The Cabinet reshuffle may have caused more problems for the Prime Minister, rather than cooled things down. And, no matter how many times he will meet with unsettled backbenchers – either individually or within the government and Nationalist Party structures – the ill feeling is there and is very hard to eliminate.
Some backbenchers have not taken the cue from what former Nationalist Minister George Bonello Dupuis said in the last interview he gave before he passed away a few days ago. Dr Bonello Dupuis had spearheaded the financial and economic reform in the first Eddie Fenech Adami government, but towards the end of the second Nationalist term he was asked to move aside.
He had no tantrums, and continued to support his leader and the party through thick and thin. And this was a man who, through his sterling work as a PN treasurer in the hard times of a Labour government and in his years as minister, had made a valid contribution to the party and country – unlike some of the complaining backbenchers who are still to prove themselves on the political scene, and yet think they are God’s gift to Maltese politics.
In that interview, Dr Bonello Dupuis criticised the behaviour of the current crop of Nationalist backbenchers who are creating too much trouble for Dr Lawrence Gonzi.
Pointing things out within four walls is one thing; washing one’s dirty linen in public is a totally different matter. And this is what some backbenchers have been doing right from the start of this Nationalist administration.
When I was much younger, there was always someone who tried to disrupt the games we used to play just because he or she felt like doing something else, or simply because of character flaws. “If I can’t play, or if you don’t let me play, then I’ll try to spoil your game.” It may not have been said, but the attitude was evident.
Some Nationalist backbenchers are behaving in a similarly childish way. They are being extremely selfish in not seeing the overall interests of the government and party to which they belong, but instead are seeking their own personal success, at whatever cost. They then claim loyalty, but the loyalty is only to themselves and the position they think they deserve.
I wrote this when Franco Debono did what he did last December. At that time, I said that Dr Debono wanted to run before he could walk. Whether he has learnt the lesson remains to be seen, although I find it hard to believe that the man has changed.
And I will say it now about Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jean Pierre Farrugia, whose recent outbursts have illustrated the bitterness of people who think that they – together with some other colleagues who sit next to them – can control the Prime Minister or hold him to ransom. Once it became clear that Dr Gonzi would not listen and would not succumb to threats or foot-stamping, they went public with declarations that were manna from heaven to the Opposition and the media that supports it.
JPO said he was led to believe that Giovanna Debono was to have been replaced by Chris Said as Gozo Minister. Yes, of course, the Prime Minister has gone crazy and wants his party to lose the third seat in the sister island, something that Labour is aiming for and would have obtained, had Mrs Debono been deposed.
Dr Farrugia went on record saying that he will not vote in favour of the primary health care reform as proposed by new Health Minister Joe Cassar. How convenient for him to say so after he was not named as a new member of Cabinet. He did speak out against the reform before the reshuffle was announced – as he writes elsewhere in this newspaper – but he said he would not be voting in favour after he was left out of the Cabinet.
Was not Dr Farrugia in the running to be co-opted as an MP when Josef Bonnici resigned in 2004? Instead, it was Dr Cassar who was chosen by the PN. When things are put into perspective, they become clearer, don’t they?
Another thing that Dr Farrugia – and others – should realise is that when I was writing news reports on the reshuffle after the PN defeat last June, I was simply reporting what many backbenchers were telling me and the rumours of the time. News reports are different from comment pieces, but this difference seems to escape even the most intelligent. Writing about a reshuffle in the news pages does not necessarily mean that I agreed with the changes that PN backbenchers were saying Dr Gonzi should make. Writing a crime story does not make the writer a murderer.
Now, even Louis Deguara has come up with his own reservations about the health reform document. Wasn’t he Health Minister in the previous term? Why didn’t he do something about the matter himself, when he was responsible for the health sector? It’s so easy to talk when you are not directly involved.
The dissident backbenchers are causing great harm to the party and the government, but they are causing the greatest harm to themselves and their political careers. Nationalist supporters should – and probably will – think twice before giving them their number one preference at the next election.
Before thinking of themselves first, they should understand, once and for all, that they are members of a team, and members of the same team should pull the same rope, not create trouble when things do not go their way.
The last thing this country needs – at a time when it requires all hands on deck to re-emerge stronger from the international recession – is a few disgruntled MPs who are too busy trying to earn some free publicity in search of their own selfish goals.
I am sure that, apart from these backbenchers, there were others who, in their heart of hearts, were hoping to get a call from Dr Gonzi and find themselves part of the Cabinet. But they did not go whining in public when they were not given a role. They prefer to bide their time, showing great loyalty to Dr Gonzi, rather than causing trouble.
It is a pity that, instead of focusing all his energy on the needs of the country, the Prime Minister is having to waste so much time dealing with this internal strife.
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