Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/437144
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2014 Opinion 18 Not at all an easy climb S imon Busuttil is taking too long to really establish himself as a credible leader of the Opposition, and a possible prime minister. Maybe he does not have it in him. Or maybe the skeletons he is burdened with are too heavy to bear. He seems too weak and probably remains in thrall to whoever in the party pulls the strings. He is not free. He does not speak for the Nationalist Party, but for the small coterie in the PN who wield the real power. So long as he remains in their hands, and does not take the bit between his teeth, he will remain unconvincing. How else can one explain his outrageous reply, for instance, that the PN has paid for its sins in government because it lost the election. Those words were put in his mouth, they are not his, they are the formula for not beating the hide of those in the party who ran it into the ground, the reply dissembled to avoid putting the blame where it lies, to gloss over the sins of an administration that had grown tired long before it was booted out. "The Nationalist Party's credibility is on the rise," The Times of Malta reported Busuttil saying the other day. The PN leader based that conclusion on the happenings of this year. His conclusion is as wrong as his logic is faulty. It is not the PN's credibility rising – what is happening is Joseph Muscat's image losing its teflon coating. The PN's credibility remains in a deep, dark hole – it seems it needs more than Simon Busuttil to raise it, for he is not making much difference to the party's situation at all. But of course Busuttil had to put it the way he put it. For it gives him more stature with those who believe him when he makes such claims. And if Busuttil needs anything like water in the desert, it is political stature. But his thraldom is complete and some of the answers he gives are the result of the constraints he is in. Such as when he insists that the party has paid for the wrongs it did, because it lost the election. That logic is stupendously amazing. On that basis, Germany should not have made any reparations for the war which it lost. But Germany paid immense reparations, didn't it? Wasn't the loss payment enough? It should have been, according to Busuttil's logic. The fact is, that logic is as sound as Lawrence Gonzi's was when he said he could not return the €50 million his government had illegally creamed off motorists buying cars, because to return that money to its owners would impoverish Malta, as he put it. Some logic that was, coming from a lawyer. Previously employed by a car importer. And who once was President of the Catholic Action. Another of Busuttil's outrageous answers is given when he is asked about his role in his party's record in government. He rejects all responsibility for that. You see, he was not the leader. He does not mind boasting of the achievements the party made, such as Independence, though he was not the leader then (he was not even born then). Or joining the EU, which turned out to be immensely profitable to him personally. Being groomed for the party leadership, the PN made sure he could stand on his own two feet, financially. But when it comes to, say, the multi-tentacled oil scandal, or the sins Nationalist ministers had committed, he does not accept any responsibility. Though he stoutly defends the errant ministers. The wrongdoing did not happen on his watch, you see. At least, that is how he sees it. Though he was part and parcel of the GonziPN set-up. It is the method imposed on him: to not say what he really thinks of former ministers such as Austin Gatt, who conveniently today has retired into seclusion as a private citizen, leaving us, and his party too, to lump the goddamn awful mess he created. I wonder, is Gatt one of those people in the party pulling the strings? What is the source of his power, I wonder? For power he has. He was never ticked off, for instance, for his shameful bet that manufacturing industry would be closing down. Or for the disasters he authored. Such as Arriva. No one could make him shut up, not even his prime minister. No one ever told him off. That is how powerful he was. And the party's delegates, on whom our democracy depended, remember, always cheered him to the dais. No one ever expressed any disapproval. They feared the party leadership's chop, our indomitable champions of democracy. Could the source of Gatt's power be, I ask myself, his role in 'Tal- Gakketta Blu'? Maybe he is privy to damaging secrets kept under tight wraps. Maybe. There's another with huge secrets to protect, who enriched himself in power. RCC. He not only had Eddie Fenech Adami's ear – being so close to the all-powerful leader, he knew all the dark and not so dark shenanigans of the party in power. Who knows what secrets he keeps. And having them, the party is in thrall to him. The PN cannot dare offend him – he might spill the beans. Indeed, Busuttil still praises him. Roger Mifsud So long as Simon Busuttil remains in their hands, and does not take the bit between his teeth, he will remain unconvincing