I laugh when I hear the Prime Minister declare, with a straight face, that the voices of dissent within his parliamentary group are all colours in his party’s rainbow

Every time the Prime Minister says so, he nibbles at his own credibility as everybody knows, including Dr Gonzi himself, that he is unable to assert his authority properly on his parliamentary group. He is a far weaker leader today than he ever was when he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat three years ago.

The dissenters are clearly identifiable, have demonstrated to all that they have chatzpuh and they must clearly overcome the jitters of their first public outbursts. To them, criticising the Government openly and voting out of line with the party whip raises no adrenaline in their blood anymore. It has become second nature to them and they do it without fearing internal resentment for their actions.

The Franco Debono abstention was nothing extraordinary. Actually it was a meek slap on Dr Gonzi’s wrist. An abstention is never as strong as an outright vote for and with the political opponent as recently happened when two government MPs voted with the Opposition on a motion on divorce, thus pushing divorce down the throat of a very recalcitrant PN parliamentary group, in the process also defying a bold decision of the PN Executive against its introduction.

Dr Debono’s abstention, however, confirmed that Dr Gonzi’s majority is certainly defective. In three years we have seen Dr Gonzi losing his majority on three separate occasions. He may have won a vote of confidence last week, but his government is just staggering on. Its life is being cut slowly but surely.

Instead of a death at the hand of one decisive blow, it’s a death by a thousand cuts.

Dr Gonzi carries on pretending that he is in control, although he felt he needed to call for a vote of confidence in his government. You see, he behaves, although he certainly isn’t, like a prostitute preaching the virtues of virginity. And like Nero playing the fiddle while Rome was burning, the Prime Minister had also the effrontery to look out for Dr Debono, to embrace him and thank him for voting with the government, barely four days after Dr Debono defied him by almost voting Dr Austin Gatt out of ministerial office, and at a time when Dr Debono’s continued tenure in office as a Parliamentary Assistant at the OPM is still in the balance. What a charade!

Keeping up appearances is an old habit of the typical nationalist. It’s almost a disease. They denied the existence of the infamous ħofra (hole in public finances) of 1996, dismissing it as a ħrafa (tale), but to this very day they are still trying to plug the hole in full view of the country and the EU commission. Or they will say that it’s ok if utility rates increase when oil prices soar, but that should carry on increasing when oil prices dip. Or they will tell you that it’s fine to renege on the income tax cut electoral pledge because of the 2008 recession, but would consider to introduce the scheme immediately before the next election despite bold austerity measures being imposed all around Europe as another recession is looming.

So you shouldn’t be surprised to watch Dr Gonzi hugging and kissing darling Franco for having defied his authority at a crucial parliamentary vote, and for pushing for a thorough reform in the justice system through a private member’s motion tabled behind the backs of the Prime Minister himself and the incumbent Justice and Home Affairs minister?

It’s business as usual for the Prime Minister as he painstakingly tries to put the lid on the boiling cauldron of parliamentary discontent, defiance and dissidence.