Franco’s last hurrah?

Franco Debono's speech in parliament last Wednesday may well end up as having been his last hurrah. It is obvious that keeping on abstaining - and leaving the government majority permanently hanging on a thread and depending on the Speaker's casting vote on any issue with which the Labour Opposition disagrees - is not the happiest of situations: "moving on a slow puncture", as Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo put it. Surely, the Prime Minister can never hope for this to be a never-ending story until the full term of the current House of Representatives runs out.

Way back in 1998, Prime Minister Alfred Sant decided that his one-seat majority government could not survive its whole term depending on the whims of his predecessor, Dom Mintoff. No Prime Minister, irrespective of his capabilities and political nous, can work under such conditions and in such circumstances.

Lawrence Gonzi is today in practically the same position and although the parliamentary vote on Thursday means that the election need not be called immediately, my guess is that he will have to call the election before the next budget - between Easter and the summer season, I would think. So I expect parliament to be dissolved and an election called for some Saturday in the middle of May. This means Debono only has some three months left for his antics which now have become a Maltese version of a sort of slow 'Chinese torture' to the detriment of the Prime Minister.

To be sure, Debono's speech last Wednesday was not a vicious one, but it exposed the Prime Minister's weaknesses. Of course, the Prime Minister has strengths besides weaknesses and the big picture should include both. Debono, of course, ignored the big picture but that does not make his speech irrelevant. A friend told me that Debono was acting silly, risking the government's immediate fall from power on such complaints as the use of cassette recordings in the Law Courts. Despite Debono's long rant about this issue, the thrust of his speech was his accusation that the Prime Minister is not able to control and correct the ineptitude of some of the Ministers he chose to form his Cabinet. Viewed from this angle, the issue assumes a different aspect that does impinge on the confidence that the majority of MPs must necessarily have in the Prime Minister.

While Franco's methods - as I have already said - are self-defeating and will prove to be futile in the end, one cannot just dismiss his speech last Wednesday simply as the ravings of a short-sighted and immature MP bloated with self-importance. To do so would be to ignore the fact that there is a malaise in the PN, evident also from the way it is being (mis)managed.

As an organisation of its card-carrying members and for its supporters, the PN has practically disintegrated in the last few years: so much so that at this point a group of people have been tasked to pick up the pieces and build up an electoral campaign. Even so, it cannot be dismissed as a political force and a Labour victory is by no means a foregone conclusion - despite the polls on voting intentions being what they are.

Another serious failing is the fact that no new serious candidates have been inspired to join the political fray on the PN's behalf. This is in sharp contrast with the situation in the Labour Party that will be contesting the election - whenever it is called - with a group of candidates that includes a number of new fresh and valid faces.

While this is definitely a plus on the Labour side, the decision to move the vote of non-confidence, when there was no certainty that it would be approved, has boomeranged and has made Labour look like having rushed too hastily. It does seem that Joseph Muscat started by being very cautious about what action to take and one gets the impression that the more vociferous and extreme wing of the Labour party pushed him into that decision that has now proved to have been a mistake.

At face value, this could be seen as a small inconsequential misstep but in actual fact, the real downside for Labour is the perception that Muscat is weak in the face of pressures from the old guard. This is just the opposite of the perception of himself that he tried to portray when addressing the Labour general conference last week.

The battle for political support has begun in earnest and the country will not get out of election mode no matter how long the present administration limps on.

And where will Franco Debono be at the end of all this? Simply nowhere.

Even his last hurrah will eventually be forgotten.

Failing the people

The decision taken by the police to hold a press conference last Monday regarding the mysterious New Year's Day deaths in Sliema reflects the shoddy way the Malta Police Force carries on with its duties.

Anyone who follows foreign news television stations knows that immediately after a mysterious death, the police contact the press giving them statements that indicate whether the case is being treated as accidental death or murder and appealing the public for any information that might help the police in their investigations.

In Malta, the police stay officially mum, with media stables getting unofficial information from their own unofficial contacts while people go on writing stupid theories in the comments columns of the media websites, besides the oral rumours that are so common and spread so quickly in this rumour-infested island. After over three weeks of this charade, the Police decided it was time to get clean, presumably because their investigations ran into a brick wall after having thought that they could do it alone.

Anyone in their right senses should easily realise that the press conference on the New Year's Day case was addressed by an Assistant Police Commissioner some 20 days late. Nothing was said that could not have been said two or three days after the case was reported with all its gory details.

Obviously the police have failed the public in whose name they are obliged to uphold the law.

The numerous accusations of police beatings that are surfacing with worrying regularity are also a reflection of the failings of our force vis-à-vis the ordinary citizen.

To quote the bard: 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark'.