If you have not yet seen Gary Oldman’s spell-biding portrayal of resilience under fire as Churchill in Darkest Hour, please do. In one humorous scene, his secretary stammers that Churchill has been doing the V sign the wrong way round, unknowingly telling the British people “up your bum”. All Churchill has to do, his secretary helpfully suggests, is to turn round his fingers.
Which brings me to our own particular mess. In Maltese we have the expression ‘jafu jgħoddu sal-għaxra’, they know how to count up to 10, meaning that they are not easily fooled. Muscat’s government certainly knows how to count up to two. It has acquired the habit of flashing the V-sign for success for its pet projects, but each one is turning into a dud.
The Pilatus Bank has finally been exposed for the washing machine it always was intended to be. Bart’s Medical School is subsisting partly on student scholarships by Vitals paid from State money that should have gone into upgrading Malta’s hospitals. And the less said about the American University the better.
When such situations occur, government now has an established two-phase strategy. The first is to do a Pulé (as in Vanni Pulé, Malta’s most celebrated illusionist), the second is to do aninverse Churchill.
In a Pulé, the government deflects and redefines the issue through a rhetorical sleight of hand that makes the public look the other way. When government was recently asked about the explosion of the number of persons of ‘trust’, the obvious issue of nepotism and political favouritism was deflected with assurances that these appointees would fall away like dry leaves once their Minister-patron moves on. This reply sucks on so many levels it almost leaves you speechless, which is of course the intention of the illusionist until a new trick comes along to distract your attention.
Firstly, the reply normalised the status of the minister as giver of state sinecures. Secondly, ample experience over these last five years has shown that when a minister moves on, the faithful tagħnalkollers are not dropped, but recycled to another State position. Thirdly, there is already pre-2013 precedent of fixed-term contracts being converted into indefinite positions.
Given this government’s penchant of capitalising on and maximising pre-2013 ad hoc situations and anomalies, we can confidently expect that when, one day, Labour is voted out of power, the current persons of ‘trust’ will find themselves with pensionable positions courtesy of the State.
And you expect Slovak-style resignations? What you’ll get is one constant refrain: Up yours, Maltese people
If a Pulé does not suffice, there is always the inverse Churchill, a turning round of the V sign. The government has no sense of shame, of integrity in governance, nothing beyond in-your-face “So what? We won, now you can suck it.” The examples of crass, brazen, belligerent non-accountability so that nothing stands between the pigs and their swill, are piling up higher than Sliema skyscrapers.
Konrad Mizzi simply brushes off questions about the invisible Inland Revenue Commissioner’s tax audit. He has refused a freedom of information request on the contract of a top tagħnalkoller because “it may be contrary to public interest”. Did you get that? No specific reason, or even the stock “commercial sensitivity” excuse. This is even more opaque than Mintoff’s dark days of “mhux f’interess tal-poplu”; it MAY not be in the public interest. And that, you silly public opinion, should suffice. Now go back to your V18 circuses.
Minister Bartolo feels no weight on his shoulders now that his chief canvasser has been arraigned in court on bribery charges committed under his watch. MP Glenn Bedingfield sees no problem with being in government employment whilst he is an MP, in direct contravention to regulations.
Rosianne Cutajar is but the latest MP to gleefully accept a State-funded position that puts her in a potential conflict of interest with her parliamentary role. Jason Micallef is but the latest State-funded supremo to be let off scot-free, without even a sham slap on the wrist, for expressing grossly unacceptable private opinions that sully the dignity of his post.
To top it all, Minister Dalli lets slip that the electoral manifesto was a sham, just a device to let government carry out its underhanded social agenda without hindrance.
And you expect Slovak-style resignations? What you’ll get is one constant refrain: Up yours, Maltese people.
When will we see beyond Muscat’s Pulé and inverse Churchill, and start the count to 10?
Lady of Sorrows
The Kappillan could not believe his eyes. Someone had disfigured the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows. On the bradella, the carved wooden platform, was the image of a young Syrian woman barely able to sit upright, her clothes half burnt, her eyes red, dry and wide. She was clutching the remains of her baby on her lap, his arm blown away and his chest riddled with bullets.
Someone asked the Kappillan: do we still do the procession? Yes, he said. This is the incarnation of suffering today.