I agree with Austin Sammut in his opinion piece The Views From The Back Bench (March 10). As he writes, "a band of yes men does not make for a good democracy". He was referring to the Nationalist Party parliamentary backbench.
I will go one further, and add that a band of yes columnists is even worse. The Times is full of them, and Dr Sammut is towards the head of the pack. He does not even have the gumption to criticise Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.
And he blames the British colonial rule for our "servility"! We have been rid of the British for 30 years now - Dom Mintoff, not the Nationalist Party, saw to that. Perhaps the PN, in power for 20 of those 30 years, has nurtured that "servility".
Dr Sammut should at least try to cleanse himself and, instead of fawning on Lawrence Gonzi, take him up for the deception of the March 8 general election last year, in which GonziPN did not at all think twice about making a laughing stock of the PN voters in the two constituencies which JPO contested. That was why JPO was elected, because GonziPN stood up for him, and made the PN's voters in his districts look like fools.
Unwittingly, Dr Sammut paints Dr Gonzi himself as a rather weak leader. Dr Sammut writes that no Cabinet changes were made because perhaps Dr Gonzi's predecessor might be put in a bad light. Or perhaps the reason was that Dr Gonzi "had become a Prime Minister in mid-term and had not been elected as such".
In both scenarios, Dr Gonzi is made out to be a weakling. If a reshuffle was necessary Dr Gonzi should have made it, without bothering about the impression he could be giving. The predecessor had enough standing in the country to withstand any impression, surely. And if Dr Gonzi felt that it was wrong to be Prime Minister once he had not been elected as such, he should not have accepted the post. I guess he accepted it for the glory! Or is being a PM a gravy train?!
Dr Sammut did not see the meaning of what he was writing. Or perhaps he saw it, but being a yes man he landed himself in this ridiculous situation.