, then as now one of Gonzi’s faithful, stated that with Gonzi, the PN would always win. Well, it seems that times are a-changing.
Gonzi simply saying he takes full responsibility is not enough. Nor is simply saying that he will listen from now on.
His politics of “us and them” has to change. And when I refer to “us and them”, I am not only talking about “blues and reds”, but I am specifically referring to those blues who are not in the Gonzi clan.
But yesterday’s vote has nothing to do with the Gonzi faction, or the Dalli faction, or the Austin Gatt faction. It has much to do with this perceived notion that this administration is simply not delivering and that the government is detached from the people.
And none of the motley crew of candidates presented by Gonzi seems to have altered that impression.
In the last five years, Gonzi has placed his persona at the centre of the PN. Needless to say, every achievement that has come Gonzi’s way was credited to himself, but it was not of his doing but a consequence of what his predecessors had set out to do.
When Gonzi stood at Upper Barrakka and took credit for European accession in 2004, everyone remembered that this would not have happened had it not been for Fenech Adami.
Before that, Gonzi was nowhere to be seen.
When the Euro was introduced, it was the natural consequence of EU accession. And yet Gonzi gave the impression that the whole changeover was his brainchild.
The real legacy of Gonzi can be appreciated in: a mismanaged government; a lack of direction; a disunited party; the poor media that emanates today from Triq id-Duluri, Pieta; the angry backbenches; the lack of magnanimity towards others in the party; and the singular choice of people in agencies who lack competence (but not allegiance).
But worst of all, Gonzi’s administration has invested in promulgating the same clique of sycophants who depend on this administration to survive.
Today there are two PN’s: GonziPN and the PN.
Gonzi has no idea of shame. When asked a few days back about an auditor’s report on the scandalous issue of direct orders at Mater Dei, Gonzi unashamedly said he would ignore procurement procedure and repeat the same thing. No one had the temerity to report his comment.
Gonzi great talent is to give the impression that he cares, but in reality he is a prisoner of his great indecisiveness.
The only two people who take decisions in his cabinet are Austin Gatt and John Dalli. The others, with all due respect, simply do not have the character to lead.
Yesterday as I watched and listened to Mario Schiavone and Pierre Portelli on NET TV commenting on yesterday’s result I noticed two individuals in denial.
Instead of eating humble pie, Mario Schiavone – who also stands in as an independent journalist – chose to describe anyone who switched political allegiance as that archetypal person who had a garage in a narrow alley, and had the alley blocked by bollards.
What a load of... bollards. No wonder GonziPN is out of touch. If the thousands who switched sides were indeed angry voters with a bollard problem, I am sure this is a good enough reason for Gonzi to stay on as PM and leader.
GonziPN will be very quick to blame Austin Gatt and Borg Olivier for this electoral result. But the reality is that without Austin Gatt, Lawrence Gonzi would not be able to peel an egg.
If Austin Gatt came to cabinet with the stupid suggestion of having a utility tariff price hike, the responsibility for taking up the suggestion and implementing it was the PM’s and no one else’s.
And if Gonzi’s boys want to blame Paul Borg Olivier for the campaign they had better start pointing their fingers at Simon Busuttil too, the man who refused to stand as secretary general because his job in Brussels was simply too lucrative to abandon.
If the PM had any sense, he would call his parliamentary group now and put the whole issue of his leadership to a vote of confidence.
He could set about realising that he cannot go on having a country run by a small clique of flatterers. He would have to introduce meritocracy and do away with political apartheid.
But this is easier said than done.
As Labour controlled its feverish excitement I could not help noticing Alex Sciberras Trigona being interviewed on Super One. Can Muscat ask some carpenter to build a big large box and lock AST in it for the next four years?
AST really does not quite realise what year we are living in. In search of a comparison to yesterday’s results, AST chose to refer to... 1981.
By the way, where is Richard? How come I did not see him with Gonzi?
Oh, I forgot… Richard Cachia Caruana only appears when the party wins.
Goodbye Alternattiva. Perhaps it is time for a Green party which stands for something, not a political party that was scared to mention divorce and other burning issues. Not a party that seemed only geared to work for the rerouting of one person back to Brussels.
What a pity! What a pity the Nationalists never appreciated the value of third party politics in 22 years and continued to postpone electoral reform.
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If Victor Scerri believes his own precious words, then really it is high time for him to retire once and for all from politics and set up a permanent residence in Bahrija. (Oh and by the way: pity Alan Deidun, the not very successful PN candidate, did not have time to look into this interesting piece of development. Nor for that matter did the PM, who is supposedly responsible for MEPA.)
