With great power comes great responsibility. It is not a given that all those who occupy high positions of power have a carte blanche to do whatever they want, whenever they deem fit without assuming responsibility for their actions. That line of thinking in a democratic society is simply unacceptable.

I cannot imagine how our children can ever be brought up to be responsible for their own actions...- Robert Henry Bugeja

Responsibility is a word that carries a lot of weight. It is a word that can push a country forward or may even dump it in the dark chapters of history. For example, we are all watching closely how lack of responsibility coupled with a good doze of negligence and greed by former Greek and Italian governments have literally thrown the two countries into political and social oblivion. That is how serious the value of the word responsibility is.

I hope that our ministers can really understand the weight they themselves are carrying with each action they take.

A responsible and serious government would have never allowed uncertainty to engulf this country as if it were a healthy ingredient of the economy and part of our efforts to attract foreign investment. To boot, it keeps governing as if it was business as usual.

Moreover, a serious government would have never allowed that the country is run by individuals who have failed so many times over to deliver in their assignments and, yet, are still being let loose to run their ministries as if it were normal practice.

In seriously-run countries heads would have rolled straightaway if a state-owned TV station was found to have committed so many breaches and found guilty of imbalance.

In addition, no serious Administration would, under no circumstances, have allowed its name to be tarnished because of some minister’s disgusting sense of humour.

Can a person occupying such a high office as minister of transport ever be taken seriously when he stoops so low in front of the cameras without the slightest thought of who could be receiving his crude message on the other end?

But, hey, it’s not really the crude language used but more the cool way of saying it that brings out the sheer arrogance of the person.

Excuse me, sir, but what is really happening in this country? Are these really the type of people that our island wishes to be represented by?

Yet, despite the many fiascos in so many projects nobody ever stepped forward to assume responsibility. That is indeed a bad habit that automatically triggers a laissez-faire culture and encourages an arrogant attitude by those who are close to the individuals holding power.

We have heard so many stories in the media about the shortcomings of the present Administration that, today, they have become a “normal” part of our daily lives.

Sadly, none of those guys holding portfolios ever lifted a finger and did so much as apologise for his/her evident failures.

But I guess that it is okay considering that these actions are happening in a country were the Prime Minister votes against the clear will of the people on grounds of conscience after he himself called a referendum on the introduction of divorce.

It is also fine that the Finance Minister flew high in a private jet owned by a well connected businessman to watch his favourite team, Arsenal, play.

And perhaps it is also okay that after 17 years since the controversial construction of the state-of-the-art Mater Dei Hospital we are still facing a huge shortage of beds, not to mention an Oncology Centre that was promised ages ago.

Topping that, of course, is the long, long, long waiting list that the hard working taxpayer has to face each time s/he needs to undergo some sort of medical procedure.

This country cannot continue like this, as if one cannot be bothered to ever assume responsibility for one’s actions. Such a mess can never be tolerated in a truly democratic society.

I cannot imagine how our children can ever be brought up to be responsible for their own actions when the ones who are supposedly leading by example are doing the opposite.

So, I’m rather curious of who might be the first minister to act as a role model and comes forward to declare his failures. I seriously doubt that this will ever happen under this present Administration considering that whenever there was some sort of uproar on some Cabinet minister the first person who would jump to save those in the eye of the storm was primarily the man at the top himself.

But, as they say, hope is the last to die and so one always wishes that these nasty habits will one day vanish from our land and be replaced by responsibility, leading to resignations. After all, that is what is expected in a modern and democratic state.

But I guess I might be asking for too much now, am I?