So sources from within the Nationalist Party have spoken to our sister daily edition about how there is a great sense of distrust within the party, after everything that has come to pass over the last couple of weeks.

But the real problem here is that this sense of distrust is not only rearing its ugly head within the confines of Dar Centrali but also within the populace at large.

With all the turmoil witnessed of late, and much of it was not witnessed because it was held behind the closed doors of the PN headquarters, it is no wonder that people are feeling that the party could not fight its way out of a paper bag, let alone come anywhere close to winning any sort of election in any kind of foreseeable future.

Our concern here is not about the survival of any political party in general.  Our concern is about the health of the country’s Opposition.

In fact, things are getting pretty surreal over at Dar Centrali.  In the face of a government running ramshackle over the country in so many respects, the Opposition is otherwise busy quelling internal rebellions, dissent and trying its best, it seems, to prevent an all-out split.

The Opposition has warring factions making battle plans against each other, secret social media groups plotting, planning and facilitating the demise of their rival factions and not against the government, its real foe, but against each other.

Dar Centrali really needs to get its house in order not just for the party’s sake but for the sake of the national interest. The Opposition, after all, has a constitutional role to fulfil here.

Having a strong opposition is one of main underpinnings of having a strong democracy. Not only is a strong opposition able to challenge the government and keep it in check, but it is also collaborates with the government and provides essential input on the drafting of new laws and policies.

This holds true even if the country were to have the greatest, fairest, most honest government in its history, which it certainly does not have.  Matters take on a whole new menacing tone against the backdrop of the corruption, graft and sleaze from government members and functionaries that we have seen in recent years.

And, as such, the Opposition’s role is essential – even more so in the current day and age the country is living in, where the authorities fail to prosecute or even investigate the documented, multiple misdeeds perpetrated by members of the government, in which the government has castrated the institutions that are meant to protect citizens’ rights and uphold the laws of the land, and in which the authorities ignore basic democratic principles left, right and centre.

And in the meantime, while the Opposition falls further and further into a state of disarray from which it will find it exceedingly difficult to extricate itself,

members of government have undoubtedly been breaking out the popcorn and regaling in the sight of the opposition tearing itself asunder, again after two consecutive disastrous elections.

And then we have a Prime Minister, whose delight is hardly masked, patronisingly pontificating about how the nation needs to have a strong and healthy Opposition. He is, of course, 100 per cent accurate but, in reality, that is also the last thing he or the government wants to see.

As matters stand, the Opposition may try looking out for the national interest, it may even try to do that to the best of its abilities but this will be exceedingly difficult with the party as bitterly splintered as it is.

We have seen a head roll in the Opposition, the party’s media chief and erstwhile so much more at the party who, and some full disclosure here, once led this particular newsroom. But will this be enough?

Somehow we do not think so.

The leader may believe that, with heads rolling down the hill out of Pieta, he may now be able to rally his troops under his banner. This, however, will be easier said than done. The Opposition will solve its problems with one head being lopped off as much as autism can be cured through prayer.

Whatever the case, the recent turmoil through which the party and its leader have been trudging is really unbecoming of a nation’s Opposition party. The Opposition has given the governing party one great summer recess, with the national attention – on both sides of the political equation – promising to be almost exclusively focussed on yet more of the Opposition’s trials and tribulations.

The question is whether the Nationalist Party will be able to regroup itself after what has been yet another serious challenge to the leader’s position, but which he has safely circumnavigated yet again.

But how many times will he be able to keep weathering such storms until push eventually comes to shove?

Only time will tell.  But at the rate at which things are going, the party is looking at a good 10 to 20 years on the opposition benches unless it gets it house in order once and for all, and one way or another.

Perhaps the leader needs to call a vote of confidence in him, not necessarily for the party’s sake as such, but perhaps to restore some modicum of faith in the Opposition on the part of the public at large.

Dar Centrali really needs to get its act together and its house in order, not necessarily for the party and its members, but for the very health of the nation.