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In the expanse of the Pacific Ocean lies an islet inhabited by 47 people, all somehow related to each other and ancestors of the ‘Mutiny on the Bounty.’ In the year 2004, many of the male folk stand accused of rape, paedophile acts and other sexually related offences. Unusually some of the abused describe these sex crimes as the ‘culture’ of the islet.
“It was sort of okay, a natural thing for us, when we had sex at 12, this is Pitcairn,” one of the grown up raped girls told the BBC. Pitcairn is a little leftover crumb from the once vast British empire.
Somewhat bigger and more populated, Malta is fast becoming the Pitcairn Islet of the European community. We may not have reached such a pitiful state, but we are fast suffering from the Pitcairn syndrome.
Last week, writing in another English language Sunday, Olive went to great lengths to argue that everyone is related to everyone and it was inevitable that ‘things’ do happen, referring to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s cousins finding themselves on the Government-Skanska negotiating team.
The host of a TV programme, that sort of decadent Harry Potter look-a-like minus the magic, nearly did the same. He may have every right to present his own agenda, but not on state TV paid for by the Maltese and Gozitan public.
Thankfully I have no blood relations to Olive or to Potter and thousands of other Maltese and Gozitans and the five odd inhabitants of Comino share the same genetic privilege.
Many more of us too have cousins or friends who are lawyers, architects, notaries and auditors. Yet none of them have been offered jobs as consultants or awarded tenders – and it is no coincidence that their daddy, cousin or friend is not a premier, a minister or an un-elected cabinet minister.
We have reached our abysmal ratings as far as ethics are concerned. Potter, who never shies away from earning an extra buck even if it conflicts with his journalistic independence, is involved in some way or another with the public relations of the privatisation at the Freeport.
That in itself is enough to question whether he is best placed to present a discussion programme on state TV.
There are many facets to the truth, but there is always one truth. There have been many words wasted this week about the PM’s cousins and now his son, who is also a bright sort of guy. They are all fodder for the Labour Party now best distinguished by its unique way of making politics, that is of doing nothing because it is by doing nothing that it scores most points.
This week, PBS’s singularly most biased discussion programme not only whitewashed the issue of Dar Malta in Brussels, but it also convoluted the facts and went through great efforts to paint a story that missed the wood for the trees.
Why Potter chose not to bring up the issue of whether Malta stands to lose its tax exemption on several floors of the embassy in Rue Archimede if it decides to rent them out, beggars belief.
I will not go into Potter’s attack on me. I expect it from someone who is now best placed as the Master of Ceremonies for whitewash, but I am surprised that Fr Joe Borg, the editorial co-ordinator at PBS, is not uncomfortable with his approach.
The recurrent question that Potter poses as a petulant interviewer is as follows: “If there is anything wrong then why not take the matter to court?” He posed this query in his irascible pungent way to Alfred Sant last week.
But that is not the point. Having a PM appointing his two cousins to do a job is not a criminal act. Yet it is politically insensitive and bad governance for a Prime Minister not to realise that it is politically unsavoury. If we are to accept this kind of behaviour then we are taking three steps backwards.
When all hell broke loose last March over a Minister’s family involvement there was no question that the issue was politically unwelcome and a case of bad judgement. There was no criminal action involved, but a resignation followed.
The question to ask now is whether other competent people have had the opportunity to tender or show interest in the jobs and opportunities offered by government. The simple answer to that is ‘no.’ It appears - and this is the general perception – that unless you happen to know someone, your future is as solid as pigeon droppings.
Olive and Harry Potter know it. All the boards and government-appointed committees are represented by people who are either government supporters or who are close to government.
When you are a professional or a businessman you are best advised to paint yourself as government-anointed, otherwise it is economic apartheid.
To a certain extent it has been happening for 17 years and before that it was only Labour folk who had a taste of all the truffles. Despite all my reservations about Lawrence Gonzi, I still expect him to act differently. The fundamental issue is that Lawrence Gonzi promised a third way.
The attempt by Potter and Olive to camouflage this kind of governance is exposed by their blatant use of rhetoric and doctoring of the truth to present a case that is simply only suitable for the gullible.
In another country, if a Premier’s son aged 26 ended up taking up a government contract for translating the EU’s legislation all hell would break loose.
If this had been another country the Home Affairs minister would be answering questions. His public relations man would not find lame excuses in this day of telephony and electronic mail that Dr Borg is not available because of important work in Algiers, Tripoli or Hanoi, and will only be available in three weeks time!
It is unbelievable, with all the foreign visits and diplomacy going on, most of our government ministers are never around to do the thing that they were elected to do, that is govern.
Which takes me back to understanding what makes a country click.
Before membership, in the days of good old ‘under-the-carpet’ Fenech Adami, the idea of grumbling about the economy was not on.
It was a fundamental gimmick, but it worked. If Eddie knew something it was about ‘the feeling.’ When things were really bad and raining cats and dogs, he would stand up and sing a song about sunshine. The economy and a feel good factor need a sense of security.
Gonzi has not instilled that sense of security. He could change the mood by recording in so many ways that deficits are not the end of the world events and by starting to describe pain as pleasure.
There are limits: you cannot call a tax a contribution, or an asbestos-ridden building a good investment, no matter what estate agent Frank Salt chooses to believe.
All we have seen in the first six months, is restructuring, downsizing and much of it has been carried out in such a splendidly silly way that there is a feeling of discomfort all around.
I have met many a Nationalist die-hard, the ones who did not even vote for the Greens and who argue that Gonzi can make it. They heap praise on him, but they all agree that he maintains a very week Secretariat around him and worse still: he listens far too much to his Secretary General, whose name everyone associates with the landslide defeat of the June European elections and with middle class alienation.
This is not Pitcairn Islet. We do not live by shooting at bread fruit hanging lazily from tropical trees. This is Malta, but if we go on like this, we may very well duplicate the grotesque history of that sordid Islet where rape is considered culture and child sex at 12… cool!
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