It will not be long now before people start getting weary of the government’s habit of blaming the previous Nationalist administration for every bad thing that comes up or whenever it finds itself in a muddle. New governments everywhere tend to do this but only for a time or until they find their feet. The problem with this government is that it is taking far too long to shake off this habit.

A year after it has been in office, Labour continues to use as one of the yardsticks to measure its performance the errors of past Nationalist governments instead of the people’s feelings over results and expectations on the basis of what it had said it would do before the election.

There has rarely been an administration that has erred so badly in so short a time after it got elected. Alfred Sant had done the same too but his mistakes were in political tactics and strategy whereas Joseph Muscat is fumbling in matters that are crucial in a democracy – transparency and accountability. Following the disastrous manner in which it introduced its citizenship scheme, it has gone headlong into another wrong move. Deciding to give an amnesty to people who defrauded the State by bribing public officers to instal tampered electricity meters is an affront to the majority of those who pay up to the last cent of their energy bills. By their book, there is only one meaning of fraud: “wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain”.

The government’s attempt at redefining it is pathetic. The argument it is only offering the amnesty in order to get at the big fish does not wash. If it persists in going down this path, it will be throwing out of the window not just meritocracy but accountability too.

There is another blunder, the anchoring of a gas storage ship in Marsaxlokk. The government obviously did not factor in the residents’ concerns about this when it approved the new gas-powered energy plant and, now that the people are openly pointing out the danger such a vessel will pose, it is simply brushing it off, arguing there is no danger.

In addition, it accuses the Opposition of scaremongering.

Three such big blunders in less than a year clearly suggest that the government needs to reflect before going ahead with big projects.

Perhaps what it requires is a council of elders operating within both the party and the government to guide it in its programme.

What it definitely has to do is to engage in wider consultation with the people. The country may not wish to go the Swiss way and resort to referendums so often as they do in Switzerland but timely and meaningful consultation will help bring up the people’s feelings or concerns.

The government is unlikely to lose the strong political support it won in the last election so quickly but the way it is administering is surely disappointing many of those who chose to give Labour a chance at the helm.

Even the way the prime minister is talking today is different to the tone he used before the election. It would seem that he has morphed into a different politician already.

With the election for the European Parliament fast approaching, it is unlikely that matters will change for the better, much to the disappointment of those who thought that Muscat will help ease the degree of politicisation of the environment.