When fate, as it would be, thrust upon me the responsibility of being a Cabinet Minister of this fair land, I used to joke that the next step up the ladder of success was for me to become a minister’s driver: to have access to information on what’s happening and the connections to help ‘friends’, without the accountability that is part and parcel of the job. I used to contest the elections whereby citizens choose the members of the House of Representatives. Cabinet Ministers are not elected: they are chosen and appointed by the Prime Minister of the day, and being a minister is no picnic, whatever many might think.
With the government’s popularity at a historical low, the MPs in the backbench who ‘expected’ to be appointed ministers are in revolt, according to a report carried in this newspaper last Sunday. On the same day, The Sunday Times carried an interview with Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo, whose disappointment at not being appointed Minister was never disguised. This was followed by an edition of Bondiplus on TVM last Monday that staged the same Arrigo and another two backbench MPs, all said to be ministerial wannabes, at least in the popularity stakes.
Even though Lou Bondì’s dress and hairstyle – looking just like some tactless Italian fascist straight out of the set of Benigni’s ‘La vita è bella’ – threatened to steal the show and to dominate the next day’s cafè discussions about the programme, the way the three musketeers (one for all, all for one) behaved was an interesting psychological case-study in itself.
What struck me most in the way Bondi’s three guests talked was the incredible lack of clarity about their Constitutional position as MPs on the government side. It is not all their fault, of course. In Malta two of the three branches of the state, the executive and the legislative, seem to have become one big fused concoction with no distinction between them, and the idea that they provide checks and balances to each other has remained just theory, if not a fictional notion.
As MPs, and hence members of the legislative, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Franco Debono and Robert Arrigo are the equals of Lawrence Gonzi. But Lawrence Gonzi – being the one enjoying the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House – was also appointed Prime Minister – and head of the Executive – by the President. He, in turn, advised the President who of the other members would form his Cabinet… and the President could not but act in line with this advice.
There is an enormous difference between an MP crossing the floor (i.e., switching his or her political allegiance to another political group), or an MP voting against the government on a vote that is considered a vote of confidence – such as a money vote – or voting against a government proposed law where the question of a vote of confidence is not at stake. The fact that the majority of MPs sustain their confidence in the Executive does not translate automatically into any obligation for them to vote in favour of whatever proposed law any minister promotes. On television last Monday, the three musketeers struggled and miserably failed to explain their predicament in these terms, clearly showing that their Constitutional education is, to say the least, sadly lacking.
Throughout the programme one could see the spectre of clientelism that haunts Maltese politics: the three musketeers insisted that it was their supporters (or is it canvassers?) that were expecting their being appointed Ministers. How come? The only sensible answer to this question is that these supporters/canvassers believe that with their MP being a Minister they stand a better chance of having their wishes granted. Debono even pointed out that in the district that he contests there is a feeling of disappointment because none of their two Nationalist MPs have been appointed Minister or Parliamentary Secretary. This is not a Debono excuse, as this feeling does really exist. The voters in the district really believe that without a Minister who depends on their votes, the chances of their favours being granted are slimmer. It boils down to a question of ‘pjaċiri’! But surely political favouritism is not a parameter that the Prime Minister should consider when he chooses his Ministers. Or am I being naïve?
Franco Debono tried to persuade everyone that the real reason why he was part of the Prime Minister’s delegation on a recent jaunt to New York was simply his interest in the climate change issue. Nobody, of course, believes this, as much as nobody can understand what made the Prime Minister take the inane decision to include Debono in his delegation – a development that surely sent the wrong message to the normal citizen and only served to bolster the unfortunately too common perception of a weak Prime Minister facing a leadership crisis.
Franco fared even worse when towards the end of the programme he was pressed by Lou Bondì to deny that he was objecting to the approval of new PN candidates in the district he contests – a denial that never came.
Robert Arrigo even played the sympathy card when he claimed that in Malta’s political history there was never a candidate who got elected from two electoral districts and was not subsequently appointed Minister. Apart from the fact that one of the other two persons under Bondì’s spotlight, Pullicino Orlando, is in the same position, Arrigo is historically incorrect. Way back in 1962, G.M. Camilleri was elected from two electoral districts and, to his chagrin, was not appointed minister. I was not yet 17 years old at the time, but I still remember that Camilleri had issued a statement thanking the voters of the two districts that had supported him and also denying that he had refused an offer to become minister! So what’s new, except Arrigo’s lack of subtlety?
Incidentally, the rumour at the time was that Prime Minister Borg Olivier had given Camilleri a miss because some 10 years earlier during the political turbulence of the early fifties, Camilleri had once voted against the PN whip. Which brings us back to square one: the ‘wisdom’ of voting against your own party line, a decision that could have unforeseen disastrous consequences in the future.
Frankly, I don’t see any of the three musketeers anywhere nearer the much coveted ministerial seat after their performance on Monday. Even though I am tempted to remind the Prime Minister of the reply former US President Lyndon B. Johnson gave when asked why on earth he had kept the notorious J. Edgar Hoover in his post as FBI supremo. Johnson is said to have replied: “Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in!”
Prime Ministers, you know, should be careful not to get unduly wet.
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I used to contest the elections whereby citizens choose the members of the House of Representatives. Cabinet Ministers are not elected: they are chosen and appointed by the Prime Minister of the day, and being a minister is no picnic, whatever many might think.
