Chop chop, pot pot

When will Lawrence Gonzi prune parts of his Cabinet and re-pot some others? Prime ministers tend to that from time to time, just to show who is boss or out of necessity. The present one, not yet a year in office, may well be thinking that necessity has become dire. A "has-to-do" might bring to mind nature's way of how-and-when to do it.

Springtime, combining the PM's first anniversary at the helm with the electoral cycle reaching its mid-point, is the first likely opportunity.

Spring did peek in the other day and might come by not before long. In spring, of course, a young girl's fancy turns to thoughts of love. Dr Gonzi's political love could very well couple with love of the self which, so they say, is the greatest love of all.

Sporting his hat of party leader he stressed to his party's council it had to face up to change. The emphasis was called up by the debate over the place of political girls among the boys. Dr Gonzi, who from the start declared his hand and gave two top, one near-so political offices to his three female MPs, came out strongly in favour of positive discrimination in his party's structures.

It was an important debate, though the philosophical divide remains far beyond any political party. Unless there is bias and discrimination holding back female candidates for political office at any level, positive discrimination implies that women cannot make it on their own.

That is far from being the case, as so many examples in all walks of Maltese life show. But the reference to change was not restricted to the party level. The PN leader referred to the example of change at the national level. That must have been more than his sub-consciousness speaking.

Months ago, it was famously leaked that the PM had summoned the ministers and parliamentary secretaries to give them a stern warning - deliver, or else. On that occasion he handed a drubbing to one of the lighter members of the team. He used him as a peg for his message to the rest.

Are ministers and PSs delivering as much as the Prime Minister wanted and expected them to? Above all, are they performing as well as the country needs and demands? Parties and their executives, councils and general conferences are an integral part of the democratic process. Ministers and other office holders of the party transiting through government participate in them. Yet, as the Cabinet and its supporting cast, their role is to serve the people, not least by managing the country as best as can be in the circumstances.

There is widespread feeling that they are not serving and managing well enough. The roots of that feeling go much deeper than expression over annoyance, even hardship caused by the gas fracas. Beyond, even, the failure of realisation to match the huge expectation foolishly generated from EU membership.

Dr Gonzi, paralleling Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici when he took over from Dom Mintoff, missed an opportunity to respond to an evident need to overhaul the team he inherited from Eddie Fenech Adami. Those perceived to be the anointed by an outgoing leader - though in Dr Gonzi's case he still faced very stiff competition - find it difficult to jettison old baggage without, thereby, seeming to implicitly criticise their patron's judgement.

If, season after season, no pruning is done, nor any re-potting, things go from bad to worse. Whatever the resources at a Prime Minister's disposal he owes it to the country to make the best use of them. Dr Gonzi is not sitting on riches. Nevertheless he knows as much as the next man or woman that the engine is sputtering, that the team as a whole is not delivering.

What goes on within a party and the quality and performance of its officers is its own affair. Inefficient and ineffectual management of the country is the people's concern. The changes exemplified by spring cannot come soon enough.