Time and time again, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has not been the “safe pair of hands” he was portrayed to be during the last election campaign. The way he handled the various situations he has had to face have exposed shortcomings in his leadership qualities, and the level of mistrust that started from within his own internal ranks has rapidly spread to all corners.

Like a shaky goalkeeper, he let in a few easy goals and at times was beaten by his own players too. The gloves he wore were not good enough for him to have a good grip of the ball.

Many good things have happened in this term. Malta has survived the economic recession without having to resort to all the drastic measures that other countries were forced to take in a bid to stay afloat. Some of them are still struggling. Our unemployment levels are not high. Investment in education keeps growing. The tourism industry is doing well, despite the international circumstances. Industry in general continues to adapt to the new modern trends. Embellishment projects have made Malta more attractive and a better place in which to live.

The government says that it is wrong to take these things for granted, in view of what is happening not too far away from us. This may be true, but at the same time it must come down from its ivory tower to find out what the man in the street is saying.

There is no feel-good factor and what is worse is that the level of pessimism is moving up notches in quick succession. Dr Gonzi’s speech at the PN’s general council last Sunday was devoid of the reassurances that would help boost confidence.

He tells the media that it should be more positive, and no stone has been left unturned by his well-oiled media machine in these past few months to promote the more successful stories. We have had the PM visiting factories that have expanded, schools that have opened, businesses that have registered important results – each time there has been a monument or a marble plaque to unveil, the PM has been there.

But when the PM feels he should spur the media to focus on the good things, he is really and truly admitting the difficulty he and his party are having in getting through to the people. When the PM tells journalists to back off MPs, it means that he is afraid of the questions they may ask – and probably of the answers that they may be given.

This is one of the many strategic mistakes that Dr Gonzi has made in recent months. Political leaders should never impose on the media what it should do with its space and time. It smacks of arrogance and an attempt to divert attention.

The media knows what its job is. The media talks about the subjects that people talk about and not what the government suggests. If the government wants to talk about matters that do not attract the minimum interest in the population, it shows how detached it is from the realities that people are facing every day. On the other hand, if the media is told to avoid the subjects that hurt the government, then it would be shamelessly trying to avoid the blame for the wrong decisions that have been taken.

Some are suggesting that the only way the Nationalist Party can turn things around is through Dr Gonzi’s resignation and the appointment of a new leader. I have my doubts whether this would be enough. The party is in too much disarray and too fragmented for all the different factions to be brought together again. Dr Gonzi’s uneasiness in his control of the party and the shortcomings in his leadership skills, coupled with the inability of the people around him – at Castille and at Pietà – to point him in the right direction, have caused so much damage that the situation is probably beyond the point of salvage.

Good leaders need not only good policies, but also good strategies, and in this respect the PM has not been a good example.

The honoraria debacle cannot be put aside with a simple apology, which also came very late in the day. If the PM thinks last Sunday’s admission of guilt will make people forget that they were taken for a ride for three years, then he is grossly mistaken. It is not only the extra money; it’s the fact that it was not made public. The PM was told that the idea to keep it secret would eventually backfire, but he ploughed on and then had to face the music. His hard-headedness meant that, rather than just having to counter a few trumpets here and there, the government had to face an orchestra of drums beating so loudly as to cause irreparable cracks in its relationship with the people.

The divorce issue showed how wrong the party was to go to a referendum it thought it would win easily to close the issue; and it had no Plan B ready, to the extent that, a month later, we are still very much in the dark on the way forward for the PN. Dr Gonzi himself stubbornly refuses to budge from his position on the fence, creating even more uncertainty within his own rank and file. His MPs are looking for guidance and direction, but Dr Gonzi is not providing any.

Such negative traits have already been seen in other situations. Dr Gonzi was forced into appointing eight parliamentary assistants to quell unrest on the backbench. Two of them are now repaying him by not attending Parliament most of the time.

The one-seat majority has proved to be much more difficult to control, as various MPs have understood what Dr Gonzi’s weaknesses are and, at different times, have held him to ransom. The PN often accuses Joseph Muscat of trying to please everyone, but this is what Dr Gonzi has been doing for the past three years to avoid losing his government.

And now he also has his predecessor to contend with, as Dr Eddie Fenech Adami keeps pushing his stand against divorce and going as far as suggesting that the matter should be deferred until an election. But Dr Gonzi has not been able to publicly convey the message to Dr Fenech Adami that he (Dr Fenech Adami) is no longer Prime Minister, and that therefore the decision is not up to him.

What Dr Fenech Adami has said has pushed more Liberal Nationalists away from the party, rather than win their support back as the PN said it is trying to do.

But Dr Gonzi cannot bring himself to tell Dr Fenech Adami to stop causing this kind of harm to the PN. By trying to preserve the past, Dr Gonzi is not taking care of the present and is heavily risking the future.

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