The Malta Independent on Sunday
The election of a new PN leader and effectively a Prime Minister to lead this country for the first four years following EU accession has been business unusual.
It is not at all usual and certainly not commendable that power transition is performed the way it has been performed.` It is almost democratically offensive for a person to present himself for electoral endorsement in the post of Prime Minister and then less than one year down the electoral term he resigns, for no unpredictable reason, to make way for a `chosen` successor.
The Prime Minister should be chosen by the people not by the Party. At the end of the day my experience is that a good part of the floating voter segment that decides on which party side the electoral scale will tip, is highly influenced by the qualities and personality of the party leader. They look both leaders in the eye and ask their conscience in whose hands they can trust their own and their families future. Quite often floating voters do not understand the intricate details of party, economic, social and environmental policies.
They simply vote for the party led by the person who radiates most confidence and stability.
As it is the electorate is being forced to be led by somebody they have not chosen. They have seen the handful of hundreds of PN conference delegates usurp their democratic right to choose the country`s Prime Minister.
This is not the way things are done in countries where there is a truly living democracy. In Spain and Greece the outgoing Prime Ministers are not presenting themselves for re-election and are supporting the new party leaders chosen before the general election to ensure that ultimately it is the people who chose their leader and not the party faithful.
In Germany and in Poland the incumbent political leaders have renounced as of now their party leadership to make space for the choice of a successor, but have indicated their intention to carry out till expiry the democratic mandate received from the electorate.
Dr. Fenech Adami has not taken a leaf out of these classic examples of how power transitions ought to be handled in full respect to the democratic rights of the electorates. Once he has chosen to contest the election and seek a mandate as Prime Minister, he should have, in the absence of clearly unforeseeable events which do not seem to be the case in the circumstances, stayed on for at least half the electoral term before handing over to his successor.
This would have given the possibility to the outgoing Prime Minister to change policy tack on the economic front and deliver the measures which have long been avoided in the interest of short term electoral popularity. An exiting Prime Minister has more freedom to take such measures in the knowledge that he need not worry about how public opinion will influence his chances of re-election.
I am making this point as a matter of principle and it does in no way reflect on the merits of the chosen leader or indeed on that of his contenders.` Indeed I think that Dr Gonzi has now been placed in a quite awkward position. He is inheriting a country that has long tried to allude itself that it can solve its economic problems by merely talking positively about them and by applying short terms palliatives by throwing tax-payers money uselessly at them.
Dr Gonzi ought to know that now that the country has practically exhausted all its debt capacity and that for good or bad we have to compete as full EU members where the pain would be far more evident than the gain in the initial years of adjustment to the new rules. He is being placed in the enviable situation where he has to conduct the re-structuring in an acute manner over a relatively short time because it was neglected in the past when the adjustment could have been better spread to avoid the acute pain. Yet Dr Gonzi is wise enough to know that without this acute re-structuring we just cannot compete and succeed as EU members.
Which makes it business unusual for Dr Gonzi not just in the way he is making his way to Prime Minister-ship but also in the way he has to execute his new duties. The only recent political precedent of such an experience was when Mr. Mintoff handed over to Dr KMB in December 1984 after executing three fifths of his dubious 1981 mandate.` It was not a very happy experience and KMB never sat on the PM seat again even though he sought two electoral mandates for it.
The biggest mistake Dr Gonzi can do is to consider his appointment to be business as usual. We need the unusual.` We need a true political leader who has the rare qualities of keeping a sharp sense of balance. A balance in acknowledging the problems, being realistic about them but at the same time being positive and enthusiastic about their solutions. A balance in seeking wide support for the identified solutions to the problems, but not at the expense of suffering consensus sclerosis. A balance between the ability to listen till one gets exhausted but never lose sight of the fact that a leader is expected to lead and not just to co-ordinate. A balance between preserving stability and continuity in our core values and the need to introduce a new sense of urgency in addressing the neglected problems which are silently eroding such core values.
Only time can tell whether Dr Gonzi has the attributes to turn his Party leadership into a worthwhile exercise for the whole country.` He is starting at a disadvantage because he has not been given the opportunity to seek popular endorsement for his leadership of the country. But he has to earn acceptance by proving that he means to be a state leader not a mere party leader. Certainly he deserves to be given the chance to prove himself.
