Many are asking how the PN could have come so near the edge of repeating that part of history that brought down the short-lived Labour government in 1998.

The party faithful are being made to think that the rebels owe the party leadership more loyalty. But loyalty would not be forthcoming. The problems lie deep down and have to be sought within the petrified structures that were consolidated during the 1998-2003 tenure. Back then such a structure personified through the PN core or strategy group could have been conducive to reaching the EU membership goal. The present prime minister was one of the latest to join this group. All others in the group were long-time party insiders.

The Nationalists raised their sails gleefully harnessing the pro-EU winds of change while the opposition aided by its legendary thought police colossally misread the signs of the times. The Nationalist core group members upon seeing the EU ballot outcome mistook the fleeting wind for their acumen. By jolly, the choking of dissent and debate within the party had served them well and with the withdrawal of Joe Saliba from the group, the whole party was made redundant.

Overdue reforms were postponed only to be presented half baked in a very rude manner after the 2008 elections. Important and sensitive projects increasingly see the light of day only after being vetted by the core group. Consultation processes have become rubber stamping exercises. The winning over of popular support and the suffocating of dissent are completely left to spin doctors. The latest spin has been to shame the backbenchers for their perceived bluff.

With defeats and retreats piling up, the present government is one of the weakest ever. The Prime Minister seems to be trapped in, and unable to stop the breakaway forces. Party spins should not forget that the rebels have nothing to lose which they have not already failed to garner. Besides, as Hazlitt observed two centuries ago, no one can be an honest politician if he wasn’t born and bred a dissenter.

Maltese history has shown over the last century that when a new leader is anointed by his previous leader, he lacks the charisma to rattle the cage of popular opinion. Instead he shelters the big mama that ballooned him to power, censoring the dissenters out of his concern for party viability. Yet no Maltese political party ever died from dissent. With Bronkowski we must admit that it’s conformity that killed them.

Agnes Debono

Kercem