The assassin’s knife did not stop Richard Cachia Caruana from doing all that he has done since that cold December evening in 1995.

Had it been any other man, he would have taken his compensation and scampered away to some country on the other side of the world.

Even when the PN government, and in particular Eddie Fenech Adami, lost without him, went on to lose the October 1996 election, he did not abscond. He remained at the core of the Nationalist Party and was instrumental in the work that went on unseen by many to build up the party in expectation of a return to power that came about, very surprisingly, after less than two years.

This time, he was determined, he told me some months ago, to leave. But now that the new parliamentary majority has seen fit to sack him, I doubt if he will retire to a quiet life. On the contrary, this coup may well spur him to further commitment inside the party, even if it goes into Opposition.

Seen like this, the great victory announced to a country probably more interested in the Italy game last Monday, starts to sound rather hollow.

All it stopped was Cachia Caruana’s efforts in Brussels to put forward Malta’s case at the various EU levels, starting with, for instance, the Air Malta case. So when Edward Scicluna, for instance, quotes Commissioner Almunia as saying that the government of Malta has been rather late in replying to the Commission’s questions about the Air Malta rescue, what will the removal of the man in Rue Archimede do to speed up that process?

This decision by the new parliamentary majority has effectively removed Mr Cachia Caruana from the very crucial role of the link between Malta and Brussels. But it has not put an end to Mr Cachia Caruana’s effectiveness as a person. On the contrary, it may well have made him react by getting deeper into the PN core.

Now, of course, nobody is all that essential and indispensable, as kings and popes found out. And Mr Cachia Caruana gets up the nose of many people – his aristocratic lineage, his house in Mdina, his private school education, his elite friends, need I go on? I can go back to at least June 1987 and remember him coming to a Sunday breakfast at his parents’ house at St Edward’s College, and even then he was at the core of the new administration and had been so for some time, even in Opposition.

There is no minister, except for Austin Gatt, who has been around and in the heart of things for so long. Not even Dr Gonzi, who was then beginning his political career and about to be appointed Speaker. Others, like Louis Galea or John Dalli are no longer at the centre of things. But of that, later.

This was the first time ever, in the short history of Maltese legislatures, that the House of Representatives voted for the dismissal of a civil servant, albeit a special one that RCC is.

This decision, on its own, carries huge implications. The preceding vote by the new majority regarded a holder of political office, Carm. Mifsud Bonnici, and quickly claimed his head. There was nothing the new minority could do about it except rise in protest.

But this is different. The sound of the tumbrils can be heard approaching: any civil servant or political appointee cannot dare act as his job tells him to act, for he risks becoming the target of the new majority.

Who’s next? It may be, I don’t know, the chairman of PBS, daily engaged in a battle with PL on how many times politicians appear on the news. It may be the Mepa chairman if his board approves an application with political overtones.

There could be, I think, constitutional implications in all this, for such a decision by the new majority may well be construed as gross interference in the independence and security of tenure of a civil servant.

In the case of members of the judiciary, the Constitution asks for a two-thirds vote by the House – something that was abused in the case of Judge Depasquale. But there is no two-thirds majority required to sack the Permanent Representative in Brussels. Nor of any other civil servant.

In the case of Richard Cachia Caruana, the claimed basis for the Opposition motion was the Wikileaks report on how a decision regarding the Partnership for Peace agreement was reached. I doubt if I can fully understand the whole issue, let alone the rest of the country.

But it soon became clear that this was a kangaroo court and its real intentions lay elsewhere. That is how I read the questions about his salary package, which had nothing to do with Wikileaks.

Then came JPO’s sudden decision to vote against – it was sudden to all of us but I doubt if he arrived at it on the spur of the moment. On the contrary, I feel it had been long in coming.

Two years ago, again in mid-summer, JPO suddenly tabled the divorce motion. We all remember how that had shocked the country but then it led to a divorce debate and referendum, which, in all fairness, I believe was good for the country because it brought the issue to a head and that is what the country needed, regardless of its outcome.

But this was something else. Most of what JPO said to announce his decision did not touch much on the reasons adduced by the Opposition for its motion, but expressed his anger at what he, and Franco Debono, call the small, tight, coterie, or as they call it oligarchy, around Dr Gonzi which has eased out all those that did not form part of that core. And, of course, the claim that RCC unleashed the rottweilers in the press against any doubters or naysayers.

The JPO act was an act by the man who, as he himself said, has no political future. So one could even construe it as a final act of defiance, an act that hurt a government so weak that anybody could blow it over. Maybe also an act of vengeance and of protest.

We are back to where we have been all these past months. I note that the latest opinion poll that has been made public did not show the bounce in support of Dr Gonzi I expected to see after the Franco Debono actions of the past weeks. I expected a higher degree of reaction following the defenestration of a senior minister. Nor do I expect a bounce as a result of this week’s vote.

Clearly, Lawrence Gonzi has a problem, a big one. It will take much, much more than the Spend a Day with the Prime Minister gimmick to sort out this problem.

The vote against Richard Cachia Caruana has deprived Malta of the services of a brilliant man who is conscientious in his job. He has his personal foibles, maybe more, to be exact, but then one can be in the hot seat for so many years, either becoming everybody’s doormat or breaking a few eggs in the process.

In politics, and Mr Cachia Caruana is politics, that catches up with you, sooner or later.

In contrast, what can JPO offer as his personal contribution? Election 2008 apart, he has his chairmanship of the Malta Council of Science and Technology. I have been following that far more than many other people and I can claim JPO was no great shakes as chairman. And no, I have not been put up to this by RCC. I can see things for myself. Ask about the long list of people who have moved out, ask about the future plans for MCST and all you get are some hazy ideas about a Science Park that have never taken off.

There are the FP7 funds which have indeed attracted attention but I still reiterate Malta has lost not one but many buses and has still a long way to go if we are to make the grade in future years.

Any Parliament worth its salt would surely find a member or two who could demand that JPO give an account of his chairmanship, just as he has with regard to RCC.

This, then, is what the GonziPN government has come to. It now survives from one kick to the next, from one ducking to the next. It knows it is in a minority and that the majority that has kicked out a minister and the top civil servant can strike at will. It also knows that calls for solidarity and loyalty are counting for less and less and that a current of unease and of criticism is never far from the surface.

To insist on loyalty and to continue to shed people will continue to deplete the party and the government until it becomes just a rump. The party should have beheaded its rebels long ago and by dithering has allowed the rope to twist tighter around its neck.

Long ago, I had suggested a loyal confrontation with no holds barred. Now it’s too late for that.

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