Machiavellian technocrats

Many people agree that the next general election will be decided not on the real basis of the Nationalist government's performance but on the perception the public will have of such a performance. The main issue will concern the government's decisions and actions in such technical areas as pension reform, economic growth, foreign investment, the creation of new jobs, the curbing of inflation, improvement and consolidation of the infrastructure, health services, environmental policy and initiatives, etc.

All these are rather technical areas that are usually beyond the total comprehension of many voters. As such, the latter are bound to be highly influenced by the public pronouncements of technocrats highly qualified in these areas of competence. If the public is told by many of these technocrats that the performance of the Nationalist government has been positive and encouraging, many voters will take them at their word because they are perceived to be experts in their respective fields, in other words, the people whom the layman/laywoman should consult for an informed opinion regarding issues s/he only partially understands.

Citizens have to be careful whose publicly declared opinion they trust when technocrats pronounce themselves on issues of national importance and, especially, when such public declarations concern the performance of the political party in government and certain controversial decisions made by it.

The first thing to keep in mind is that several leading technocrats owe their important positions to appointments made by the Nationalist government. These technocrats are usually employed on definite contracts renewable or otherwise by the government itself. Which is why public declarations by technocrats who go out of their way to praise the performance of the Nationalist government should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The citizen has to ask himself/herself: "Is it in this person's interest to speak as s/he is doing?" and "What latent, underlying vested interests are at stake here?" This because it is becoming increasingly common for certain technocrats to give a helping hand to the Nationalist government when it finds itself with its back to the wall over some controversial decision or action it has taken.

The technocrat publicly declares that the government has decided or acted wisely and in the national interest, thus extricating the politicians in power out of a difficult situation as ordinary people are impressed by the credentials of the person making the statement. The citizen should always seek a second opinion over controversial technical issues. Otherwise, s/he risks being influenced by Machiavellian technocrats playing the manifest role of the honest broker while in reality also playing the latent role of lackeys of their employer, the government, and of the latter's hidden partisan political agenda.

The actions of technocrats who deliberately deceive the people in the interests of the party in government should be outrightly condemned. Such actions undermine democracy and are a betrayal of the trust ordinary people put in people occupying positions of responsibility in Maltese society. Top public officers and the top management of public corporations and other entities are there to serve the state and this is different from simply serving the government of the day. If the Nationalist government is not performing up to standard, if it is making decisions which go against the national interest, if it is piling burdens onto the people who can bear them least, then it is the duty of the nation's top technocrats to speak out and publicly declare that such and such a decision or action is wrong. Because their first duty is to the state and the state represents all Maltese citizens, not just the government and those who support it.

This government has already created enough problems by its decisions and actions. We don't need to compound the problems through the public pronouncements of Machiavellian technocrats who deceive the people with loaded declarations that only serve the partisan political interests of the political party in power and which damage the national interest.