As the House of Representatives breaks up for its summer recess, it is worth observing that this is also the half-way point of the Parliament. In another 30 months’ time we shall be in the throes of a general election. What is the current state of the two parties?
Starting with the Nationalist Opposition, I can’t help but be reminded of the reactions of those who have tragically lost a dear friend or member of the family.
To anyone who has lost someone cherished, their cycle of grief will be familiar. After the numbing shock comes the denial of reality. The intrusion of the terrible truth incites anger before despair sets in. Only then, when they have come to terms with the loss, can recovery begin.
Judging by what I read in the newspapers from party apparatchiks, columnists or bloggers, the PN’s cavalry of denial is still marshalling its forces two years on. Terms have not yet fully been found for the loss, nor moved on to recovery. Anger prevails.
One has only to read some columnists to recognise their continuing denial and shock. Everything that may be wrong with the government (and there is quite a lot) is discussed, often breathlessly. Everything is picked over, often tediously, in a partisan manner. Hyperbole is not spared.
Or worse, the blogger in another newspaper. I won’t name her so as not to sully the distinguished family name into which she married. She continues to pour vitriol on anybody who disagrees with her politics because she cannot possibly comprehend, without wetting herself, how so many could have got it so wrong in 2013.
Ms Habsburg Jaw sees stretching ahead of her the onset of her early 60s – and the image of a faded, bitter woman – before there is any realistic hope of celebrating a Nationalist government in power. She may well be proved right.
But to suppose that these columnists or apparatchiks can win the next election merely by mounting personal attacks on members of the Labour government – or, indeed, anybody that disagrees with them – is to fail to read the signs of the times, or how Maltese politics has moved in a short space of time.
Judging by the shrill tone of voice that the leader of the Opposition has adopted on most occasions, he too thinks that simply propping up the core Nationalist vote – those who will always vote Nationalist come hell or high water – will be sufficient to see his party through in two years’ time.
Nothing currently seems more unlikely. In politics, words are action. Leaders need them to mobilise support.
Simon Busuttil is an articulate man and quick to master a brief (which is what brought him to prominence in the first place). He is also a likeable man.
Simon Busuttil may not be impressive but the self-inflicted mistakes of ‘patronage and plunder’, which the government has committed over the last few months, are taking their toll
However, he has been hopeless at distancing himself from the 2008/13 Parliament and projecting what he and the PN now stand for. After 30 months of Opposition, thousands of voters – those who will swing the next election – still do not know with certainty who he is, what he believes, what are his values and what leadership qualities he brings which are better than the Prime Minister’s. He has adopted a scatter-gun approach, which quite frequently misses the target. He has made much of the corruption that has engulfed the government but has forgotten there is a risk that, in focusing on this as a way of reinforcing his own support base, he also unerringly reminds others of the ignominy under Nationalist administrations – still to be satisfactorily resolved – surrounding the construction of the €700 million Mater Dei Hospital and the multi-million euro oil-gate scandal at Enemalta. Pot-calling-kettle-black is never good tactics.
Although there has been occasional talk of setting out new policies – on meritocracy, the environment and good governance – crucial arguments to make clear blue water between his party and Labour have still not been presented.
The factors in the Nationalists’ favour on these issues could be effective if only Busuttil would make a bold attempt to stoop to political conquest.
When it comes to the Prime Minister’s performance in running the government, one is immediately reminded of what the mighty Ghengis Khan said: “Conquering the world on horseback is easy. It is dismounting and governing that is hard.”
Governance by Joseph Muscat has been poor and getting poorer. An efficient public service (which under this administration regrettably includes the multiple secretariats and burgeoning positions of trust) is the motor that drives a modern State.
The most senior officials, those who advise ministers and oversee the implementation of government policy, are the indispensable component of governance success or failure.
That almost every critical post in government has been hand-picked by this administration based on political colour means there is nobody else to blame for the resulting poor governance. Indeed, it may actually be explained by the poverty of talent which has been parachuted in.
A government may have good policies but if the ministers and officials are incapable of executing them efficiently the result is disorganisation or worse.
In 2013/14, it was perhaps excusable to point to the teething pains of a new government but the last few months have witnessed a succession of botched initiatives, some of them verging on corruption or sharp practice. Although trust in Muscat still stands at 39 per cent to Busuttil’s 26 per cent, it is down from the high of 47 per cent two years ago and his approval rating is down from 57 to 40 per cent. Labour leads Nationalists by a comfortable five per cent in the polls but this is down from 13 per cent at the election.
The Prime Minister cannot go on leaching support at this rate. Busuttil may not be impressive but the self-inflicted mistakes of ‘patronage and plunder’ which the government has committed over the last few months are taking their toll.
The stench of lawlessness, bordering on worse, within the Police Force – former Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit and his son, Police Inspector Daniel Zammit, and their involvement with the notorious Mark Gaffarena; former home affairs minister Manwel Mallia’s sacking over the Sheehan shooting; the leaking of confidential documents under the watch of former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit – is a dagger in the heart of the rule of law.
The extraordinary property expropriation payment to the same Gaffarena and his apparent friendship with the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning; the Café Premier deal; and the unorthodox government guarantee of €88 million to a private company, Electrogas, for the construction of the new power station leave a sour taste.
Overlay this with crass decisions on environmental planning, the poor handling of the new bus ticketing system and a long-promised ministerial code of ethics, through which Cabinet ministers can drive a coach and horses because it lacks any teeth, and you have a recipe for widespread electoral concern.
We have the compensation of a robust economy. However, creeping hubris and arrogance in government cannot be sustained for long.
If he is wise, the Prime Minister will use the summer recess to instil greater caution and humility in his government and a more prudent and measured approach.
CHOGM in November offers Malta an opportunity to shine on the world stage. Let us just hope we don’t fluff because of ill-thought out administration just as it this has undermined government in the last few months.