All we have heard in the last week was the word “stability” being bandied about by all and sundry while the Greek tragedy featuring Franco contra mundum was being acted out on the media.
... a personal vendetta by a backbencher on his Prime Minister is simply unacceptable- Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Bondì+, Dissett and Xarabank have all flogged the Franco Debono saga to death. However, it is now very clear that the situation has moved to a level far beyond the remit of this rebellious backbencher and become a constitutional crisis.
Despite the fact that the Nationalist Party insists that it is a party matter and should be resolved as such, should whichever party propose a confidence vote and Dr Debono sticks to his guns and votes against, as he said he would, then the government will lose its majority and an election will have to be called. Because of Dr Debono it will be near impossible to carry off an election on a level playing field because, on both sides, emotions are running too high.
On the part of the Labour Party we have a leader who is being very dispassionate and logical about the situation and who very obviously agrees that an election at this juncture of our history is not such a good idea on both a national and a political level.
If one pauses to listen carefully to Joseph Muscat one can easily perceive that he does not want to be the one to become Prime Minister because of an internal rebellion in the party in harness. He wishes, just as I would, to become Prime Minister on the strength of an electoral manifesto and the extent that he can convince the floaters that he will captain the good ship Malta through the maelstroms that appear to be looming on the horizon.
The alternative is dealing with a harsh winter of discontent.
There are many who are comparing the recalcitrant Dr Debono to Dom Mintoff in 1998. No two individuals could be more unlike. How can one compare a politician of the calibre and history of Mr Mintoff to a newbie like Dr Debono?
I do not and can never approve of Dr Debono’s actions as he has held his party to ransom and demonised his Prime Minister to an unprecedented extent that transcended the unwritten laws of decency. This is unacceptable. He is the archetype of a Prime Minister’s worst nightmare.
Were I to lead a party and obtain a one-seat majority I would immediately go back to the polls as the prospect of being a “lame government” held to ransom at every juncture is no picnic, as we have seen.
The last four years have been fraught with controversy. Whether about the St John’s Co-Cathedral bunker, the Piano project or divorce, we have exercised our inherent skills at litigation and argument to the maximum. If one looks at it objectively, this is healthy. However, if one remembers BWSC, the Tritons Fountain and the honoraria issues, all of which were subject to internal criticism within the ranks of the PN and not solely criticised by the opposition, then, yes, the one-seat majority was indeed and still is an incubus.
Is the controversy caused by the government itself? I don’t think so. Like the protagonists of the Arab Spring, we Maltese simply do not believe in the once sacrosanct maxim of chi comanda fa la legge anymore and will freely and promptly express an opinion or criticise as is the divine right of any citizen in a working democracy.
Today, the ways and means to do so are infinite compared to what they were a decade ago and there you have it. Facebook and Twitter, eat your heart out!
Unless Dr Debono resigns, the situation will carry on until the PN, unable to control a renegade within its ranks, must call an election.
Should Dr Debono abstain in a no-confidence vote, the Speaker’s casting vote might keep the government there till the time when another blow up takes place. But this is no way to run a country.
Even should Dr Debono make a complete volte face at this juncture (wishful thinking), the damage is now irreversible. Never, as far as I know, in our history have we ever seen the like.
It is no fair way to lose the government of a country as much as there would be little merit in gaining it for the simple reason that a personal vendetta by a backbencher on his Prime Minister is simply unacceptable. Criticise as much as you like but within reason. There has been a lot to criticise for nobody is perfect – I have myself been pretty critical of the present government when the occasion demanded it – but do not use your own personal thwarted ambitions to put the entire nation through this psychological martyrdom when there is so much at stake and at a time when the EU, along with the entire world, teeters on the edge of a financial and economic abyss. That is the height of irresponsibility.
At the time of writing, there is no way to define which way the cat is going to jump. Even should Dr Debono see the light and mend his ways, it is now too late.
Should he, on the other hand, cross the floor there could be an ad hoc PL government overnight at a moment that could not be worse.
A snap election at this stage could go either way, so while the stakes are high the gambling is literally hazardous for all concerned.
It would be as impossible to mend the political damage caused to date as it would be to restore Dr Debono’s shredded and chopped political reputation. Both are too far gone and, like Humpty Dumpty all over again, the entire cavalry of king’s horses and all the battalions of the king’s men cannot ever put him together again.