I don’t know who acted as personal advisers to the Prime Minister when he made the decision to ask the President of the Republic to unequivocally state his position in the wake of the proposed remake of the 2000 alliance between the MMM and the MSM. Whoever these faceless men or women are, their end of the year report should read “could do better, room for improvement”. During this latest political ballyhoo, the President has remained stately and quite right too because at no time, he had officially or unofficially indicated any personal involvement in any remake of any alliance.

So when the prime minister reported the gist of their conversation, in which the President had said that if he ever decided to be involved once again in day to day politics, he will informed the Prime Minister accordingly, it did not have the desired effect that perhaps the advisers had wished for, because this nondescript statement told us precisely nothing. It meant that nobody was any the wiser as to how future events might unfold.

If the exercise was meant to pressurise the President in defining his position clearly, it had been pointless. On the contrary it has probably ensured that the suspense will last the course. You can bet that there will be several twists and turns worthy of an Agatha Christie episode at its best. What is more surprising is that, following the meeting between the President and the Prime Minister, there has not been an official communiqué from the President’s office instead, we have had a conversation reported verbatim by the Prime Minister. It is not too exaggerated to say that we are in the realms of a soap opera, as we all wait with baited breath for the final outcome, “will he or won’t he?”

The Leader of the opposition has certainly ped a bombshell by hinting of a possible vote of no confidence in the government when the National Assembly reconvenes. The top brass in the government must be having kittens at the very thought of any defectors within their ranks. They must now expect danger lurking in every corner and probably will watch closely those that are vulnerable and might be targeted. What I feel is the best strategy the Prime Minister could and should have adopted from the beginning was to have said or done nothing, he should have let the opposition think all their scheming and innuendoes were like water off a duck’s back. In reacting to events, he has possibly jumped from the frying pan into the fire he has done exactly what the opposition probably wanted him to do.

He has now opened a can of worms by coming out all guns blazing and now he needs to beware of the backstabbers and the opportunists who would like to feather their own nest and might see this occasion as a godsend. Out of the whole episode, the president has probably come out best, he has kept a dignified silence and let the others do the talking and come to whatever conclusions they deemed fit. If only some politicians will remember this maxim sometimes, “Silence is Golden”.