Everyone must go, says Paul Borg Olivier

The outgoing PN secretary-general, who together with current PN leader Lawrence Gonzi carried the weight of March's election defeat by not re-contesting his post, explains that the result cannot be attributed to one factor.

However, beyond the several factors which led to the defeat, Borg Olivier believes that the party administration needs to undergo a clean sweep and all persons currently occupying posts in the party's higher echelons should make way for new faces.

"Let alone that the PN administration went through a complete overhaul in 2008 when the party was in government, it should now, after suffering such a defeat," Borg Olivier says.

Looking ahead, he dispels the perception that Labour has already bagged the 2018 election, given the landslide victory in March, pointing out that while it will be hard for the PN to win, "When the pendulum swings one way it has to swing back in the other direction with the same force."

He adds that the PN must regroup and become a forceful opposition. "The first thing the party should do is look at the electoral result, but we must also look forward and be a strong opposition. We should make sure that, despite the nine-seat majority the government has, it must not be allowed to have a free ride."

He says that he led the party into the 9 March election constrained by financial, technical and human resources limitations, yet Borg Olivier does not shy away from accepting his responsibility.

"A secretary-general neither wins nor loses an election alone," Borg Olivier says. He attributes the landslide defeat to Labour having a common purpose and everyone in the party rallying around the cause of victory. On the other side, he says the PN being in government for a very long time made it very difficult to identify a common purpose.

Lamenting the lack of a common purpose similar to the cause of EU membership in 2003, Borg Olivier says that one area in which he and the party could have improved was the creation of a common rallying cry. He adds that the individual concerns of persons working at different levels within the party and government structures undermined the need for a common purpose.

Turning to the 9 March election, which the party lost by a staggering 35,000 votes, Borg Olivier says, "It was disappointing, not only for the result in itself, but our inability to hold on to the people's trust makes it a bigger disappointment."

"However, if I had to pinpoint one reason, it would be the wave of change which swept the country. The call for change can only gather pace and grow bigger when a party has been in government for such a long time."

He indicates that the momentum had been picking up before the 2008 general election and was a determining factor for the 2008-2013 legislature.

"Obviously there were other determining factors, such as the internal dissent. I have to be self-critical and admit that as a consequence, the party became inward looking and alienated from the people's needs, feelings and aspirations."

Was the defeat inevitable? "We did not throw in the towel, and we kept battling till the very end. I believe that we had a strong political programme which was doable, but it was an uphill struggle all the way," Borg Olivier replies.

He stresses that the dissatisfaction went beyond the election result, underlining the disappointment of "letting down" the people who had trusted the PN previously but looked elsewhere and voted Labour in March.

Does Borg Olivier believe that his name will forever be associated with the largest electoral defeat in the last 50 years?

"It's up to the people to judge me, but all I can say is that I gave everything to convey the party's message and ensure that the PN's 2008 electoral programme was implemented over the last five years.

However, despite reaffirming his convictions and shouldering the responsibility with leader Lawrence Gonzi, Borg Olivier subtly hints that two persons cannot carry the can alone.

"It's a fact, and you have to shoulder responsibility, as I did. However when somebody shoulders responsibility, it does not mean that the full responsibility should be shouldered by that person," he says.

Borg Olivier points out that while Lawrence Gonzi was the first to take responsibility for the government's actions, he shouldered responsibility for the party.

Who should share the responsibility with Gonzi and Borg Olivier?

"I will not judge anyone. I believe everyone should carry the responsibility for his or her actions, and I have done my part by shouldering my responsibility. I will not go into whether anyone should have carried any responsibility and failed to do so. Everybody should take his or her decisions responsibly."

He adds that he will not contest the secretary-general post again, because the party's next secretary-general should enter the 2018 election free from the weight of the 2013 electoral drubbing.

Additionally, Borg Olivier says that he has to carry the blame for leading a party which erroneously dedicated a lot of its energies to looking inwards over the past five years.

"Maybe it was inevitable, but we were not reading the signs, and unfortunately we were looking inwards and not the other way round, and I must carry the responsibility for that too."

Why? "I dedicated a lot of time, maybe too much time, to the Franco Debono issue, and that alienated me from dealing with other things which also matter," Borg Olivier says, adding that the party sidelined important matters, such as the 2011 document Our Roots. It updated the party's political platform, which he says was received positively.

"With a one-vote parliamentary majority, as secretary-general (who must get on with his job silently and without much fanfare) I had to ensure that the party remained compact. I liken my situation to that of a mother who keeps mum when confronted with a lot of murmuring about her son, in order to protect him."

He says that he spent long hours dealing with internal dissent to guarantee the government's majority in parliament, with varying degrees of success. Borg Olivier attributes his low-key profile at the height of the internal turmoil to his conscious decision to make sure that results were obtained.

