The role of 10 fora created by the leader of the Nationalist Party is to reverse the headless chicken mode that his party is in after two successive electoral defeats. Whether he will succeed or not is not for me to judge. It will be decided by the electorate in the next general election. There should be no doubt that through the creation of these fora, Dr Simon Busuttil is banking on getting a moral boost; much needed by his party too.

The question that any political analyst will ask is how far-reaching will be the effect of these fora on the PN? The answer to this question lies on the personal responsibility and ability of each and every chairperson. The selected topics seek to cover a vast range of areas. The projection is to have a more plural party, since finally now key areas are being covered by both these fora and the Party shadow MPs. Yet, this strategy is not without risk. It risks creating cynicism within the party lines or better among the elected MPs. Hence, I cannot fail to notice that the immediate message that this structure is sending out is that the PN has no faith in its Parliamentary spokespersons.  The PN should thread carefully here as its shadow ministers risk appearing a bunch of understrappers among the PN electorate. On a political level, it is interesting to see how these two diverse (and I am sure opposite realities) will affect the soul of the party. 

With such an inherent contradiction, can these fora achieve their aim and bring change or will they create a dangerous situation, where these fora will end up gloating over the PN's shadow ministers? As an onlooker watching the situation evolve within the PN, one could say that its MPs and shadow ministers can now be exonerated for any mistake. They can rightly argue that they are not the force of change or criticism. Today the political gravity within the party lies elsewhere.  

These fora have been set within a political structure; their final outcome should be how the PN will beat the PL. The stakes are high for should the PN fails in its next electoral test there is a serious risk of an insurgency from below. The signs are already there. Elements of passive resistance from PN supporters is increasing and not diminishing, as one would have expected given that there was a need for the creation of fora.

The success of these 10 fora depends on networking. Unfortunately, networking in Malta has ended up meaning the fostering of personal alliances and cliques, where individuals responsible for some of the worst political decisions can hide their perilous political past and resuscitate again as new political animals. This may have helped Dr Joseph Muscat's new movement win the last elections, but I am not sure that it will lead the PN to a convincing victory.

Beyond any political utopia that these fora may be a positive force for change, the PN still has a number of political issues to tackle. The question lies in what message and means of communication this party intends using to convince its disgruntled supporters to vote for the PN in the next election? The fora are expected to be the think tanks to get there. My view is that for the PN's research to be convincing, its methodology should be "evidence-informed" rather than "evidence-based". The reason why I am saying this is that some of the chairpersons are academics. In simple words, academics need to go against what they normally teach at university.

Moreover, these fora should stop focusing on the cliché of seeing everything from and for the optics of economics and finance. Instead, the PN should refocus on what really matters; the human being and its well being. Unfortunately, political parties feign they are focusing on the human being, and fail miserably by churning out useless political euphemisms. It is for this reason that Malta, like many European countries, is fast moving towards an age where the voter is rebelling against the established party system.