The ink is barely dry on Lawrence Gonzi's oath of office and he is already having trouble with some of his MPs. In one corner reside the disgruntled lot; the ones that the Prime Minister - whose sole prerogative they are all-too-easily forgetting it is to form the government - omitted from the new downsized Cabinet.
This group, consisting of ex-ministers as well as newly elected Members, are making it known vociferously - some publicly, some semi-privately and some an unpalatable mixture of both - that they are unhappy.
Their reasons are several, ranging from being inappropriately informed to being deserving of a ministry because their popularity within their constituency and/or their experience in the private sector ipso facto merits such an appointment.
The rationale supporting the latter contention does not hold water. For the coming administration to be successful, appointments - inside Cabinet and elsewhere - must only be made on the basis of merit and integrity alone. Popularity or private sector experience guarantee neither, and may in fact prove to be counterproductive.
One can only speculate why these MPs have chosen to take this approach. It could be that since he has just a one-seat majority, they feel the Prime Minister is weaker. But in actual fact Gonzi is stronger than at any point in his leadership, since the mandate he obtained was a vote of confidence, first and foremost, in him - and he got it in spite of some of his colleagues.
To his credit, though Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando seemed highly likely to become a minister were it not for the Mistra episode, he has stayed well away from this crowd. But that seems to be the only point left on his scorecard, as he is in the rather unpleasant position of sitting alone in the other corner.
Ever since the Labour Party revealed - in the strategically mistaken form of a striptease show - the application to build a huge disco on scenic land owned by the Nationalist MP, Dr Pullicino Orlando's hitherto enviable repu-tation as a green and upstanding politician has been eroded by the day.
The electorate now has good reason to think that he was - at best - playing with words when he said that he neither knew the applicant, nor the details of the project. And it has good reason to wonder how much further the case will go, since a police investigation is underway.
Dr Pullicino Orlando has not helped himself. Gone is his desire to co-operate with - never mind form part of - the media, as he did when he sought to get his retaliation in first. In its place is a reluctance to comment, in the face of mounting accusations, until that investigation is concluded. The inconsistency in this is that the issue of whether he knew about the development does not form part of the investigation; that is dealing with the question of whether he played a part in influencing the decision by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.
So he has every reason to answer the media's legitimate questions about the former at this stage. If he is unable to address these satisfactorily, then he needs to reflect hard on whether he has, as Parliament's code of ethics states, conducted "himself in a manner which reflects the status and dignity of the House..." And if he has not, then no criminal element is required to make resignation the only honourable option.