The brilliant novel The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not about politicians who simply cannot let go of power and who take on various guises to continue to rule. It is a disturbing parable on stagnant societies where the more things change, the more they remain the same: decay pervades everything, everything stinks and crumbles but nothing really changes. In these stagnant societies the past is not what was but what is and will be.

Reviewing Marquez' novel, critic Ravi Vyas remarks: "The beginning is the end. Past, present and future are one - a long continuum with no beginning, no middle, and no end. The Patriarch never dies; he is alive and dead at the same time, he is both himself and not himself, evil lives on from one generation to the next. Nothing is certain except a continuous process of decay and degeneration. Such is the nature of absolute power. It will never give up, even through rack and ruin all around and the cycle of everlasting decomposition."

In its first decision the Gonzi Cabinet moved to appoint Dr Eddie Fenech Adami as President of the Republic. This decision supports and invigorates the forces of decay and stagnation over the forces of renewal and regeneration. The Gonzi Cabinet itself is an expression of the forces of stagnation in our society. There is hardly anything and anyone new within it.

Two opportunities for change and renewal have already been missed since Dr Gonzi was appointed leader of the Nationalist Party and Prime Minister: the formation of the Cabinet and the choice of President. Other decisions, like postponing the implementation of banning smoking in all public places, are part of the decay and decomposition that continue to grip the country.

This does not bode well for a country that has tough challenges to face: regenerating the economy, creating jobs and wealth and instilling fresh life into public structures and services to equip Malta and Gozo to survive and thrive in the 21st century. Wide-ranging problems: debilitating structural deficit and public debt, environmental degradation, lack of fresh investment, de-industrialisation, loss of economic competitiveness, decaying public institutions, a corrosive culture of cronyism... have been allowed to pile up, their solution put away for another year.

We cannot face these tough challenges with "more of the same" mindsets that the Gonzi Cabinet is immersed in. We need real changes. We have to adopt the habits, attitudes and behaviour of dynamic societies, successful at developing open societies and effective economies. These dynamic societies are effective because they manage to harvest the knowledge, skills and talents of as many people as possible living within them.

These dynamic societies manage change well and have means to replace ineffective decision makers in the public and private sector. Such dynamic societies are good at cultivating and nourishing an entrepreneurial and dynamic culture in the economy, in politics and in society. These dynamic and effective societies have persons and structures that are fast at grabbing the opportunities that they actively seek and that come their way.

Our country possesses and exhibits few if any of these effective habits. To make it worse we have a political party that has been in government for practically an uninterrupted period of 15 years. It has created the severe problems that we face but still tries, with the help of the stranglehold it has on the levers of patronage and most of the local media, to give the impression that it is part of the solution and not the main cause of the problems!

"The dawn of a new spring"

At the opening of the 10th parliament last May, the Nationalist government presented its programme heralding new times for our country: "This is indeed the dawn of a new spring." The commitment was taken to "change all that we have allowed to deteriorate, stagnate or to go wrong through lethargy, carelessness or lack of thought."

This government described its programme as "intended to benefit all people without exception; not only in the sense that it rejects and steers clear of political division and partisan differences, but also that it promotes an ever more inclusive society."

Government defined its "cherished goal: the ideal of true democracy, where equality of all citizens means that none fall by the wayside in the march towards progress; indeed the ideal of truly Christian, brotherly democracy, where all actively participate in the life of the country and play their part in solidarity with everyone else."

Prime Minister Gonzi has already failed this benchmark when he led his Cabinet to appoint the successor to President Guido de Marco.

Especially after hearing so much Gonzi rhetoric about the politics of real dialogue and genuine collaboration to bring about less confrontation in the country the least we expected was for Dr Gonzi to consult widely before presenting his Cabinet's choice to the country as a fait accompli.

Dr Gonzi should have consulted all political parties, social partners and civil society to come up with a person who would send a strong message of national unity, a symbol to help us all pull together and face the tough challenges ahead: how to create jobs, attract investment, heal government finances and improve the public services of health, education and welfare.

The first act of the Gonzi Cabinet has disappointed all those who were looking forward to the country turning over a new leaf and stop being run like a one-party state with the winner taking all, occupying all decision-making centres with its cronies to ensure total party control.

After filling the largely symbolic office of the President, the Gonzi Cabinet will now move to fill the decision-making centres in the civil service, public companies and organisations. Will it continue to show the "winner-take-all-more-of-the-same" mindset and continue with its politics of cronyism that makes a travesty of all the nice rhetoric about making "our country and society more inclusive"?

evaristbartolo@hotmail.com

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