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Yesteryear, to exclaim that this government promulgated a friend of friends network would guarantee you a place in hell. This was the time when an aura of virginity hovered around anything not Labour.
There used to be a time when such political ‘expletives’ could only be uttered by Alfred Sant alone.
In the psyche of the Pieta boys to claim that the government operated a friends of friends network was an affront to the mission to engage in a one Party vision, and an attack from evil.
What has happened in the last months confirms a trend. It provides us with an insight into the workings of what is effectively 17-year old government. A repeat in B major of the pre 1987 MLP government friend of friends habits.
It is saddening that there are appear to be no hang-ups if one’s next of kin are involved.
The Mater Dei negotiating team was yet another embarrassment and it has come close to eating away at PM’s image. It diverted attention from the PM’s ‘noble’ mission of addressing the chaos at Mater.
The consultants chosen are - and I know that for a fact - very capable and honest professionals. The fact that two of them are Lawrence Gonzi’s cousins should not have mattered. But since they were approved by Gonzi himself leads one to believe that either Dr Gonzi is naïve or worse, unaware of what is being said in the media.
The fact that minister of finance, Gonzi received a letter from his junior minister of finance Tonio Fenech asking him to accept a nomination within his ministry is absurd.
Confirmation that there is no shame in politics came with the proof that the same junior minister used senior managers from the same audit firm where he is apparently still employed, to be represented on the Mater Dei negotiating team.
One may not like Alfred Sant, but on this one he is correct.
There are absolutely no worthwhile justifications in the PM’s response to the concern over the way boards or commissions are set up.
I could only giggle when I heard the radio report of the PM saying that the focus on the negotiating team would damage the country’s image.
And yet, if there are parallels to be made, I do not see the media haranguing the PM and his junior minister on this one.
What is far more serious is the complete mess that reigns at Mater Dei. If there ever was a project that needed a national commission it is this one.
Just in case you have not noticed, one unelected member of cabinet is simply not available for public scrutiny unless he has no other option.
I have no idea if Mr Cachia Caruana will appear on TV this week, but all I can say is that I have invited him to speak on my programme. No, not about Dar Malta fi Brussel and swimming pools in Mdina, but about his work as permanent representative for Malta in Europe.
In all probability RCC does not appear on TV because of his Troglodyte use of our national language. If that is the case then I have no problem to carry out the TV interview in some other language.
The complete disdain shown towards the media is unbelievable. The government talks of a media friendly premiership. Sure, only if the journalist happens to be a whitewashed purified Nationalist apologist.
The Malta Institute of Journalists is turning into a joke. The President of the Institute of paq paq fame is a nice guy, by all means, but he would be better suited as President of the Cabbage White Butterfly Reproduction Society.
Last week he interviewed President De Marco in one of those insipid interviews that tells us little or nothing about the man. Simultaneously we learn that emeritus whatever is chairing the board to anoint the Gold award to a ‘gurnalist anzjan ta’ stoffa.’
Come on.
How can such a controversial politician who more often than not was chastised by the press, offer to stand as chairman. This is a man who, despite his superb handshake and ever lasting smile, will always ask a journalist to send back the text of an interview back to him for vetting.
But then the institute has long confirmed its irrelevance.
It is high time that journalists get together to form some new grouping to represent the true interests of journalism irrespective of their dislikes, likes and hang ups.
This week listening to Mintoff I could not help noticing the reverence shown to this arrogant, authoritarian man who is fighting to go down in history as God’s gift to mankind.
History writing has its own quirks, but Mintoff’s record must be put straight once and for all.
The man in his late eighties is completely in control of his senses, and continues to believe that he has an absolute reign on things and a control over the truth.
The latest laughable statement he made was about nationalisation.
He insists that he had no nationalisation plans. This is a complete disfigurement of the truth and yet he says it with so much conviction that one could almost believe him.
I say to myself that we are still living the Mintoffian era, because we have not come to understand how gruesome some of Mintoff’s policies were. The sad thing is that his legacy lives on.
Perhaps I should take a two-year sabbatical and work on writing about his life. But first I have the finish my work on the life and times of Richard Cachia Caruana.
The most boring thing a columnist could do is talk about himself and his daily intake of food. Yet, the smoking ban imposed on small bars is starting to leave its effects at my local tea bar. Naxxar is my home and it is the home of the health minister. Unlike the minister I was never a regular smoker, but when he passes in his Jaguar, from Naxxar, he will note, will he not, the elderly man who have moved the small formica chairs to the open doorway of a bar. They smoke their cigarettes and inhale the cigarette smoke together with the tonnes of toxic fumes emitted from trucks and other vehicles.
Just in case Dr Deguara wants some reference he should look at a study carried out that shows that Naxxar came out tops for toxic emissions.
Yet, if you think that this comment is going to shake Dr Deguara’s views on the matter, you must be joking.
My final thoughts go to the editorial that appeared in another Sunday newspaper with the title “The World needs Bush.” Thankfully for the US and Malta, such editorials are not taken seriously. Probably even the Bush appointed Pasta magnate ambassador Gioia wondered what type of hard stone the editor had used this time to hit his head on.
Or could it have been the emulsifier in the ketchup at a brunch at the US embassy?
It is a tribute to the owners of that newspaper that we wash our Sunday coffee down with a good laugh in the quiet of our breakfast rooms.
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