So our Prime Minister has set his eyes on the President’s Republic Day honours. Why are we not surprised? He’s been so generous distributing appointments to the most deserving since being elected in March, so why not throw in some honours too, now that Christmas is coming along?
Every year, on Republic Day, our President pays tribute to Maltese citizens who distinguish themselves in different fields by appointing them to the National Order of Merit or to the Xirka Ġieħ ir-Repubblika or by awarding them a medal for service to the republic. Non-Maltese are also eligible for awards.
It is a commendable and patriotic event. But now there’s a Bill before Parliament to amend the law, effectively removing the capping on the amount of decorations conferred. Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici has been at pains in Parliament trying to convince a sceptical Opposition that honours will not start to be “dished out like cheesecakes”, as Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg aptly put it.
But, try as he may, Bonnici couldn’t run away from the fact that the very declared objective of the Bill is: “...to provide for the increase in the number of members of the Xirka, to revisit the Grades of the Order, to amend the number of medals awarded and to revise the number of national events which shall be commemorated by the striking of medals.”
It’s a bit long and winding but it basically means more medals.
The Nationalist MPs were cautious in their criticism, insisting that too many decorations would undermine the prestige of the decoration itself.
They’ve been careful not to jump the gun and say that the next round of awards will contain a bunch of partisan recipients as they are aware of the fact that there will be some deserving ones among them too.
It has been typical of our Prime Minister that, when conferring his own appointments, to throw in the odd red herring to prove that Malta is after all Tagħna Lkoll (Malta For All) but the exceptions actually only confirm the rule of blatant partisan paybacks.
Can we trust the Prime Minister, who advises the President on this matter, to handle the matter with dignity? Hardly. He didn’t think twice on selling off Maltese passports, irrespective of how deeply this affected national pride. Why would he hold back from skewing something equally nationalistic like Republic Day honours to suit his now familiar scheme of appeasement through government resources?
MP Claudette Buttigieg said in Parliament she “hoped” the government would give weight to the ethical behaviour of public figures considered for any Republic Day decorations. Her hopes can’t be shared by many.
The government’s performance so far shows that the bar for ethical public behaviour has been lowered considerably in recent months and there is no sign of it ever improving.
It is not that, over the years, there haven’t been any slip-ups in the Republic Day awards. Past recipients have included Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, deposed Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, North Korea’s Kim il-Sung and former Chinese President Li Xiannian, a hardliner who strongly supported the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests.
Apparently, we missed the opportunity to give an award to that Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, but his wife Nicola did get an honoris causa from the University of Malta in 1983.
As for Nicolae, we still appear to hold him in high esteem because the official website of the President of Malta lists him among the “distinguished dignitaries” to have been hosted at Verdala Palace. No wonder they say that place is haunted.
Most of these national embarrassments were former premier Dom Mintoff’s doing, whose foreign policy put the country to shame far too numerous times to remember. So are we to expect anything better from a Prime Minister who admires his predecessor so much?
It may be a relief to say that the amendments being proposed to the law are intended to raise the capping on local awards. I suppose any further embarrassment to come will be localised, which makes us all grateful for small mercies. We’ve had more than enough international bad press in recent weeks.
Labour is behaving with graceless gluttony. Its approach just falls short of pillaging
When the Prime Minister decided in his first days of office to rent out his own car to his own government, he set a trend that seems to run throughout this legislature. Labour appears out to milk the system to the last drop. Following the Prime Minister’s example, we got a parliamentary secretary continuing with his private practice, although barred from doing so by the code of ethics, and a minister’s wife getting a hefty pay package enabling her to reside in her homeland. The approach of this government just falls short of pillaging.
This, however, does not apply to political appointees. There is nothing wrong, in fact, it is proper practice, to have political appointments in government ministries to ensure the implementation of policies the government has a clear mandate to implement. A civil servant can never put in as much zeal into what is clearly a political job.
Furthermore, these are positions of trust and they should be respected.
What should not be respected is the incredible size of government ministries and their consultants. What should not be respected is appointments on government boards and authorities that are just moves to appease and placate party insiders. What should not be respected is employing three Super 1 journalists with PBS, all at one go.
And what should also not be respected is appointing a Labour Party insider to head the task force organising the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta or appointing an MP to chair some new body for the south of Malta, like it was some plague-ridden area that requires special attention.
It is not just a matter of jumping on the gravy train either. We also have the Prime Minister’s wife organising social - no, sorry - charity events at Girgenti and behaving like she was the first lady of Malta and a minister for the Gozo fiefdom who turns around ferries at his whim.
The Nationalists in government at least had some tact, made things look as respectable as they possibly could, even if, I suppose, they benefitted from the power of incumbency. But Labour is behaving with graceless gluttony.
Once upon a time, Labour, as an ideology, stood for the redistribution of wealth to make society fairer. That is fallacious in principle but, at least, there was a sort of guiding principle as former Labour governments wreaked havoc on the island.
Now there is no ideology left within Labour and, instead, we have a redistribution of the spoils of government and the Republic Day honours may be next in line.
What the Labour Administration has turned out to be so far is a changing of the guards. There were people waiting just outside the corridors of power who, for some reason, felt left out, some, no doubt, with reason, and itching to have a finger in the pie.
They joined the Labour brigade, usurped the party and are now enjoying the spoils.
The problem is that, unlike the previous incumbents, they are behaving like starved vultures.
Now they appear to have set their eyes on the President’s annual decorations to add prestige to their high-flying success with a Labour Party metamorphosed beyond recognition.
They really want it all: the kingdom, the power and, now, the glory.