No one likes to be mocked, to be treated as an imbecile or to be made to wait for replies to legitimate questions concerning the governance of the country. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has made an art of treating people like they were simpletons. He also appears to get away with it.
Sometimes, government stunts look so surreal and blatant you are tempted to think someone’s just taking the mickey. Take the Christmas video of Minister Without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi talking about a new power plant, which is nearly two years overdue, and of water, energy and hospital privatisation projects like he was still the minister responsible for health and energy. Dr Mizzi had his portfolio removed in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal but he still acts like he is in charge, here and abroad, making a mockery of people’s intelligence.
Then, barely a few days into the New Year, out comes a government statement to announce a rather hefty increase in petrol and diesel, the first change since 2014.
The government said other EU countries had also raised their fuel prices but that was only half the story. In other countries, consumers have benefitted when fuel prices were low but, in Malta the price remained unchanged. People travel, they’ve seen the prices abroad, they are not idiots. Only the government seems to think they are.
The government went on to refer to energy prices, boasting of stability. But, again, everyone knows that the promised power station is not ready and that the energy price cuts came from elsewhere, mainly the oil price and the interconnector. The government, therefore, tries to shift the focus of its propaganda elsewhere and speaks of wanting cleaner air for everyone, like people are all airheads with no memory of what they were promised and by when.
The end of 2016 also brought something else: the deadline for a government promise to publish all major contracts it signed and kept secret. The Prime Minister made that promise in Parliament when under heavy pressure following the Panama Papers revelations. Nothing has been published except for heavily-redacted contracts on the privatisation of three State hospitals.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the government had published all contracts except for one “energy contract”, like it was some little detail easily overlooked. Maybe he thinks people are too stupid to remember that the government has signed multiple energy deals, like those on the sale of Enemalta and the BWSC plants, as well as those with Electrogas, that even include a buyout deal.
Thus, the Prime Minister has started the year by reneging on a solemn promise. He seems to think that what he says, as with his promise to resign if the power station is not built on time, does not count for much because people have a short memory or are too dumb.
Dr Muscat’s promises are turning out to be just slogans said to meet the demands of the moment, to provide the right sound bites and to simply kick the can down the road. They are not unlike the slogans written on Dr Mizzi’s 2017 propaganda calendar that say ‘cheaper fuel prices’ but mean the opposite.
With the economy in boom, and money in many people’s pockets, the Prime Minister thinks he can continue with this charade, treating everyone like they were fools and passing the dunce cap around… until the day when people see that the emperor has no clothes.