The developments of the last few days confirmed all that has been obvious since last November – that GonziPN continues to put the interests of GonziPN itself ahead of those of the country

While there seems to be no limit to the public humiliations he is prepared to suffer, if GonziPN will survive the day by then, rumour from circles close to the PN inner sanctum has it that Austin Gatt could step down from Minister by October – in order to hopefully help the PN government ‘buy’ internal peace, and make it easier for dissident MPs like Franco Debono to support the government on the forthcoming budget.

This will give Debono the opportunity to claim Austin Gatt’s ‘head’ even if the latter might have ostensibly stepped down to carry out his long pronounced role of campaign co-coordinator and strategy. This should also make life – on paper – far more comfortable for his nemesis, JPO, who claims to have seen the PN derailed through the Transport Minister’s actions.

Last week was a disastrous week for GonziPN by any stretch of the imagination.

Not only did it leave it in a badly reactive mode, but regardless of whether it will soldier on for another few weeks or months, it’s credibility continued to suffer badly in the process.

So much so that the usual suspects, who are often and almost invariably used covertly the same way that they were used in collusion with people close to the PN communications department in 2008 to achieve the same ends as those of the PN itself, seem to have now lost the plot in the process.

This was highly evident in the wake of JPO’s decision to go it alone in parliament and forfeit his seat within the PN’s parliamentary group, thus formally leaving GonziPN with the same amount of members of parliament as the PL Opposition

What I found intriguing was the flip-flop manner in which the PN and the usual suspects reacted to all this.

While an evidently shaken Gonzi tried to portray a threat to his government’s already weakened bill of health, as a challenge and an opportunity, in his brief press conference, what I found most perplexing was the fact that at the same time that the PM politely nudged commentators to ‘adapt to the new reality’ with their feet on the ground, certain usual suspects predictably went ballistic at the very outset, against JPO – calling his behaviour shameless, urging him to give up his seat and even specifically suggesting to the PM that he should fire JPO from any government boards or directorships he may happen to sit on like the MCST. This sentiment was also echoed by government-friendly columnists.

As expected, within four hours from their latest post, the usual suspects suddenly used the flimsiest of pretexts to decide to go completely silent on JPO as from thereon. They were evidently nudged by the powers that be, that irritating JPO at this stage could seriously rock further the already crumbling GonziPN edifice – a hard price for some to pay to keep the new-born ‘coalition of convenience’ in place.

Equally mystifying were two other particular cases.

Case number one: How the PL was blamed for a reference to the late and highly respected President Emeritus Guido de Marco in connection with the attempt on RCC’s life when the PL had neither coined nor invented any such story.

Rather than having RCC lamenting that Labour’s spin of an illicit recording was shocking, the least we would have expected to hear was whether that voice on tape was RCC’s or not, and if the quoted quotes had been doctored or not. What the late Prof. de Marco wrote about this incident in his interesting memoirs is at this stage irrelevant to the shocking tape recording. The same way one finds it hard to buy the argument pushed forward by Dr Austin Bencini. This was definitely not the case of the PL hitting political rock bottom. This was not as he claimed a vile allegation from the media close to the PL but a mere reproduction of a recording. Meanwhile, we still await the former Permanent Rep to the EU’s confirmation or denial about the authenticity of this recording.

This brings us to case number two: EU Commissioner Dalli’s recent remarks on his email attacks and the hacking to which he had been subjected. From the way certain people reacted to all this, they tried to give the impression that he was the aggressor rather than the aggrieved. Rubbishing the victim is already bad enough but to try and ridicule him for exposing such a criminal wrongdoing is even worse. This is a very serious matter about which we hope to hear more, and it will be in the public interest were the police to investigate this matter with all the seriousness that it calls for.

If all this showed how the house that GonziPN built is falling apart badly on all fronts, particularly since he assumed the party leadership – with total disregard and disrespect for those who chose to contest him, I found it amusing to say the least that the same pro-PN media guys who until a few hours before he belatedly jumped ship, were busy rubbishing JPO on the Mistra saga – almost making us forget that it dates back four years or so – suddenly decided to change tack by choosing to portray him as a man with a mission; a man who can act as a real watchdog for the people. A man who in the exercise of a coalition government could provide us with a true exercise in democracy. While even giving him the freshly minted accolade that he had the courage of his convictions to resign from the party.

The bottom line of all this is that these editorialists seemed to have one agenda item in mind – to reassure one and all that the country’s government is stable as things stand.

To argue this way is tantamount to the same feeling of denial that GonziPN has been subjecting himself to since the autumn of last year.

Anyone who would like to respect the intelligence of readers and Malta watchers should realise as The Times has been long pointing out editorially, up to Saturday last that:

• The PM is misreading public sentiment

• That government is facing a new threat to its survival

• That the independent MP’s support to government is so conditional that he can very well withhold it to the government on any issue that he does not agree with. Something already brought to the fore on the proposed cohabitation draft bill.

• The PN ban of three PN MPs from running on it’s ticket next time round considerably reduced government’s chances of survival.

Last Sunday it even argued that if anything, elections should have even been held as early as last March while respected columnist Lino Spiteri who the PN only tends to quote out of convenience argued two days ago that to put it mildly the Prime Minister is not guaranteed his one-seat majority in Parliament in what has been billed as a comedy of errors.

But alas even though these overall sentiments are expressed right across the board in society, those who stand to lose so much with a change in government tend to argue differently. By subtly or even worse, crudely, trying to deflect attention in their writing and arguing.

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