Girgenti folly

Is Lawrence Gonzi a prisoner of circumstance? Is he a prisoner of his party? Or is he someone we do not really know at all? The Girgenti folly, where the PN general secretary sat cheek by jowl with the nation's ministers - the Cabinet - and parliamentary secretaries as they began discussing the "2005 budget process" (sic), makes one wonder.

Prime Minister Gonzi is certainly clapped in the irons of circumstance. He inherited a deeply flawed strategy. His predecessor would not tell it to the people as it really was. Never state in stark terms the gravity of the state Malta. He coloured over the large dark patches. Continuing with this type of politics is foolish as well as false.

It is not possible to demand restraint, expect gritting of teeth, when you persistently tell your people: You never had it so good.

Dr Gonzi did not simply inherit that heritage. He was a key part of the last third of its construction. In his defence one could say that, when he moved to Number Two in 1998, he found the flawed strategy embedded. He proceeds to knock down the plea himself. In an early interview as PM, he repeated the canard that the structural deficit was created by the 1996-98 Labour government, in all of 22 months in office.

He moved on to talk in rosy terms, though less so than his predecessor. A desire to be blunt seemed to lurk inside him. But he appeared hamstrung by an inability to break with the past. To get away from the lingering shadow of the man whose cross he took over. He remains a prisoner of that circumstance. Unwilling or unable to break out towards the freedom of being his own man.

Dr Gonzi is also a prisoner of his party. No democratic political leader can ignore his side. Otherwise, he would be an autocrat. But a leader leads. Dr Gonzi seems to be held in bondage. That was indicated in the European Parliament election campaign. It was confirmed in an astonishing and alarming manner last week, at Girgenti.

A leader of a political party and its bureaucratic head must have close contact. Together they plan how to safeguard and promote the interests of their party. They do so at the party HQ. But when that leader is acting in his role of Prime Minister, along with his Cabinet, he is head of the Executive, of the Administration. His time and energy in that role ought to belong to all the people.

Returning over the weekend from a short trip abroad, where I was too busy to follow what was going on in Malta, I could not believe that Dr Gonzi could commit such an error. Much less could I take in his brazen reply to the media, when he was asked why the Nationalist Party's general secretary had attended Thursday's Cabinet Girgenti session.

Prime Minister Gonzi coolly replied that the general secretary was the link with the political party. Compounding the gravity, he added: "After all, this is a political programme and the Nationalist Party has to be active in this process". That, Prime Minister, is crass. The budget should be prepared from the standpoint of the country and its people, not the PN and its supporters.

The Nationalist Party lambasted the Labour government when Premier Dom Mintoff struck an accord with the GWU, whereby two of its officials attended Cabinet meetings when matters impacting on industrial relations were discussed. That was a dubious arrangement. Having on board the party general secretary is far worse.

It was - and in China and Cuba still is - Communist practice not to make a clear distinction between party and government. The last thing I would suggest is that Dr Gonzi has any Communist tendencies. Nevertheless, it is unacceptable in a democracy that there should be party involvement in the administration.

It is bad enough that the PN general secretary sets the tone for the party media to write and speak as if the PN were itself the government. If the Premier - in that national role as well as in that of a partisan party leader - does not put an end to that practice, he should certainly not deploy himself as a partisan party leader in his public office.

The early months in the life of Dr Gonzi as Prime Minister have not been easy. He has increased his burden by not jettisoning wrong strategies and discarding mistaken decisions, such as ostentatious and conspicuous government consumption, blatantly typified by the Brussels Lm9 million splash. He is now on the road to a mess of his own.

It seems so out of character, one can only wonder what is behind it all...