It has been said that we learn geology after an earthquake. In like manner, a good many Nationalist Party supporters are coming round to look critically at their leadership after taking full measure of the PN’s predicament.
Since Lawrence Gonzi took over the leadership, practically a year ago, the Party’s electoral fortune plummeted dramatically, having suffered three defeats on the trot at the hustings. The loss of votes was not merely consistent. It was, as it were, exponential.
To be fair, the rot within the Party had started before Gonzi’s coronation. In the last phase of Fenech Adami’s reign it was concealed, only to be exposed by the hostile reaction that erupted with Fenech Adami’s elevation to the Presidency at a later stage.
But, once Gonzi took sole control of the cockpit, the quality of his decisions, as well as his personal style, went against the grain of the rank and file. The stalwarts reacted. Many ordinary PN members demurred.
Bad judgment
When Gonzi formed his first Cabinet he opted to work with the same tired team that had distinguished itself for its inertia in the last years of the Fenech Adami reign. He fell out with the most senior minister, John Dalli, in circumstances which lacked full transparency. Although the situation prevailing at the time he became Prime Minister, demanded quick decisions and close monitoring, Gonzi chose to assume the added responsibility for the Ministry of Finance. He surrounded himself with Party henchmen who, in turn, isolated him from the rank and file. Thus, he started to lose touch with party sentiment, and appeared to become insensitive to, if not altogether oblivious of the PN heartbeat.
This is not an opinion of an observer keeping watch outside the ramparts at Pieta. It is the informed conclusion of Party members of the PN Executive Committee and of seasoned Party veterans, all of whom have inside knowledge.
Executive Committee Member, and former mayor of Marsa, Frank Zammit, has just been complaining in the local Press, under his name, that, “as things stand today” many of his colleagues in the Party have lost their voice and that “stalwarts and party faithful have deserted in droves and back benchers, with so much to offer, have been completely ignored”.
Party in disarray
He affirmed that the PN “is losing on all fronts: fewer newspaper readers, fewer PN-dominated local councils, fewer television viewers for Net, and fewer party members”.
John Dalli has been no less forthright. He lamented publicly that “it is unfortunate that, out there, there are many Nationalist diehards who have made so many sacrifices, and who have worked incessantly to build what we have today, who are overwhelmed with frustration as they are feeling rejected in their own home.”
He pressed home the point that “more and more Nationalists are feeling alienated from their Party, as the inner core tries to strengthen its stranglehold on the organisation”.
Former PN general secretary, Dr Victor Ragonesi, advanced the accusation that there are people in the Party who “were not keeping to the sound Nationalist principles”.
This criticism reflects directly on the quality of the topmost PN leadership and carries much more significant weight than the frenzied criticism that has been heaped on general secretary Joe Saliba, who manages the PN apparatchiks, and has a hand in PN strategy. The latter came a cropper with the decision to disenfranchise the electorate of Marsa and Zejtun at the last round of council elections. Gonzi cut a sad figure when he tried to defend that decision.
Price of arrogance
It is true that Gonzi found himself rather abruptly at the deep end of politics with less ministerial experience than some of his colleagues. It is also true that the legacy bequeathed by Fenech Adami was formidable, even awesome. But he ought to have been prepared for the shock, having been Fenech Adami’s right hand man and deputy. This being so, his arrogant style was unexpected. It magnified his mistakes, and reduced to a caricature his bluff and his feigned nonchalance, so often camouflaged by a smirk. No politician worth his salt can afford to acknowledge that the electorate is grumbling and dissatisfied, and declare, at one and the same time, that he intends to press on regardless
Gonzi thought he could do this and get away scot-free. Not so the outraged electorate. Gonzi’s plane was shot down in flames at the polls!
No wonder that the week marking the record-breaking PN debacle at the last local council elections, was described by The Malta Independent on Sunday as “a nightmare for Lawrence Gonzi, probably the worst one since he was chosen to head the Nationalist Party a year ago”.
Mounting pressure
The Times followed this up with the comment that “it is more than evident that the pressure from within (the PN) is mounting, and the least the party administration can do is admit this and pledge to look into the matter”. Referring to the bill of indictment against the higher echelons of the PN, The Times insisted that “senior party officials cannot continue behaving and speaking as if the PN was still riding the wave of popularity, when they know – or should know – that things are different”.
The feeling is growing all-round that the PN leadership has lost the plot.
It has been well said that “if you feign to keep you head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation”. The PN is ripe for change. It may well be that it should start at the top.
It is a striking fact of Malta’s baroque politics that, on assuming the office of Prime Minister, Gonzi opted to demonise Alfred Sant, portraying him as an intimidating bogeyman who frightens both the horses and the electorate. At the end of his first year in office, it is Gonzi who is frightening both the electorate at large, as well as his own party faithful.
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