With John Dalli nominated to the European Commission and, more recently, Louis Galea despatched to the European Court of Auditors, one can say that the PN government has been divested of the last of its ‘Class of ‘87’ veterans.
Admittedly there remains one other former member of the 1987 Cabinet in Parliament today: Ninu Zammit. But unlike both Galea and Dalli, Zammit has in recent years been confined to the backbench along with (so to speak) the ‘new kids on the block’. An exception might also be made for Transport Minister Austin Gatt. For though he was not a Cabinet minister (or even a Member of Parliament) in 1987, Gatt was nonetheless very active as secretary-general when the PN was elected to power that year. One can say that, like the old guard currently vacating the Government benches, Gatt also cut his political teeth ‘in the trenches’.
Be that as it may, the present composition of the ruling side of the House can now be said to have changed beyond recognition since the distant era when the PN took the reins of government after 16 long years in Opposition. It is therefore perhaps inevitable that some people now question the wisdom of ridding Parliament of its most seasoned and experienced political hands – not just for the immediate reasons (i.e., because their know-how would be missed in such economically trying times); but also for what it appears to reveal about the current Prime Minister’s mindset.
As things stand, the choice of Dalli for Commissioner had already opened Gonzi up to criticism for ‘getting rid of’ a former rival and inconvenient colleague. Now, in the case of Louis Galea, the Prime Minister seems to have been caught up in a curious contradiction. Criticised by PL leader Muscat precisely for having ‘pushed away’ his party’s best elements, Gonzi first countered that Louis Galea had himself shown interest to the post... when in fact, we now know the idea was suggested to him by Gonzi in the first place.
Either way, the comparison, though undeniably odious, becomes inevitable. As the last of the old guard bows out of Parliament, we are left to consider today’s crop of politicians – all of whom can be argued to have originally entered politics for reasons entirely different from those which motivated their preceding generation (and with effects that sometimes show).
Consider, for instance, the contribution made by outgoing Speaker Louis Galea – remembered mostly for his ‘silent revolution’ within the education system when he served as Minster for Education between 1998 and 2003, but who also had a stint as health, social policy and home affairs minister.
Galea’s political skills, well evident from his university years as a law student, were first noted 10 years before his appointment to Fenech Adami’s first Cabinet in ’87. As PN secretary-general, Galea was credited in 1977 with restructuring the Nationalist Party from the old-fashioned (and somewhat elitist) institution it once was, to the so-called ‘broad, populist church’ that enabled the PN to fight a pitched battle against its more mobile and adaptive rival, the MLP under Mintoff and later Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
His long term as secretary general consolidated Louis Galea’s political formation – he came to be known as an organiser and a strategist, the ‘motor’ behind the build up of Eddie Fenech Adami’s stature as leader of the Opposition.
It is perhaps ironic that the same democracy Galea fought for in the 1980s also tarnished his own reputation in the 1990s; when he was criticised for having led many of his constituents to benefit from the notorious ‘auxilliary workers scheme’ – in practical terms, created to satisfy the immediate needs of PN voters who were anxious to get a finger in the pie once the PN got into power.
The auditor’s report to this effect was damning for Louis Galea; but this also provided him with an opportunity to demonstrate his remarkable survival skills as a politician – skills which he honed, it will be remembered, on the ‘battlefield’ that was 1980s politics.
Times have clearly changed. With Galea’s exit, first from the Cabinet (having lost his seat to Franco Debono in 2008), and now from parliament altogether, what we are left with is the image of a party composed of younger and arguably more ambitious MPs... but who are very often seen to lack the political nous that characterised their forebears, and which can only be learnt from the long, hard lessons of political warfare.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Gonzi will no doubt justify his decisions by arguing that he is placing his faith in the younger generation, without whose support the party cannot hope to compete against the PL’s equally young Joseph Muscat. However, while there is undeniably a lot to be said for this argument, it remains a fact that all the heavyweights slowly beng shed by today’s PN happen to be people who pose (or once posed) some form of ‘threat’ to Gonzi himself. (Like Dalli, Louis Galea was also a failed contender for the 2004 leadership race.)
It remains to be seen who, exactly, will replace these two veterans as speaker and Cabinet minister respectively. One thing, however, is almost certain: that loyalty to the present Prime Minister will outweigh both experience and political skill, when the day of reckoning comes.
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