Editorial: Decay

In sacrificing his foreign minister for the sake of the defence minister, the prime minister yesterday made a clear choice. He chose to remain in power at all costs, instead of governmental normalcy.

He chose to become the stooge of his coalition partner, instead of displaying the necessary determination. He chose political captivity over dignity. The question now is how many more people and things the prime minister is prepared to sacrifice.

Governments are judged mainly by their accomplishments, but they are also judged by their behaviour, by the methods they use to come to power, by how they use that power at an institutional level, and by what they do when they are in the process of falling.

Certainly, citizens will judge the government’s accomplishments when election time comes around.

On all else, the government has already been judged. It did much to come to power, and just as much to maintain it, and as it seems it will end with a bang, and not a whimper.

The means that he marshaled and the captivity to which he subjected himself, do not do honour to the prime minister.

What is happening goes beyond a government crisis or a governmental civil war.

With ministers accusing each other in a cabinet meeting and the prime minister allowing himself to be held hostage, we are dealing with nothing less than a government in decay.