The election of a new PN leader and effectively a Prime Minister to lead this country for the first four years following EU accession has been business unusual.
It is not at all usual and certainly not commendable that power transition is performed the way it has been performed.` It is almost democratically offensive for a person to present himself for electoral endorsement in the post of Prime Minister and then less than one year down the electoral term he resigns, for no unpredictable reason, to make way for a `chosen` successor.
The Prime Minister should be chosen by the people not by the Party. At the end of the day my experience is that a good part of the floating voter segment that decides on which party side the electoral scale will tip, is highly influenced by the qualities and personality of the party leader. They look both leaders in the eye and ask their conscience in whose hands they can trust their own and their families future. Quite often floating voters do not understand the intricate details of party, economic, social and environmental policies.
They simply vote for the party led by the person who radiates most confidence and stability.
As it is the electorate is being forced to be led by somebody they have not chosen. They have seen the handful of hundreds of PN conference delegates usurp their democratic right to choose the country`s Prime Minister.
This is not the way things are done in countries where there is a truly living democracy. In Spain and Greece the outgoing Prime Ministers are not presenting themselves for re-election and are supporting the new party leaders chosen before the general election to ensure that ultimately it is the people who chose their leader and not the party faithful.
In Germany and in Poland the incumbent political leaders have renounced as of now their party leadership to make space for the choice of a successor, but have indicated their intention to carry out till expiry the democratic mandate received from the electorate.
Dr. Fenech Adami has not taken a leaf out of these classic examples of how power transitions ought to be handled in full respect to the democratic rights of the electorates. Once he has chosen to contest the election and seek a mandate as Prime Minister, he should have, in the absence of clearly unforeseeable events which do not seem to be the case in the circumstances, stayed on for at least half the electoral term before handing over to his successor.
This would have given the possibility to the outgoing Prime Minister to change policy tack on the economic front and deliver the measures which have long been avoided in the interest of short term electoral popularity. An exiting Prime Minister has more freedom to take such measures in the knowledge that he need not worry about how public opinion will influence his chances of re-election.
I am making this point as a matter of principle and it does in no way reflect on the merits of the chosen leader or indeed on that of his contenders.` Indeed I think that Dr Gonzi has now been placed in a quite awkward position. He is inheriting a country that has long tried to allude itself that it can solve its economic problems by merely talking positively about them and by applying short terms palliatives by throwing tax-payers money uselessly at them.
Dr Gonzi ought to know that now that the country has practically exhausted all its debt capacity and that for good or bad we have to compete as full EU members where the pain would be far more evident than the gain in the initial years of adjustment to the new rules. He is being placed in the enviable situation where he has to conduct the re-structuring in an acute manner over a relatively short time because it was neglected in the past when the adjustment could have been better spread to avoid the acute pain. Yet Dr Gonzi is wise enough to know that without this acute re-structuring we just cannot compete and succeed as EU members.
Which makes it business unusual for Dr Gonzi not just in the way he is making his way to Prime Minister-ship but also in the way he has to execute his new duties. The only recent political precedent of such an experience was when Mr. Mintoff handed over to Dr KMB in December 1984 after executing three fifths of his dubious 1981 mandate.` It was not a very happy experience and KMB never sat on the PM seat again even though he sought two electoral mandates for it.
The biggest mistake Dr Gonzi can do is to consider his appointment to be business as usual. We need the unusual.` We need a true political leader who has the rare qualities of keeping a sharp sense of balance. A balance in acknowledging the problems, being realistic about them but at the same time being positive and enthusiastic about their solutions. A balance in seeking wide support for the identified solutions to the problems, but not at the expense of suffering consensus sclerosis. A balance between the ability to listen till one gets exhausted but never lose sight of the fact that a leader is expected to lead and not just to co-ordinate. A balance between preserving stability and continuity in our core values and the need to introduce a new sense of urgency in addressing the neglected problems which are silently eroding such core values.
Only time can tell whether Dr Gonzi has the attributes to turn his Party leadership into a worthwhile exercise for the whole country.` He is starting at a disadvantage because he has not been given the opportunity to seek popular endorsement for his leadership of the country. But he has to earn acceptance by proving that he means to be a state leader not a mere party leader. Certainly he deserves to be given the chance to prove himself.
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