IF SIR PUKA Temu believed he had right (and the numbers) on his side when he defected from the National Alliance last week, abandoning his deputy PM’s post and his ministry, he must be wondering today why everything went so horribly wrong.

Sir Puka’s supporters have left him languishing in opposition and have rejoined the government, declaring their undying allegiance to Sir Michael Somare, especially if they get a ministry of their own.

As for the National Alliance itself, which just last weekend was confident it had a brand new leader in Don Polye – well, that idea went pear-shaped as well.

It’s one thing to plan creative moves when The Chief’s in Fiji playing the Grand Old Man of Pacific Politics. It’s another thing entirely to maintain the enthusiasm when he’s back home.

New deputy prime minister Polye’s announcement of new ministries when he suddenly found himself acting PM went down like a lead balloon with The Chief. Polye must have thought there were no telephones in Fiji.

Lifting the Trade and Immigration portfolios from Sam Abal, leaving him with Foreign Affairs and a largely empty in-tray, was a particularly insensitive move. Especially as Abal was in Suva with Somare. And on the phone.

This week the Chief moved quickly to restore Abal’s complete portfolio, leaving the new minister, the much-loved Moses Maladina, who thought he had Trade, out in the cold.

Polye himself had been unwise enough to grab Immigration. But he didn’t have time to put his tick on the first visa application before, rrrippp, back to Sam.

And now the National Alliance, which last week was looking more like the National Dalliance, has affirmed it does not want a leadership change or challenge or any other word beginning with ‘ch’ against Sir Michael … ever. It has declared undying support for him to remain Prime Minister until the 2012 general elections when he will retire of his own volition.

The MPs who defected from, and then defected back to, the National Alliance have a common message to explain their actions. No, they were not trying to pick winners, they were “misled to joint the opposition camp”.

Now they have been “welcomed back to work with the Prime Minister” who they “were not going to abandon in any way”. So that’s all right then.

“I want him [Sir Michael] to leave politics with dignity and not be left out in the cold — no way,” said their leader, Michael Ogio, who is by way of being Higher Education Minister, perhaps until a new portfolio can be found including the word ‘lower’.

When contacted by the media to be told he had lost Trade, the much-loved Maladina said he had spent two days working on the organisational structure of his new ministry and had not been informed of the decision to rescind the portfolio. The only good news was that he had not wasted his weekend putting names in boxes.

His new role, it is said, will be Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Constitutional Matters. That should keep Mr Maladina’s feet firmly planted on the ground.