Ever since his unconvincing election victory last year, Prime Minister Gonzi has had his back to the wall. Should it not have been the opposite? The victors traditionally get a generous honeymoon period during which they are allowed to float about until they get down to the nitty gritty of things. The losers are expected to crawl back into their shell, do some soul-searching and hopefully reappear to live another day.
Not so since March of last year. Gonzi has found himself going around in circles, as a good number of his own warriors – sometimes openly, and sometimes on the sly – have questioned his leadership and disagreed with many of his decisions. While the Labour Opposition has, for the umpteenth time, chosen to reorganise, regroup and reposition itself, Gonzi’s government has continued to feel the irritation from the sharp edge of its blade-thin majority.
It is not a happy situation for whoever is in power, since it does not give him the freedom to pursue his own policies and to confront dilemmas in the determined way that is required. A rudderless government is the worst thing any country can have at a time of domestic and international crisis. A frustrated Premier, whose authority is doubtful and whose handling of everyday affairs is evidently found wanting, is less likely to score points for the nation at a time when, sadly, it most needs them. It is why, for example, when most people were expecting a respite from new taxes and price increases in the year ahead, as is scheduled to happen in various other European states trying to wriggle out of the recession, they actually got even higher utility rates that will make 2010 an even harder year for the vast majority of Maltese households.
Gonzi is obviously in a quandary. Trying to keep his MPs happy is a nightmare when they all want to be ministers, parliamentary secretaries, chairpersons and sundry other power-broking jobs. Trying to do so when a single disgruntled MP can bring him down makes it a bit of a “mission impossible”. So he reverts to the old political tactic of playing with words every time a hot situation suddenly develops around him.
The recent government crisis in Parliament, when Nationalist MP Franco Debono chose, for very good reasons, to run away from an important vote and so push Mr Speaker into twice salvaging Gonzi’s battered boat, was a case in point. So many words were expressed in a state of utter confusion and so many adjectives flew in the air as the Prime Minister, his fledgling party Whip and the belligerent MP tried to defuse the volatile situation. The inevitable result was a generally sceptical attitude and wonderment on the part of an increasingly incredulous public.
Gonzi’s play with words often leads him into blatant contradictions with his own ministers, party officials and MPs. This latest soap opera confirmed once and for all his inability to keep a straight line, let alone a straight face. Caught as he was when visiting Franco Debono’s private residence – driven there in a non-government car and, inexplicably, with his likeable wife to boot – people and bloggers everywhere had the fun of their lives, trying to explain the reason for the visit. Even the party Whip could not muster a convincing explanation, though he may have remembered the gist of it by copying it on a school ruler.
In politics, what do you do with just words? A lot, some would say, but then one needs to make sense of them all by backing them with deeds and a substantial dose of persuasion. It brings to mind the story of the man whose friend repeatedly consulted him as to the spelling of certain words. “Why don’t you buy a dictionary?” he asked him one day, when he obviously could not take any more. “What would I do with a dictionary?” was the reply. “If I can’t spell the words, I can’t find them, and if I can spell them, I don’t need a dictionary.”
2010 looks set to be a decisive year for the Prime Minister as he seeks to first convince his faithful and then the rest of us taxpayers. His New Year resolution should be “more music, less talk” as the common radio jingle imported from overseas declares. People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do.
It is said that there are thousands of useless words in any given language, and in some recent Castille pronouncements during well-placed and accommodating interviews you could tell someone was simply trying to hide the moon from the earth, or was it the other way around?
What makes eating your words so difficult, of course, is having to swallow your pride at the same time. It is what could be awaiting Gonzi and his government in the New Year. Words sometimes serve as a good smoke screen to obscure the truth, rather than as a searchlight to reveal it, but it is not difficult to realise when the game is up.
I guess the Prime Minister will not exactly be celebrating the arrival of the New Year, but more the survival of the old one. There’s only one good thing that can be said for bad habits. If it weren’t for them we could not make New Year’s resolutions. So will Castille look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits? That is what most people are asking. After all, what the New Year brings us will depend a great deal on what we bring to the New Year.
Let’s make it a happier one, anyway – if you can cope with the water and electricity bills.