Gonzi’s ‘no regrets’

When former Prime Minister Alfred Sant attributed his 2004 defeat to the "power of incumbency", the expression quickly became part of the local political lexicon.

It was not the only Sant quote that would have a lasting legacy. After the same election, the Labour leader famously added that he had "no regrets" regarding his stint as prime minister ... and the comment was lampooned mercilessly on the Nationalist media.

Of course, the expression itself is a direct quote from a famous song by Edith Piaff. As such, hearing the same expression used by a Maltese politician - especially one who had much to regret, all things considered - was at the time a rather surreal experience.

It was equally surreal to hear Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi echoing Alfred Sant (and Edith Piaff) almost to the letter last Monday. Yet Gonzi insisted, with often contrived conviction, that he likewise had 'no regrets' over his own more controversial moments... such as when he used his parliamentary vote to defy a popular referendum on divorce; or the many instances when he defended non-delivering ministers despite clear indications of popular disgruntlement with their performance.

Nor was this the only moment in the past few days that the Nationalist prime minister seemed to take a leaf out of his former antagonist's book. Where Sant had declared 'war, war, war' on the PN in 1998, Gonzi similarly blamed his own predicament - and with it, the loss of his parliamentary majority - uniquely on the Opposition.

And yet in both cases the fly in the ointment was not a member of the Opposition at all. Dom Mintoff and Franco Debono were sitting members of parliament on the government side of the House when they pulled the plug on their own government . Looking back on both these crises, there is simply no realistic interpretation of events that can possibly shift the blame for what happened from the actions of individual government members, onto the Opposition... especially when the Opposition has been so accommodating: allowing government to effectively remain in place until January 7 (with all the potential for 'power of incumbency' that this may entail, to the Opposition's detriment).

Yet this didn't stop the government from trying. In his final speech on Monday, Dr Gonzi almost seemed to expect Opposition leader Joseph Muscat to come galloping to his rescue like a knight in shining armour.

He even seemed to expect the Labour Party to become the first Opposition party in Maltese history to vote in favour of a budget put forward by the government. In so doing, Gonzi clearly forgot that the Opposition under Eddie Fenech Adami had not only voted against the Labour budget in '98 (exactly like Labour did this week); but had also tested the government's stability with a motion of no confidence.

Nor is this the only instance where Lawrence Gonzi has accused the Opposition of shortcomings his own party has been equally guilty of; during the same speech Gonzi also pooh-poohed and ridiculed Alfred Sant's intention to contest the coming MEP election. .

Scoffing at Labour's 'star candidate', Gonzi forgot the mortal offence his own party took very recently, when his chosen nominee for the European Commission, Dr Tonio Borg, was likewise scoffed at and ridiculed.

On that occasion, the Nationalist media lambasted Europe's liberals, greens and socialists alike for opposing Tonio Borg, despite the very justifiable objections that his 15-year record was often at loggerheads with the values and core vision of all three of those political blocs.

How, then, could the same party launch such a blistering attack on another party's chosen candidate for a European position, after having deplored a similar attack on its own 'star candidate'? 

Such obvious contradictions illustrate the often extraordinary ability of the current administration to overlook the beam in its own eye, while loudly criticising the mote in the eyes of others.

More worryingly, they also point towards a certain delusional quality, whereby the Nationalist Party seems to genuinely believe its own propaganda that it is somehow above all censure of criticism, no matter how legitimate.

Naturally, the polar opposite extreme is just as ludicrous. Gonzi's administration has been demonstrably flawed on a number of counts; but this does not mean that it didn't also have its very good points. But to insist, as Gonzi did on Monday, that 'all his decisions were right'... when in fact he made several strategic mistakes that arguably cost his party dear... is to be totally oblivious the same history that Gonzi so often invokes as his ally.

A cursory glance at the 2008-2013 administration will yield several instances which Gonzi, in a more honest and self-critical moment, will certainly find himself regretting. His handling of the honoraria increase - which had been secretively enacted behind the puiblic's back - stands out as perhaps the most glaring. Elsewhere, his decision to tie the PN to a doomed anti-divorce platform was likewise very clearly a mistake.

At the end of the day, neither Lawrence Gonzi nor any other politician can expect to be taken seriously when they claim to be infallible, or indeed indispensable to the country's well being. After all, if there's one thing history clearly teaches us, it is that nobody is ever indispensable.