It does not make that much difference to the PL or to the undersigned as to who will be elected deputy leader of the Nationalist Party.

Although the two contestants sit on the other side of the political fence, I wish both of them the best of luck in their endeavours.

What I will definitely not do is fall into the trap that GonziPN had fallen into when we had leadership contests within the PL and they had speculated ad nauseam as to who would, could or should have served the PL interests best.

There is only one thing that strikes me about this so called ‘contest among friends’….That even if the vacancy may have arisen because of Tonio Borg’s decision to vacate his seat as deputy leader before he had even been formally endorsed as a nominee for the post of EU Commissioner – unless he was politely encouraged to do so by the powers that be – it is pretty evident that Gonzi knows that with him at the helm and no one by his side, he tends to be somewhere in between either of these three scenarios – downfall, free fall and or sky fall!

What also struck me was that neither of the two contestants is bothering to offer much vision as for the future.

Their sole objective seems to be that of merely containing the hemorrhage – with one candidate boasting that the elections can still be winnable with some as yet undefined effort and the other pledging to bring back the lost sheep.

A third certainty seems to be that Gonzi was very eager to ensure that there would not be only one contestant, since it was bad enough for him to run alone earlier this year when subjecting himself to reconfirmation in a manner that had many people even PN insiders joking that it all smacked of a Mubarak styled election.

To have one single candidate for deputy leader would have been rich indeed.

While the PN is making every last ditch exercise to try and project itself as an energetic party that is capable of responding to the challenges of today, as well as those that it will face in the future, the past months and years have shown that on the contrary GonziPN have been all living in an ivory tower - out of touch and out of sync from present realities; insensitive to the major burdens being shouldered by the average man in the street; and indifferent to the way the middle class that various administrations have built up over the years has been wilting away fast. While the party progressively moved to take on the semblance of a clan and tribal group rather than a political force.

The other week I came across a former Nationalist – not exactly in her teens – who I have always known as a dyed in the wool PN supporter. She has fallen out with the party ever since Gonzi took over particularly since the circle of friends tended to shrink by the hour.

What impressed me most was that when some guys from the Dar Centrali were reported to have attempted to bring her back to the fold, she told them that there was no way that she would budge, because as a moderate Nationalist she felt more comfortable with Joseph Muscat’s moderate and non confrontational approach – going on to add that it was they who had not remained Nationalist since they had morphed into a tribal clan.

I was tickled with amusement when I heard that last Sunday Dr Gonzi chose to lecture us on the importance of honouring our pledges and ensuring that any promises or pledged would need to be funded by taxpayers’ money.

While most of the financial burdens that Gonzi introduced during this legislature by stealth were nowhere to be seen or mentioned in his 2008 manifesto most of the major electoral pledges that he had committed himself to remain unfulfilled.

A typical case in point being their dismal record in the energy sector where they are all the time craving for the PL to disclose its utility rate reduction plans when to-date, they do not even yet have a national energy policy officially in place. Languishing as it has been in draft form since 2009.

They can blame it on the EIA. On the consultation process. On the tweaking and fine tuning. But regardless of whether elections will be held within weeks or months it is nothing short of shameful that what was meant to be our backbone in the entire energy sector remains as yet a draft document even though inside sources claim that every effort is being made to get it belatedly approved and formalized after all these years of political impotence and inactivity.

If the PN portal maltarightnow.com quoted one of the deputy leadership contestants correctly he was reported to have already costed the electricity rate reduction plans of the PL even though these have not even been made public yet. If this is indeed the case, then what is the whole point of having GonziPN, his acolytes and media influence peddlers urging and pleading with Joseph Muscat to tell us precisely when, by how much and how will such rates be scaled down.

While Dr Gonzi continues living in the past hankering about the PL budget of 98 without admitting that contrary to the pig headedness and boastfulness with which he had boasted of his vote in Parliament to raise utility rates during this legislature, Joseph Muscat last Sunday showed great maturity by stating that although the PL would vote against the Budget, particularly since it has been turned into a vote of confidence by the Prime Minister himself, should the budget be rejected, a Labour government would still retain its framework and its positive aspects in order to reassure investors and families.

The main reason behind this thinking is that it was indeed worrying that the country could start the New Year without having an approved Budget.

We could have easily put our partisan interests ahead of all other considerations.

But on the contrary we do not want to do anything that could be detrimental to the country and investors, even if we may so happen to be faced by a clique that throughout this particular legislature has more than ever evidently put its own interests well ahead of the national interest. The presence of certain key strategists can only fuel our suspicions further.

The difference has never been starker between GonziPN and the PL.

On one hand we have a tribal clan focusing on the art of survival and its own internal battles, while on the other hand we have the PL with the right mix of candidates focusing on the country’s future and the people’s needs.

For us certainty and stability will remain imperative.

Particularly in the wake of the upsets and instability that GonziPN have allowed to be fuelled throughout this year.

There is no point in talking of the importance of peace of mind if one does not first of all commit himself the way J Muscat has done to put people’s minds at rest on such a pivotal issue.

It is bad enough that throughout this legislature confidence in politics and politicians has reached an all time low, particularly given the sleaze, lack of transparency, allegations of misconduct and other improprieties that have surfaced month after month.

A PL administration will be committed to making a whole difference.

One can forge ahead and promote the mere notion of a new style of doing politics only if we truly set out to do politics in a manner that will unite us and not divide us.

Whether we win the elections or not the people are particularly interested in one thing. That they are fed up to their necks with game plans and pointless chess moves that smack of self interest.