It was in this paper that it was first remarked that the coming month is the 22nd month since the 2008 election, the implied message being this could very well be an exact parallel to what happened in 1998, in the 22nd month of the Sant government.

Actually, to be more finically precise, Dom Mintoff voted twice against his government: the first one was the famous ‘lapsus’ episode when Francis Agius made a mistake while voting and so Dom’s negative vote did not count. That was a money bill: had Dr Agius not made that mistake, the government would have fallen there and then.

So, going purely by precedents, we are now at that point again: Franco Debono’s absence from Parliament on Monday could be seen as a shot across the government’s bows. It has also been argued, somewhat less plausibly, that Mr Mintoff, on the second occasion, did not really want to bring his government down: John Dalli was in Libya, he had been informed, so he may have thought he could indulge in another bout of cliff-walking. But when Dr Fenech Adami astutely sent a private plane to get Mr Dalli back (international sanctions notwithstanding) and Mr Mintoff saw him walk in, he realised his game was up but he still voted against. In other words, governments can be brought down by conspiracies or by rebels, but they can also be brought down by mistake or by accident. A government with a majority of one skates on very thin ice.

One can also say that this present government is in an even worse situation than the Sant government in July 1998. For while that government had only one rebel, and him a Dom Mintoff, this government has five, or even more, rebels. Some have come out in the media and are known to be angry, very angry with Dr Gonzi. Others, like Dr Debono, were known to be mavericks, but they had not been so critical in the media until what happened on Monday did happen.

People now seem to be waking up to the danger that this government may not complete its term: they are also waking up to the fact that Dr Gonzi’s parliamentary line-up seems to contain quite a few bad apples.

But that shows up a culpable lack of proper filters inside the party and highlights once again the free and easy ‘get them all in, they may get us a few more votes’ syndrome. To be fair, Labour’s line-up does have some dinosaurs, but we have Dr Sant to thank for a rather general clean up. Just like what many remarked on the latest crisis inside the Courts of Justice, in the end it all comes down to who the hell appointed such and such a person without first checking the ethical background.

At the other end of the argument, one can also argue that what happened in 1998 was due not just to Dom Mintoff but also to Dr Sant’s handling (or lack of) the situation. One could say the same of Dr Gonzi.

The shenanigans of the past week make a sham of democracy: first the outright lies – that Dr Debono fell asleep, that he was on medication for a cold, that there was no crisis, no panic, that everything was under control. Which then, being patently lies, created a counter-turbulence of their own as Labour crowed that the government ‘almost’ fell, and in turn the Nationalists went ballistic.

Even after Dr Gonzi’s placatory and reassuring remarks from Copenhagen and Dr Debono’s assertions yesterday in selected media that he “would never dream of bringing down the government”, the country is not reassured at all: it has now come round to consider Dr Gonzi’s second administration as damaged goods with a short time span.

Dr Gonzi is increasingly giving the impression he is not really in control of things. Things are happening to him. And time and again he has to stop, look back and try to remedy things.

Just as he did when he and Mrs Gonzi visited Dr Debono at his Ghaxaq home. But that actually increased the damage. For the country is getting the impression that Dr Gonzi can be stampeded. And it’s always a parliamentary vote that really gets him. Just as he stepped down and stopped the St John’s museum plan. Just as a few well-placed NGOs panicked him into environmental decisions. The more you stamp, the more he seems to try and please you. If that is so, then he is really in danger, and the country with him.

One day, it’s this MP; the next day it could be another one. Will it ever stop? Or rather, will it always stop just short of pulling the government down?

He’s damned if he does, he’s damned if he doesn’t. On the one hand Dr Sant was rigid with Dom Mintoff and ran his administration into the wall. On the other hand, by being too accommodating, Dr Gonzi risks seeing his administration mired in uncertainty.

At the same time, however, Dr Gonzi seems psychologically unable to deal with critics: even though he was elected and even though he single-handedly won an election most thought lost, he is still perceived as being hand-picked. He has surrounded himself with a very small team with the predictable result that while he needed all the support he could get, he turned his backbench into a sullen troop with some rebels mixed in. He has all sorts of grandiose plans for the country but keeps getting exposed as being weak, very weak.

The huge Nationalist grassroots backlash against Dr Debono will maybe cow Dr Debono, (though by marking him as dead meat may actually turn him into a political suicide case) but it will not stop some other rebel from a similar kind of action and will not make Dr Gonzi’s government any stronger.

If Dr Gonzi is not going to repeat Dr Sant’s 1998 misadventure, he must come to terms with those wide swathes of PN grassroots that are critical and disenchanted. Visiting your sick absentee MP may count as one of the Works of Mercy but hardly as political strategy. Only understanding and doing something about the critical voices on the backbench will do, and maybe not even then. Over the past weeks, the party had the opportunity to come to terms with what’s nagging it at the general council, but lost the opportunity in a festival of self-complacency.

But if it is all about the power of appointment and all critical voices are actually cries of rage at non-appointment, then this government has had it. It should have chosen better those it put forward to represent the people. In the end, all this could be telling the country that the party needs a long, deep, spell on the other side to sort itself out and rediscover what politics is all about. That it is about serving, not about appointments.