PL supporters in government departments

Angelo Zahra of Żejtun in his two letters Discrimination In Government Service (June 25) and Labour Network Or The Opposite (July 6) keeps harping on about the appointment of PN sympathisers on boards appointed by the government.

I revisited my article The Challenges Facing The PN (June 16) and nowhere did I mention anything about the appointment of PN sympathisers on government appointed boards.

In my article I referred to "many Labour supporters in government departments who use their network to favour Labour supporters and cause PN supporters to moan against "their government'".

Other correspondents have furnished Mr Zahra, both here and online, with names of Labour big shots who served even as chairmen of public boards under Nationalist administrations.

May I remind readers also that Minister Louis Galea had commissioned Lino Spiteri to draw up a report on some aspect of education during the last legislature and Lawrence Gonzi recommended to the House the appointment of a Labour politician to occupy the office of President of the Republic.

I never claimed that the Labour network in the civil service was the sole reason for the PN's bad result in the June elections as Mr Spiteri seems to have implied. To dismiss as ridiculous "the spokes by Labour civil servants and bureaucrats who are managing to make it look inefficient and uncaring" (June 21 and June 29) shows his lack of contact with ordinary people.

Nationalist supporters have been complaining about all this for years. But Nationalist governments do not believe in witch-hunts.

Of course, Mr Spiteri worked in Labour administrations when if a Labour supporter needed a house, one was requisitioned for him. And when he needed a colour TV or telephone service, all the supporter needed to do was to write a letter to a prominent person.

Mr Zahra is totally off the point. The Labour supporters in government departments I referred to are there because of their seniority or other reasons which has nothing to do with the government's system of appointing directors on different boards. Some of these individuals are abusing their positions by not treating all citizens equally.

They are a throwback to Old Labour but they are still the face of Joseph Muscat's progressive movement. Mr Zahra remembers Old Labour well and how certain people used to be appointed to public positions even without any qualifications and how some students ended up at the University while others found the door blocked, or how some educational qualifications have been acquired during the "golden age" of Socialist administrations.

When Labour is in opposition certain things happen. There are sudden inspections and charges are given to certain employees, utility bills that have been waiting for months reach households, some carefully chosen restauranters find a policeman measuring the use of their outside area late at night, a number of wardens appear from nowhere all of a sudden - and all of this happens on the eve of some election. A coincidence? You have to be gullible to believe it.