There have been many varied interpretations trying to fathom why Prime Minister Joseph Muscat decided to appoint Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as the new President of the Republic.

Many found it incomprehensible why the person who had obtained the most votes in the election held a year ago today, bar the party leader, should have been offered as the sacrificial victim.

Others found it even more incomprehensible why a minister who was doing sterling work, and that in an area that Labour retains as its own, i.e. social welfare, was to be sacrificed to a post that is mainly ceremonial.

Yet others tried to read in the decision their own runes that spoke of personal issues between the two.

On reflection, I sense that Joseph Muscat has followed the Eddie Fenech Adami lead rather than the Lawrence Gonzi one. For all the bonhomie and backslapping, Eddie did, successively, to Censu Tabone, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici and above all Guido de Marco what I believe Dr Muscat is doing with Ms Coleiro Preca – getting rid of possible sources of alternative power in the party and in the government by kicking them upstairs.

None of the three went happily to San Anton and, while they did not complain, as former Commissioner John Dalli very publicly said that they considered their promotion as a “prison sentence”, which was precisely what they felt, although they later adapted to the role to a greater or lesser extent.

Instead, Lawrence Gonzi had not one but at least three potential troublemakers and till the very end, the very bitter end, he suffered them and endured all that they did to him and his government. He either did not have the cold-hearted realpolitik to do what needed to be done or else he allowed scruples to lead him astray.

Now Ms Coleiro Preca is not made of rebel stuff. Her loyalty to the party is unquestionable and she would never dream of pulling her party down, even if it did not have a majority of seven.

But by appointing her President, and by removing her from her ministerial post, the Prime Minister is showing who the leader is and making sure there is no question about that.

He has said that the Presidency will offer Ms Coleiro Preca an opportunity to do sterling work on behalf of the socially-underprivileged.

I wait to see what the new President will do. Will she keep the entire superstructure that has been built around the Community Chest Fund under President George Abela, with the President spending his entire year dreaming up more and more events to build up funds? Or will she dismantle the whole apparatus that has become a veritable industry?

I do not go into the question whether the new President will jog/run from San Anton to Valletta or hold orchestra events or orange fairs for I am sure Ms Coleiro Preca will rise above all this.

All her recent past, in Opposition and then in government, Ms Coleiro Preca has spent it meeting people and finding solutions to their personal problems. She will now lose the ministerial power that can help solve people’s problems but perhaps gain access to many doors that remain shut in the face of the poor and underprivileged. When she was in Opposition, government departments and ministries many times succumbed to her questions and insistent probing. As President, that personal power which transcends institutional power can open even more doors.

But at the same time, this promotion and appointment shows once again the complete, absolute, uncheckable power of the Prime Minister who is showing one and all who truly runs the country. His power is now even more absolute than it ever was and this is a naked show of his power for all, near or far, to see.

When he says he has decided on something no one will dare question him, let alone oppose him. People will hang on to his coat-tails and let him swagger as long as he is in this minuscule kingdom. Whatever he does on a wider stage happens far away from these shores and can be easily explained away. If he makes a mistake there is no one able or courageous enough to tell him.

We will probably see a second example of this exercise of uncheckable power when he carries out the coming reshuffle. And he told us yesterday he intends to carry out many, many reshuffles.

I imagine we can all think of some ministers who have felt or are feeling his sharp criticism and we keep seeing in Parliament’s question time ministers trying to impress they are doing more than they can. Each successive episode shows the fear that has crept in government ranks as ministers etc try to escape the coming cull.

On the other hand, then, there are those who have become untouchable and who know, somehow, that he will never touch them or move them. I think one can also identify this second class.

In my book, however, to run a country on fear and fear alone will not work, not in the long term. People, key people, will focus more on keeping out of the leader’s way rather than on giving sterling work. Sooner or later, all activity will grind to a halt and everyone will look to the leader to lead. The followers will be vociferous in attacking presumed hostile persons, hoping to get Brownie points by that. But otherwise they will leave the business of managing the country, attaining goals and reaching targets to him and only as far as he allows them to do things.

This, of course, is a far cry from what parliamentary democracy is supposed to be about but this is Malta, a country of autocratic grand masters, ruthless governors, absolutist prime ministers who ran the country into the ground. We have been here already.

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