Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1525812
ALL the signs are there: Rob- ert Abela is trying to forge a new leadership team that is to his liking rather than people pushed by others. The admin- istration reflects a party in flux. When will this new team settle down? A new person is to be ap- pointed Labour Party Deputy Leader for Party Affairs after Daniel Micallef quit the post. The party statute has once again been changed to make it possible for a labour MP or MEP to occupy this post. Alex Agius Saliba is being touted for this post, but has Agius Saliba been hit by some flash on the way to Damascus? His electoral campaign was openly supported by Joseph Muscat and now Robert Abela opens the door for him to get this post. How come? Maybe, with Alex busy in Brussels, the real running of party affairs will be done by others in Mal- ta and Alex will be just a fig- ure head. Is there something Macchiavellian in Alex being encouraged to take the post? Time will tell. Randolph De Battista the party's CEO is to resign from Parliament to become Mal- ta's ambassador in Geneva. As CEO he .has already been re- placed by Leonid Mckay. De- battista was co-opted to Par- liament in March 2022 in spite of not contesting the election of that same year. His replace- ment in Parliament, who will also be co-opted, has not been announced yet. So there is a vacancy for a pro-Abela La- bour MP! The Labour Party Presi- dent, Ramona Attard, has announced that she will not be seeking re-election to her post. Will this lead to the cre- ation of another vacancy for a pro-Abela Labour politician? Who knows! The PM's Chief of Staff, Glenn Mallia has been nominated for the post of EU Commissioner and his post has been 'award- ed' to Mark Mallia who has never fitted in any of the posts fore which he was nominated - often for short spells - under the different labour adsminis- trations. What will happen if Glenn Mallia does not make it to EU Commissioner? Will he be left out on a limb, or given some other job? Ivan Falzon has left his post of CEO of Infrastructure Mal- ta to be replaced by Steve Ellul who failed to make it to Brus- sels in the MEP elections and made hardly any mark as Head of Projects Malta. He prom- ised a lot but delivered a lit- tle! Of course, Infrastructure Malta will not be as starved for funds as Project Malta was. Ivan Falzon, apparently is seeking pastures new away from Abela's administration. The changes in the commu- nications set-up in Castille are very interesting. Oleander Balzan and Claire Azzopardi are out to be replaced by Sam- uel Lucas while the Head of the PM's Communications Of- fice, Rosette Vassallo has also left her post. Will more people be drafted in the OPM's public communications section? Considering the time people given new posts take to set- tle down in their job and the date when the current admin- istration must face voters in a general election, Abela will be sailing in troubled waters if any of these newly appointed people are not up to scratch. But were they chosen for their ability or more for their political allegiance to the Prime Minister? Experience has shown that the latter is probably the case. The practice of juggling peo- ple from one job to another - including Parliamentary seats given to people who have nev- er contested an election - irri- tates the man in the street. Many want to know why someone who is given a par- ticular post is suddenly re- placed by yet another 'bażuż- lu'. Was the first person nominated for the job not up to scratch, or is this juggling game the Prime Minister's at- tempt to satisfy every'bażużlu'. Considering the time lag until the next general elec- tion, Abela cannot afford to have people who do not deliv- er when in charge of running particular areas of the admin- istration. He cannot keep re- lying on favours and distribu- tion of cheques to win the next election. Whether the flux in the heads of responsible areas of the administration stops at this point - so that Abela's administration can work se- renely from now on - is a very important aspect that affects the way many uncommitted people decide to vote. It seems that the PN must have understood this by now after so many electoral disas- ters. So Abela's efforts should - in theory - also take care of this aspect. And now there are three David Fabri and Godfrey Bal- dacchino wrote an interesting piece on the proposed amend- ments to the Cooperative So- cieties Act that was published in 'The Times of Malta' last Tuesday. The amendments are currently open for consulta- tion. A note at the end of their contribution notes that the two contributors served as members of the Board of Co- operatives in 1994 to 2003 and were involved in the drafting of the current law. The two authors feel that the proposed amendments should have been better explained, in the sense that the government did not bother to justify why these amendments are need- ed. They are particularly miffed with the proposed change in the minimum number of members needed to form a coop. While currently this number is five, the proposed amend- ments reduce it to three. This means that a coop can be made by two parents and a sibling or by one parent and two siblings. In their opinion, 'the meas- ure is also likely to spawn a number of 'fake' coops, com- posed exclusively of family members, who apply for coop registration with the under- standing that they would be exempt from company tax.' While any earnings passed on to individual members are taxed, as is normal for every- body, the coop itself does not pay income tax but pays 5% to the Central Cooperative Fund (CCF). The two authors argue that if the intention is to increase the number of viable coop societies, the solution is 'an education and informational campaign, not a dilution of the principle of cooperation'. The problem is that govern- ment has published the pro- posed law for consultation but did not bother to say why these amendments are needed - more so regarding the issue of reducing the number of per- sons that can form a coop. 3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 AUGUST 2024 OPINION A party in flux micfal45@gmail.com Michael Falzon Robert Abela is trying to forge a new leadership team that is to his liking