Someone might think it is because of Christmas but I think we are beyond that: there is a new spirit around and I ascribe that to the sacking of Minister Manwel Mallia and the appointment of Karmenu Abela to replace him.

Many of us may not have understood all the nuances involved or know all the implications or go only by what is reported, but before Prime Minister Muscat summoned up enough courage to bite the bullet, we were seriously heading into a danger zone.

I say this not to demonise Dr Mallia. He is what he has always been, primarily a defence lawyer who has won many tricky cases and saved clients. Allowing him to contest the election was as bad as some suicidal choices made by the PN.

It was unthinkable to even imagine that such a lawyer with such a past could shake off his former clients, both outside and inside prison. In fact, the new minister compounded the error made in appointing him by personally going to prison and announcing an amnesty which was last heard of three legislatures back.

Then there was the wholesale massacre of the top echelons of the army and the police, with many being forced out or ordered to do menial jobs, and a massive intake of old and pensioned off policemen - two even over 70 Parliament was told last week - to rejoin the force. Add to that a massive promotions exercise both in the army and in the police that left the latter with more Assistant Commissioners than the London Metropolitan Police itself.

To which one might add the minister's confrontational attitude to any criticism, especially in Parliament. He simply transferred the attitude of a lawyer for the defence in court to Parliament and politics.

I would add here the minister's flamboyant attitude to life in general did not help, but fortunately or unfortunately this did not end up being decisive, not when the minister's policeman driver overreacted and shot at the man whose only fault was to hit the ministerial car's side mirror. And of course, there was the subsequent cover-up and the multiple mismanagements in the handling of the story from Castille downwards.

Now all that has gone (although one would be stupid to write Manwel Mallia off) and Dr Muscat picked Karmenu Abela to step in the largest ministry in the country, certainly a more than decisive ministry.

There has already been a change in the political atmosphere.

We all know, and respect Mr Abela, his sound ethical basis, his humble approach and the way he goes about without giving himself airs.  You will find him playing football with fellow MPs on either side of the divide, and living a serious and simple life.

I remember last year when, still overcome by the fact that he had not been chosen for the Cabinet, he could be seen on television wandering around the Zejtun church on Good Friday, with a somewhat dazed look on his face.

In the few days since his sudden appointment, he has surprised us by the understated way he set about turning around his predecessor's controversial choices. In Parliament last week he declared he wants to build the police force around new recruits, rather than on the old retired policemen got back in. This he did while providing damning information about the returnees, which include two over-70-year-old bobbies.

He also said, more as an aside, that he does not intend having a policeman to drive him.

Some of the replies to parliamentary questions had already been prepared, presumably by his predecessor and his staff, but Minister Abela rewrote them and put down new replies.

Not being a lawyer, he was thrown in at the deep end and in the middle of an almighty storm, without staff. His predecessor's equally controversial Chief of Staff left on an undefined mission and the new minister would probably want to choose his own staff. In the first days, he had none of the staff that ministers usually have and he had to act quickly.

I hope this does not sound like a paean of undiluted praise, though I have long admired the guy. Just replacing the minister does not, by itself, solve the many difficult issues his troublesome ministry has. Just changing some or many of his predecessor's choices will take some doing.

Even more crucial and difficult is finding the right way forward. In whatever sector the minister looks at ,he will find problems and entanglements that are very difficult to unravel, choices that are so complicated that anyone can make mistakes.

On a wider level, I can describe the government as falling, in Dr Mallia's time, in two or three groups.

There are the core Labour ministers who have mainly settled down in their jobs and are tackling the issues on their in-plate. Then there are the Moviment ministers, that is, those who do not come from a Labour background and who have been roped in. Dr Mallia was perhaps the most signal in this group and his enforced resignation marks, to my understanding, the failure of the Moviment to be harnessed to the government side. Then are those who are in between these two extremes.

Mr Abela definitely forms part of the first group and I am sure that, at least at Cabinet level, he will be supported by his colleagues when he stars finding the going tough.

In his appearance on Xarabank on Friday, Dr Muscat mentioned the Manwel Mallia case in a rather aseptic way, almost as if what happened did not really concern him, as if he was not the one who appointed, and possibly recruited, Dr Mallia; as if Dr Mallia was a victim of some accident. In fact, Dr Muscat spoke of his 'habib' Manwel, but then, he (Dr Muscat) had to take a decision and he seemed rather proud he took it - that is what he is there for, he said.

It seems to me that, even shaving off the words addressed to the masses, Dr Muscat is still not fully aware that what happened leads back to his leadership (or lack of). Hopefully, this is only political spin and not more serious than that.

In the end, what brought Dr Mallia down was much more than the Gzira shooting. It was opening the doors wide to past policemen who had left in the past years and who claimed political interference with their ambitions.

Thus they were invited back, and they resumed their uniformed job.

I do not think the same thing happened in the army, but many who had, rightly or wrongly, claimed they had missed out on promotions were quickly given a leg up or two (or more).

This goes back to a very clear understated commitment by Labour to its own base: those who claimed political discrimination have now been redressed (though you still find many who claim their issue was not tackled).

What happened in Gzira and the subsequent mayhem showed this will not work. On the contrary, it revealed additional personal complications that rendered police work completely impossible. It was not just that persons who had missed out have simply had their retribution but rather that they could resume or recreate their own personal networks.

The new minister must understand that, for all the welcome he has been given, these are no longer the times when party affiliation can substitute a professional approach, because by the time party affiliation becomes a coterie or clique, you will have lost sight of leading the nation equitably.

This is happening all across the board, from what I hear, but the police and the army are just too sensitive to even venture there.

If the Nationalists were not completely successful in this, and, despite their general good governance, there were some signal failures, I admit and the Labour administration can only do worse.

 

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