It must be the air at Castille.

Over the years we have all noted how it seems to give its resident the powers of invincibility.

Winning an election, both one of 1700 as in 2008 and 37,000 as in this year, seems to give the incumbent extraordinary powers of clairvoyance, and the uncanny ability to make decisions that may be unappreciated by many but which the Castille incumbent is sure is the right decision.

That, if we remember well, was Lawrence Gonzi’s attitude post 2008. And that seems to have transferred itself to Joseph Muscat now.

Dr Muscat’s reaction at the widespread reactions by the Labour grassroots over the appointment of the National Festivities Committee, specifically the appointment of Lou Bondi to this committee, referred back to the stances he took over the past five years and told his supporters to trust in him even if they disagree with his decision, keeping in mind that stances he took five years ago turned out to be the right ones.

PL supporters are asking, with increasingly vocal outrage, if the Labour administration, after just 100 days in office has run out of steam, seeing it seems to have run out of people to staff its committees.

Do we have to list the protesters? Joseph Cuschieri MEP, including yesterday evening, former minister Joe Grima, yesterday’s Orizzont. If PM Muscat wanted to make a point, he has now made it well enough.

Not even with all the trust in the world can one see how Dr Muscat persuade any of his supporters to trust his judgement on this.

Certain things must be placed in the proper perspective.

First of all, it is undeniable that any government must feel free to nominate people on its committees which it feels are better to implement the government’s programme.

If the party in government cannot find enough people of caliber to fill in all the vacant posts, that says volumes about that particular government. But we refuse to believe this is the case with this administration.

It is also desirable for a government, any government, to seek to have other opinions reflected in the composition of the boards and committees it appoints. It is more than admirable for an administration to seek national reconciliation through the composition of its boards, although this alone will not of itself ensure national reconciliation. The last PN administration, for instance, said many times it wanted national reconciliation but then the composition of some boards and committees cannot be said to reflect the overarching aim of national reconciliation.

If Dr Muscat wanted to reinforce the national reconciliation he spoke about in the election campaign, maybe he should have exacted from the people he appointed a general commitment in favour of national reconciliation accompanied, if that was the case, with an expression of regret at any or all actions committed in the past by anyone on these boards. That was not done and the country and the party have been left with a ‘fait accompli’ as big as anything.

The composition of sensitive boards then requires careful preparation and quite rigid terms of reference. It would not do, obviously, for them to subscribe to ‘tokenism’ in that they have to include a certain proportion of this or that strands, and in the culture area, specifically, the people chosen have to be competent and well-versed.

However, it would not have been amiss, for instance, for the government to ask the Opposition to suggest its representatives, rather than this plunging in and picking and choosing for whatever reason there may be.

In the absence of a clear rationale, preferably explained before, and not after the fact, suspicion and all sorts of mischief can be sown.

In the light of all that has taken place over the past 100 days, it would not seem that Dr Muscat is trying to push back the widespread belief held by the PL grassroots that once they are in government, all posts should fall into their hands. If this was Dr Muscat’s aim, then this does not appear from all the appointments that have been made over the past 100 days.

Dr Muscat has some extra explaining to do and perhaps no explanation is enough, not just with regards to the PL grassroots but also to the country at large. It would not seem that the country has accepted this appointment was made in a spirit of reconciliation.