The root of the internal dissent which plagued the PN in the last five years is in MPs putting their personal interests before the collective interests of the government and the party, Borg Olivier says.

He adds that dissenters such as Franco Debono, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett acted expoitatively to extend their personal interests. It would have been a mistake for Borg Olivier to enter the fray even if he disagreed with certain decisions and worked behind the scenes to change things.

"I could not take a central role, although there were times where I did not agree with certain decisions and I worked to change things. However, with a one-seat majority and dissenters exploiting popular issues for their personal agenda, if I had spoken publicly against certain decisions I would not have done justice to the issues, but would have only strengthened the dissenters."

He cites the honoraria saga as a case in point. Borg Olivier admits that despite agreeing with giving ministers the salary given to MPs, to compensate for the income lost from their professions, he disagreed with how the issue was handled by government.

"Although in principle I agreed with increasing the ministers' incomes, the issue was mishandled in the way it was communicated and so created a public outcry. Therefore I was in favour of reversing the decision, and I did my job internally to ensure that it was reversed. If I had gone public I would have done great injustice to the issue and fuelled the dissent."

Borg Olivier explains that in December 2011, he was at the heart of the internal discussions to have the decision reversed, which involved then-Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and former MP Jean Pierre Farrugia. He explains that after having the decision reversed by the PN administration in January 2012, he refused to be given credit in public to avoid creating a misperception of party-government relations.

"My role as secretary-general was to deal with things internally, and the party could not have been perceived as being in disagreement with the government. When I exerted some pressure things started moving in the other direction."

In recent weeks, more light has been shed on the extent of the strained relationship between dissenting MP Franco Debono and the party, with the revelation of the content of some of the SMSs which the former MP sent to Lawrence Gonzi, allegedly in the hundreds.

I ask Borg Olivier if he was also on the receiving end of such SMSs.

"He did not bombard me with SMSs in the same way he did Lawrence Gonzi. Franco Debono used to use me and dispose of me according to his needs; there were times I built bridges with him and these would then be burnt. When bridges were in the process of being built, I would receive a series of SMSs, at times eight or 10 messages at a go, at 1am."

But what would these SMSs be about? "Varying subjects, in particular offensive comments on the Prime Minister. His attitude towards the Prime Minister was inappropriate," Borg Olivier says, adding that this kind of abusive language was even used during internal party meetings.

 "For example I can never accept such words as those used by Franco Debono for Lawrence Gonzi in an SMS, describing him as 'a toy in Satan's hands.' It's totally unacceptable; such words should never be uttered in public or whispered in private. This goes to show the degeneration of politics as a service."

He adds that the party's experience in the previous legislature led to greater scrutiny of candidates, with a number of persons who were facing legal proceedings being denied the opportunity to contest the 9 March election.

In the aftermath of the election, Borg Olivier and the outgoing administration were accused of being exclusive, with a number of PN activists and candidates complaining of being denied the opportunity to participate in party structures, because the current administration made the party their own private property.

"I totally disagree, our doors were always open and people who up to a few years ago were not part of the party core nowadays play a central role in the party and its organs because they were given the space and opportunity. Others might think otherwise, but this problem surely did not originate from the party."

Despite complaints by a number of candidates, including Michael Axiak, Ian Castaldi Paris and Jean Pierre Farrugia, of being granted little space during the electoral campaign, Borg Olivier insists that the election of two members of the PN's youth wing, Ryan Callus and Kristy Debono, and the record number of female MPs, five of 30 within the PN parliamentary group, shows that there was no direct correlation between the space and airtime given in the campaign to eventual electoral success.

The last job on Borg Olivier's agenda as secretary-general is the PN leadership elections, which will be held in the next few weeks. In the run up, doubt has been cast upon the administration's role, with some quarters suspecting that the outgoing leadership anointed current deputy leader Simon Busuttil as Gonzi's successor.

So, is the party administration supporting Simon Busuttil? "All leadership candidates have a lot to offer to the party. I can only speak for myself. I insist, as I always have, that there should be a free election in the General Council, and our councillors are very mature. I believe the councillors should be the ones to decide who becomes party leader. Whoever is contesting is aware of the challenges ahead, and whoever wins needs the full backing of the party, the new administration, the councillors and the public. I believe that there should be a fair contest between the candidates vying for the PN leadership post," Borg Olivier replies.

While pointing out the importance of the electoral commission, which includes representatives of all candidates, oversees the election and ensures the absence of irregularities, he says that the allegations that the party is backing one candidate over the others are inappropriate.

"God forbid the party favours any of the candidates, because it would make the contest unfair."