Fausto Majistral inaugurates the guest blogging season with the first “zolabyte” or guest post on j’accuse. Here he discusses Gonzi’s cabinet reshuffle.
***
Philip Mifsud may not be a well-known Nationalist MP but he’s recently made a point that should have attracted far more attention than much that has been said by other backbenchers seeking the limelight. Speaking about how the PM handled Franco Debono he said it risked being a “precedent” where MPs would “start to subject government and the Prime Minister to blackmail, which is totally unacceptable”.
With a vacancy arising in an important post in a small Cabinet, it was important to watch if the PM would bend and, if he did, which way. He didn’t. In a nutshell: Joe Cassar gets promoted to Minister of Health, to Cristina’s portfolio gets added Social Policy (minus Health), Demarco’s now includes environment and culture, Jason Azzopardi gets also SMEs, coops and trade services and Enemalta and WSC get shifted from Austin Gatt’s watch to Tonio Fenech’s.
So Cabinet stays small and actually gets smaller. More importantly, from a strictly political perspective, is no new faces, no backbenchers mollified.
Objectively, this Cabinet is very new retaining only very few MPs who had previously held a Ministerial post and now one more of them is gone. But of course, it’s the electorate’s perception that counts and the idea that the PM should inject new blood has been doing the rounds: of no less than 65%, a MaltaToday survey informs us.
Should the PM have risked being seen as weak and acted on that general feeling? A second look at the survey’s numbers is worth taking. When it came to mentioning the papabili Robert Arrigo managed a mere 11%. That’s 11% of the 65%, by the way, and we’re not told how many of them hail from the electoral district Arrigo was returned from. As to the “rest” none managed more than 3%. In fact, a good two-thirds who thought there should be new appointees on Cabinet either ticked “don’t know” or “none of the above” when prompted for a name.
As there are no laws prohibiting the abortion of hypothetical frontbenchers yet unborn I will do just that. But before moving on let me recall that in 1995 in the last years of Fenech-Adami II, the erstwhile PM came up with a “jesuitical” solution (the kind of which, amongst other things, lumped us with no less than five national days) and promoted so many backbenchers that he almost ran out of MPs. Fenech-Adami may have spared himself the rumblings right behind him but not the opposition benches only the following year. Political honeymoons with newcomers tend to be very brief.
Fausto Majistral
for J’accuse Zolabytes
*****
Zolabytes is a new rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 5 years.
Opinions expressed in zolabytes contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
***
8 replies on “The PM Shuffles the Pack – zolabytes”
Imagine Bidnija, a road with a kid walking by an unrestrained neopolitan mastiff showing signs of anger. At first sight, the kid seems unafraid, however by closely analysing the first reactions of the kid when he first saw the dog and those when he goes round the corner, one may conclude otherwise. It could be that the kid was well aware that if you run off, the dog will chase you, unless you are a cop, in that case you just run.
In the same way, at first sight one can be of the opinion that the reshuffle from within is an offensive tactical move aimed at destroying internal opposition and therefore a sign of strength of this leadership (“GonziPN will put you in your place” kinda thing).However, in my opinion, aside from the comment by Philip Mifsud and maybe some gossip from the chief spinner at the Muppet Show blog, there is little that leads you to think it was anything to do with that. (I cannot be totally naïve and not even consider the possibility that this is all scripted, and therefore just part 2 of the spinning class.) After blackmail is best dealt with in the same way Mel Gibson did, and the government by its lack of coherence, certainly doesn’t embrace stare decisis so I don’t see why this should be an issue now.
I propose an alternative hypothesis is that this is a further sign of weakness. This could be supported by the recent moves to send potential competition for the throne upstairs or in the garden and only inviting the trusted few to dinner. An intelligent move only if the ultimate goal is survival, which I believe, is the gist of what GonziPN has retreated into.
GonziPN is becoming famous for ignoring what it doesn’t like to hear, hence the disgruntlement of the backbenchers and more importantly of the electorate. Recruiting a small pack, that is finally free from the disloyal and from contenders to the throne is a clear sign of retreat. A small pack is easier to manage, but only because you manage it well, doesn’t mean you are successfully managing the country. The latter the ultimate test, the electorate is really interested in.
It will be intriguing to see what GonziPN will do once he turns the corner, especially if another seat becomes vacant? My bets are on someone to defend the gates of the cabinet and possibly “manage” the disgruntled group according to “GonziPN will put you in your place” management principles. We have already seen, and in my opinion will see much of this in the near future.
Disclaimer: typed on a french keyboard in a 5 line comment window.
Excuse me but, who would be “contenders to the throne” (who could be of a direct challenge to Gonzi and who stood a fighting chance).
Only Dalli would have come close. And even his decision to go to Brussels has some context. Dalli effectively took up an offer he turned down in 2004. He turned it down because he knew that (a) the post of Party leader would be vacated and (b) with it would come that of PM. Verdict: Valletta more attractive.
This time he knew that (a) he would have to unseat Gonzi to become Party leader and that (b) in all probability the post that would come with it would be Leader of the Opposition. Unlike 2004, I don’t think this time round he needed much convincing because verdict: Brussels is more attractive.
As to the point of disloyalty I think it’s significant that Gonzi does not have problems in his Cabinet but with his backbench. I hardly think those backbenchers “with ambitions” would have been any more problematic once those ambitions were satisfied.
P.S. You fare pretty well with a French keyboard.
greetings fausto, good to have something to chew upon saturday.
i tend to go with pots. did the PM bend?
he had no option really. a back-bench replete with too many hungry mouths; feed some, turn the rest from Pekinese-in-greyhound-costume to rottweilers. So no option really but to let sleeping dogs lie.
yet rottweilers they may still become. do they feel that this is the last time that their party may be in Government for years to come? that by the time the np is returned to government, they may all be old disgruntled ‘grazing’ mariners who never actually took to the ocean, having missed the boat being so near. frustrating.
moreover, the possible failed attempt by the PM to address the Gozo issue may make him look even more vulnerable.
that all this has more to do with political survival than governance is the real conundrum. being able to shut shop for six weeks without as much as a whimper does upset this particular democrat. but then I am perhaps a nostalgic at heart at a time when democracy has become a plastic flower.
“Shut shop for six weeks”? What’s that? The summer holidays?
Parliament. or am i mistaken. I am sure i heard it somewhere that parliament has been sent into marked-time because of some by-election. Or is my impression a mistaken one?
There will be no sittings from 10 February to 1 March. Considering the 10th is a holiday anyway and Parliament meets only on the first three days of the week that’s two weeks.
… and six sittings in all.
Thanks for the detail.