For the Musa administration, 2004 was a year of double identity. From January to august matters of state proceeded apace, carefully orchestrated ceremony and cautious rhetoric prevailed, even as the ship of state showed some worrying signs of being desperately off course. But nothing really gave until early August when 7NEWS first unearthed evidence that Social Security money was being used to pay Glenn Godfrey's bank loans which he had defaulted on. After that, all hell broke loose, leading to the G7 rift, and now the public exposure of untold, almost unthinkable exposures of the public purse to private interests. And while that is one story, a parallel emerged with the G7 rift. The defecting ministers, determined to oust finance minister Ralph Fonseca showed that while he boasted of having "many balls in the air", he was in fact watching them all crash down, as he failed to float a bond equivalent in value to 22% of the GDP. The internal turmoil and external political fallout that have resulted from these exposures have been disastrous for the Musa administration, but, for the most part, the prime minister has been prepared to take it on what's now a well worn executive chin. More importantly, while taking blame, Musa has been able to hold it together politically and governmentally, however tenuous that hold may be. Speaking with me yesterday Prime Minister Musa reflected on 2004.
Said Musa, Prime Minister
"2004 has been a difficult year. It was the time when we came face to face with the reality that we had to tighten up, that we had to deal effectively with the problems facing the finances of the government, and it was the year when I took the firm decision that we are going to tackle this thing and face it head on, no matter the criticism and no matter what the political fallout we are going to deal with it and solve it. We have begun that process that process and I think you will see the results coming in to being in 2005 because of the tough decisions we have been taking in 2004. Of course it hasn't been easy for many of our people because of these austerity measures, if you like, the cutting back on expenditure and so on."
The Prime Minister's Christmas message appears later on in our programming tonight.
