When Alice met Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s classic “Through the Looking-Glass”, Humpty Dumpty engages in a manipulation of language, redefining the meaning of words at will, establishing descriptions of known words that suit his purposes: “'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'”
Dr Muscat has been given the popular backing to deliver a government for all, a government shrouded in humility, a government that listens, a government that will set Malta at the top of the League of Nations, a government that would fight corruption, and a government that would act in the most professional of manners. He has the parliamentary majority to take the political game to a new level. Instead he’s interpreting the huge win in the last elections as a license to Humpty Dumpty his electoral mandate.
Government will over the coming weeks carry out a series of public relations events to convince us otherwise. But the facts point ’through the looking glass’. Dr Mario de Marco recently asked Ministers a series of parliamentary questions to identify which public officers received marching orders after the election. The replies given by the Ministers are indeed an eye-opener.
As soon as it got elected this government staring implementing a political cleansing exercise in the public service. It started with the removal of the Principal Permanent Secretary, the Permanent Secretaries and went on with the replacement of the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of the Armed Forces of Malta, Director Generals, Directors, Chief Executive officers, Chairpersons, Human Resources Managers and other positions in the public sectors.
Some of these appointments are a cause for great concern. Just ask yourself, are you comfortable with the fact that an ex-police officer who was dismissed from the Police Corps – and later exonerated on the basis of a technicality – was recently appointed to head the VAT Operations department? Can we blame people for doubting whether the persons place at the head of the Police Corps, the Malta Security Service, and the Armed Forces of Malta will serve us citizens and the country and not their political master?
Moreover competent people have been replaced by people who’s main, and sometimes only, credentials are their proximity to the Labour Party’s core. There is, of course, a costly price to pay for this. I for one am not surprised when certain mistakes are made, such as when the English and Maltese version of a legal notice do not match. Should we wonder why no progress is being registered on EU funding opportunities for tourism enterprises? Should we marvel that the Institute for Tourism Studies is going downhill fast? Or that a government circular on student stipends is issued without Ministerial approval? Such are the consequences when political bullies replace technical experts in charge of public sector entities.
The mantra of Malta TaghnaLkoll is long forgotten. Government can sing ‘Come Together’ till its blue, or rather red, in the face. As a result of these eleven months of political cleansing, our country will end up more politically divided than it ever was.
People were promised zero tolerance towards corruption by Labour. Yet Labour is going to ignore a thousand people who committed an act of corruption by bribing Enemalta officials to pay less for their electricity consumption. The definition of bribery is being tainted and twisted. Similar instances in the past resulted in action being taken against both the public officials involved and the persons who gained through corrupt practices. Government has tried to justify its position by referring to the Whistleblowers Act. In the non Humpty Dumpty World, the Whistleblowers Act is there to protect workers who come forward with information of wrongdoing and not corrupt individuals who bribe public officers.
Last Sunday I focused my political discourse in Marsaxlokk on issues related to work, employment, unemployment, meritocracy, the need to concentrate on job creation and concrete measures how to fight precarious work. One TV’s newsroom chose not to report on any of these crucial issues, focusing instead on my reference to Humpty Dumpty. The Labour media purposely mistook my literal reference to Humpty Dumpty as a personal attack on the Prime Minister. Clearly, it is more important for the Labour Party to defend the leader from literal references than to protect workers from the threat of unemployment and worsening conditions of work.
Perhaps they are working on a new definition for Labour.
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