The Lone Ranger has competition

Try as I might, it was hard to summon the energy to get excited about any of the political shenanigans currently hitting the Malta headlines. I don’t know whether it was the heat or a throbbing twisted ankle. Besides, I shall have to reach out for a bucket if I see yet another photo of Franco Debono (MP).

Even the Labour Party has had enough of his trying to do their job for them. The trouble with the guy is that he not only wants his cake and eat it too, but he also keeps forcing it down our throats as well. And now the latter has got me, if not actually energised, a little animated. Debono will not leave the Nationalist Party (PN) of his own free will. He knows that the local electorate does not favour independents and he will therefore not get anywhere outside of the two main parties. He does not want to join the Labour Party, so he will hang on tooth and nail to the only other Party with any hope of winning the next election. His thinking, I believe, is that people disenchanted with the current administration, but who do not favour Labour, will vote for him as the PN saviour and he will have reached his objective. However, he now has a competitor. Pullicino Orlando is also staking a claim to be the PN’s salvatur (he already has divorce under his belt and Richard Cachia Caruana did have his detractors within the party. Latter explained further down). There is obviously no love lost between the two (FD and JPO), when  Debono tried to raise a point of order in Parliament,  Pullicino Orlando told him not to be rude and to learn how to behave with others. Ouch! I have no doubt that Debono sees himself as the Lone Ranger fighting injustice and the only one who can save the PN. The way things are panning out; the PN’s hold on power is steadily dwindling. To the extent that former Prime Minister and President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami, upset that his blue-eyed boy had met a sticky end, stated on TV that the government has a duty, in the national interest, to try to take this legislature to the end of its term. While refusing to comment on whether dissenting MPs should be dismissed from the party, he said that there should be no room for compromise and that all were expected to toe the line. EFA was referring to Debono, JPO and Jesmond Mugliett. The last two voted with the Opposition on the motion calling for the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta’s representative to the EU. (Debono did not join them despite harshly criticising RCC earlier. He likes flying solo). EFA’s message to the PM Lawrence Gonzi and the PN executive, as I read it, was to get the renegades to comply or throw them out. It is not the first time that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has gone against the grain of the PN. He led the successful campaign on divorce when the PN establishment was dead against it. Now the PN executive has condemned and censured the trio − Debono for voting for Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici’s resignation and the other two for joining the Opposition on the RCC motion − but where will condemnation and censure lead? “I had said MPs would have to shoulder the consequences of their actions, especially when they voted as they did on a serious matter that led to the resignation of two people,” said the Prime Minister. So what are the consequences? Will they be kicked out? They are already being sidelined; according to JPO a “policy of apartheid” within the PN is already in place. “Any decision would be taken according to developments,” said Dr Gonzi. The three have all declared that they have no intention of leaving the party and have shown no regret at peeing in rather than out of their camp. JPO claiming that there was only one time in recent political history that the behaviour of an MP could have been interpreted as condemnable and that was “when some of my colleagues blatantly voted against divorce despite the wishes of the people expressed in a referendum”.  Mr Mugliett criticised the executive for being “selective” in its condemnation of personal attacks and in true form Debono said, “I cannot understand what happened.” So the PN has a stalemate. The executive is obviously weighing up what consequences sacking the trio would have at this vulnerable juncture, especially since two of them are very good at utilising the media to the full. So will the renegades gain momentum and further slow down the ailing PN machine? JPO is claiming that up to 10 PN MPs told him they wished to back the Opposition’s motion seeking RCC’s resignation, some even sending him SMSs. In response, the party is asking for proof, since it said it has a signed declaration by 33 government MPs (all except Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett) saying they never had any intention to vote for the Opposition’s motion calling for the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana. JPO meanwhile is saying he will not rat.  Article published in the Malta Independent on Sunday on 24 June 2012 Article published in the Malta  Independent on Sunday on 24 June 2012