So here we are. The election has come and gone. The Labour Party has won not only a resounding, but a crushing, victory. The Nationalist Party is in a veritable mess. It is still reeling, yet attempting to regroup after the dust caused by the blitz.
I agree that there should be a total clean-out, with a new administration from top to bottom
This is the reality. Surprising, yes. Unexpected, no. In the face of this catastrophe Lawrence Gonzi did the right and honourable thing not to re-contest for the leadership. The size of the defeat left him no option. His general secretary is to go as well. Yes, the responsibility for such a defeat must be carried by all. It is a way of life. It is inevitable and it is expected. As to the question of who the leadership will be bestowed upon within three months, that is another matter. I have my clear ideas of course, like many others, but there is no hurry. The PN must be extremely cautious. Gonzi has responsibly declared that he will serve as Leader of the Opposition until his successor is elected. Parliament will convene within a fortnight or so. The long-awaited Budget will be approved.
The new Cabinet of Ministers will hopefully have settled down. We will, even in the early days, perhaps begin to gauge the doability and feasibility of this Government’s ambitious projects and promises.
For these and many other reasons, and given that there are a long five years to go, I believe that the leadership contests should not be held before the very last moment of their validity.
The PN must tread very carefully. Its councillors should not necessarily look at names and backgrounds, but charismatic personalities who can unite and, above all, deliver. It needs personalities who can unite the party after so many years of division and control by the few.
Yes, I agree that there should be a total clean-out, with a new administration from top to bottom. This is what Joseph Muscat did after Alfred Sant, and it worked.
Years ago, I wrote on these pages on more than one occasion (and I was not the only one) that many people – some veteran Nationalist activists and militants from the turbulent 1970s and 1980s – had mentioned to me that they suddenly felt excluded from their own party. In some cases they were replaced by upstarts.
The hurt I could sense was clear. Yet, nobody did anything about it. Just imagine being kept outside your own home’s door for years by people you deem to squatters. Was all this necessary?
Could it not have been remedied? Could arrogant people not have been brought under control? Rather, they were elevated to important posts or allowed to continue to run omnipotent ministries with impunity, riding (or rather strutting) roughshod and mercilessly over all who dared to even approach them, let alone have the gall to criticise or even disagree with them.
But all this being said, one must be fair. The disloyal Nationalist rebel MPs were of disservice not only to their party but to their constituents and their country as a whole.
Their relentless undermining of the government of the time certainly contributed, to a certain extent at least, to the PN’s electoral defeat.
They must not be forgotten for their disloyalty and, in many cases, opportunism. They must still be held to account in some way or another. Perhaps they could be forgiven with time.
Yet, had they contested the general election would it have made a difference to the result or, at least, the majority size? I doubt it, although the Gonzi government would have been able to run far more smoothly and with more success.
But once again the responsibility for this massive defeat has to be shouldered by the party leadership and all its strategists, who are, or will slowly find their way out in order to provide space for totally new blood, new ideas, new initiatives and new ways of doing things. It is truly sad for the PN, but it must be done if there is to be a successful future for a party with a glorious and largely successful past.