One can be drawn into a conundrum inevitably or else by default. But the worst case scenario results when one finds himself locked into a self-created conundrum

This is the dilemma that gonziPN is facing right now. Caught in the middle of a tug of war with strategists urging him to stay on till the very end (or as long as possible) while all indications show that the Franco Debono saga has weakened (rather than strengthened) his popular support as well as diluted further the trust factor that he generates, Gonzi should have by now realised that he is caught in his own political crossfire. He is stuck right in the middle without much opportunity to duck for political cover or else to find an escape route.

But there is one thing that has been proved right.

As tipped off at the beginning of the year by sources very close to the Nationalist parliamentary group, since Gonzi never thought twice about resorting to U-turns, one was to expect the Mother of all U-turns throughout the new year – so long as it could hopefully buy him both time and votes. On that count alone my sources have turned out to be impeccable.

These past few days we have seen an endless number of U-turns by the Gonzi regime as they found themselves compelled to cave in to public pressure, opinion and sentiment while trying to extend their life support.

We had Minister Tonio Fenech using a Rambo-like approach on Greece which if adopted by the PL in the past months would have instantly led to our being dismissed as unrepentant Eurosceptics.

We had Gonzi himself claiming during a business breakfast to have been on the verge of solving his parliamentary group’s internal problems, while only minutes later an online comment by Franco Debono popped up to prove the contrary – that things were far from business as usual since nothing had been done to contain and or eradicate the oligarchy (i.e. clan) surrounding Gonzi himself.

If this was already made manifestly clear during The Times’ business breakfast last week, it was reinforced even further by Debono’s own remarks on a One TV discussion programme last Friday.

The parliamentary agenda for yesterday’s sitting with the sustainable development draft bill suddenly superseding the long-pending Implementation Of Budgetary Measures – a money bill by any yardstick, if there ever was one – shows that even if Debono might abstain rather than vote against, gonziPN and his advisors are doing their best to avoid a situation whereby he would end with further (political) egg on his face.

All this has nothing to do with whether Gonzi will call for early elections now or slightly later.

My guess is that he will not make any such strategic moves before his party’s own unnecessary, pointless and easily avoidable extraordinary vote of confidence in their leader on 25 February as well as prior to the local council elections of next month.

But regardless of all that, gonziPN do not seem to give a damn as to how long the approval or otherwise of the money bill linked to the budgetary measures implementation can or might take; so long as they can continue avoiding the unavoidable by evidently continuing to play for time.

Even the government’s U-turn on ACTA is symptomatic of a government in crisis that has suddenly realised that at a stroke – through its covert signing of the questionable treaty – it has undermined its own base of support amongst the internet-friendly younger generation it claims to have catered for in the past, via a number of positive IT-related initiatives.

The MZPN participation in the anti-ACTA protest says it all, no matter how much certain hired guns very close to the PN’s most influential advisors might have rooted for support for ACTA; in the same manner that Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil did, when he resorted to an almost cut and paste approach to the EU Commission’s stand in one of his articles.

But Gonzi’s own urgent press call to announce that he will be introducing legislation to safeguard users’ internet rights was nothing but a knee-jerk reaction to the way he suddenly realised that the tide had turned against him even on this issue. And that he needed to quell public rebellion before it could develop into a further extended contagious ‘political’ disease.

Within one week we had Gonzi’s inner circle sending out two urgent press calls at short notice – for him to simply come up with mere declarations. That his ministers were being tasked to come up with draft legislation to plug gaps on certain issues – hate crimes and now internet users’ rights. They are both desperate bids in the art of political survival that leave one breathless for their opportunistic timing.

While our first meeting of the Foreign & European Affairs Committee of last Friday on ACTA might have been just a preliminary and introductory meeting, many points of relevance saw the light of day which I sincerely hope that the Minister of Finance will address when he delivers his presentation to our Committee on Friday; regardless of what and how Gonzi intends to legislate on the matter, as announced last Saturday afternoon.

As an active member of this Committee, I will be very intrigued to find out – as I have already formally requested government to do – whether :

• Before signing the treaty, government was subjected to any lobbying by any foreign governments, institutions or other lobby groups;

• Before signing the treaty, had government sought the technical advice of the Data Protection Commissioner, the MCA as well as the Attorney General;

• Before the minister or his delegate put their signature to the accord, had they established whether current Maltese legislation would need any amendments or not. I am saying so because although government front men, including Dr Busuttil himself have often told us reassuringly that our copyright laws already cater for the provisions of ACTA, experts that I have consulted have promptly pointed out that whilst our current legislation makes exception in the case of education-linked initiatives and non-profit making measures, ACTA itself does not;

• I have also insisted that government should come clean on the issue before starting its round of stakeholder consultations which we intend to extend to its maximum;

• I equally pressed on government to insist it should obtain details of the objections brought forward by all those EU countries that have so far not only refused to ratify the treaty but even to sign it.

In my opinion there have been three turning points which could have influenced government’s decision regardless of the surge in public protest in Malta on this issue.

• The fact that the ministry concerned in the German government had serious misgivings and concerns about the grave implications of this treaty;

• The professional manner in which governments like the Polish government had analysed all doubts concerning ACTA as well as all questions that arise around the impact on national law and the tensions between holders of property rights and internet users;

• The strong stand by the PES – Party of European Socialists that has shown that it is on the right side of history when it denounced ACTA as being wrong in both content and process mainly as a result of its inherent and potential threats to the fundamental rights of the citizen.

Meanwhile the cherry on the cake must have been the decision by the (overtly) political appointee at the Head of the Civil Service to first issue a directive informing candidates for local elections to have to take unpaid leave – only for him to claim that it was a genuine mistake and that it was merely optional; when he himself had earlier on been on TVM justifying his actions.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change