Show us the evidence

The latest twist in the unfolding Nationalist Party "civil war" has now stretched public credulity levels beyond all reasonable limits.

Today, this newspaper reveals the contents of an internal communication in which PN officials Tonio Borg, Paul Borg Olivier and Marthese Portelli (the PN's deputy leader, secretary general and president of the executive council respectively) have laid down the procedures to be followed when deliberating a motion by MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to expel Richard Cachia Caruana from the party, over alleged 'collusion' with Labour officials in the 1990s.

In a largely unexpected move, the PN council has asked Pullicino Orlando to present his witnesses - understood to include senior Labour party officials - to testify 'viva voce' before the executive council. This is not only an unprecedented move for the Nationalist Party; it is arguably unheard of anywhere in Maltese political history.

The sequence of events is now well enough known: suffice it to say that Pullicino Orlando is one of three MPs to have been 'censured' by the same party executive for defying the government line when voting in Parliament. Of the three rebels, one (Franco Debono) has indicated that he believes he may still has a future in the PN; while another (Jesmond Mugliett) has made it clear he intends to quietly fade away into the background.

This leaves only one loose cannon to be reckoned with; and he has just upped the ante considerably in a political chess game that shows no signs of abating with the summer heat.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando presents a quandary for the PN. He has already pre-emptively announced that he does not intend to contest (or even vote in) the next election; and this leaves the party with little or no bargaining power at all to try and lure him back into the fold.

This is now the dilemma preoccupying both Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and (separately) the Nationalist Party... and it is significant that the two entities, so recently paired under the same umbrella label of 'GonziPN', now seem to look at the same problem from different perspectives.

The former appears determined, in his own words, 'not to do an Alfred Sant' and take the country to the polls prematurely; the latter has however exhibited symptoms of second thoughts, with insiders reportedly urging the party to call an election as soon as possible in order to 'cleanse' the party of its malcontents... even if this means a lengthy stint in opposition.

Effectively, Lawrence Gonzi is faced with a stark choice: either to sacrifice himself as Prime Minister, and possibly also PN leader, by calling an election at a time when all polls point towards an almost certain landslide Labour victory; or alternatively, to soldier on with a fractured and hamstrung government, held to ransom at every turn by a maverick MP with an axe to grind.

This not exactly an enviable position for any Prime Minister to find himself in, and all this must in fact be mind-boggling to Nationalist voters who had grown accustomed to a very different way of doing politics within the PN. Tomorrow's meeting promises to confuse them even further.

By accepting to hear the witnesses in person, the PN executive has effectively turned the tables onto Pullicino Orlando: who now also faces an equally stark choice. He must either produce the evidence of the 'collusion' with which he has besmirched Cachia Caruana's name; or else, withdraw the accusation altogether, and beat a retreat with his tail between his legs.

What he will do tomorrow is admittedly anyone's guess; but whatever it is, the stage has now been set for a veritable showdown at the PN HQ, from which there can realistically be no painless way out for any of the parties concerned.

But even more remarkable than the sheer extent to which this schism has been allowed to deteriorate, are the methods that have been resorted to on either side, and which appear at a glance to defy all reason and common sense. Only a few weeks ago, Pullicino Orlando lambasted the Nationalist Party executive for allowing itself to be turned into a 'judge and jury;' in order to condemn three of its own MPs (himself included). And yet he himself is now using the same executive for the exact same purpose: only this time to condemn someone else.

It is arguably even more bizarre that the PN executive has consented to summon 'witnesses' from an opposing party, in what is increasingly coming to resemble a mock trial against one of its own officials. Viewed out of context, the entire episode appears almost surreal, and one can only marvel at how a party that was once admired for its collegiality and its ability to keep internal its own private differences, should now spontaneously combust before our eyes like this.

In all this confusion, however, one thing is emerging increasingly clear. The country cannot afford this sort of histrionic megalomania any longer. Pullicino Orlando has clearly made his point, and reduced the Nationalist government to little more a toothless entity at his own beck and call. But he must now chew what he has bitten off, and produce material evidence to sustain his allegations once and for all.

That is now the litmus test: everything else, from this point on, is merely quibble.