Clinging on to power

Excuses are tools of the incompetent. This verse from the famous poem is an exact definition of the way GonziPN is leading the country. Lawrence Gonzi has tried every trick in the book to find an excuse to cling to power but his latest antics are irritating his own people. They are an insult to the intelligence of all those that believe in democracy, irrespective of party loyalty.

It is common knowledge that Lawrence Gonzi has avoided parliamentary debates and especially votes in the House of Representatives for months on end. Actually, he has no other option since he has no parliamentary majority and he is well aware that any parliamentary division will spell the end of his legislature.

On Sunday, Lawrence Gonzi said that the budget will be presented when the seat that Dr. Tonio Borg is expected to vacate will be filled. The government is hoping that the nomination process is over and Tonio Borg accepted as EU Commissioner by the third week of November. Assuming that all goes well, according to the Elections Act in our Constitution, the Gonzi government will have five days in which to publish a ‘Notice of Vacancy’. Thereafter, any candidate from the same district that Dr. Borg is vacating will have another five days to be nominated. The Electoral Office will then have three days to decide on the validity of the nomination and if required, will hold a casual election four days after that.

Effectively this means that Gonzi would delay the presentation of the budget by another 17 days, which could well take us to the Christmas season, which would again be an excuse to postpone till after the Christmas recess. Obviously, to Gonzi and his clique, the instability and uncertainty that his procrastination is causing to Maltese families and businesses is of little or no importance.

Instead of presenting the budget, which as everyone knows has little chance of going beyond the first hurdle, before the appointment of Dr. Tonio Borg, Gonzi has found another opportunity to prolong the life of his government. Lawrence Gonzi knows that even if the budget were to be approved, the country must have a new government to carry it out.

Gonzi’s excuses are a mockery to democracy. Many traditional Nationalist sympathisers believe that he has now carried this string of excuses too far. He has lost credibility long ago but now he is being regarded as devious and deceitful. Benjamin Franklin wrote: “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”