Remember back in the early 1980s when we were all so very bored with ourselves? There was black and white TV and the only colour television sets around were to be found in the cosy sitting rooms of socialist ministers. On telly, a series that helped kill the time was aptly named The Professionals. It starred Bodie, Cowley and Doyle and it was created as a response from the other side f the Atlantic to Starsky and Hutch.
It was fun watching them in black and white, while others in their sofas were watching Sabato Sera on RAI in colour.
So when this very week Richard Cachia Caruana decided to comment that it was a pity that the decision concerning the Co-Cathedral’s underground extension was not left to professionals, I was immediately dragged back to those wonderful years.
Memories are something that mean a lot to people. But some memories are best buried and put aside. Fortunately, or unfortunately, our grey matter is not a bundle of microchips of artificial intelligence plastered onto a hard disc that you erase or reformat at the click of a finger. Memories stay with you, good and bad.
So when RCC commented about professionals this week, I asked myself: who was he referring to? What was he trying to say? Is he stating this country should be managed by professionals and that it best to leave everything to them? In other words, probably leave everything to people like himself.
RCC, I would understand, is a professional. I recall that whenever he wrote a report it had to be in the same font, same size, same indent, same margin. I guess one calls this kind of meticulousness, professionalism. In medicine it’s referred to as an obsession to control everything.
And it could very well be that RCC is confusing the word professionalism with the term that would represent this feeling: ‘I want everything my way’.
Let us face it, where can we pick out the finer examples of professionalism in government and the ruling political party?
1. Is sending an invoice of millions of euros too late for dumping MIDI waste at sea, a sign of professionalism at MEPA?
2. Is sending an email to Jason Micallef instead of Jason Azzopardi, another reason to consider professionalism to be part of the genetic make-up of the Nationalist party?
3. Is spinning the news in the friendly media, a sign of how professional we can get?
4. And is the appointment of so many politically leaning individuals to boards proof that professionalism is a rather misunderstood term?
Professionalism, the RCC way, is of course the way this country should not be going. And let us not be duped into believing for one minute that this country is run by professionals.
Gonzi was and is at a loss on what to do next. He knows that if he had gone ahead with a vote on the Labour party’s motion on ‘the hole in the city’ project, he would have lost the vote.
But retreating now has left JPO, Astrid Vella and Joseph Muscat in a very strong position. He has no one else to blame if Pullicino Orlando hangs on to this crucial one-seat majority.
Really and truly, had the Nationalist party, then as led amongst others by Richard Cachia Caruana, not covered up JPO’s miserable Mistra saga and sent him to face Alfred Sant on TVM, it is very likely that we would have had Alfred Sant as Prime Minister today.
Hardly all those Nationalists who voted for JPO knew what was truly behind JPO’s Mistra saga, and everyone thought that, “miskin… he was a victim of Dottor Sant’s ‘cruel and personal’ tactics.”
Whether Alfred Sant would have been better than Lawrence Gonzi is debatable, but surely he was perfectly right when he pointed a finger at JPO. Gonzi and RCC knew that if the JPO story did come out before the election, he had a very good chance of losing Castille.
And he won by the slimmest of majorities.
Just in case people need reminding, one of the most crucial individuals on the PN strategy group was Richard Cachia Caruana. He was brought back from the cold in Brussels, by Gonzi himself.
RCC is surely a more focussed political strategist and strategist than the rest of the Brady Bunch at Stamperija. It was RCC who formulated the policy in the pre- and post-election period about JPO, and it is he who is getting the flak from JPO for his political fate in the post-election Nationalist government.
That fate meant that JPO lost his chances of being selected for a ministerial post which he possible would have carried out with much more gusto and competence than some of the present ministers.
The background to all this is Astrid Vella, the woman who is getting all the credit for Gonzi’s volte-face. But let us face it: if she really believes that she convinced Gonzi to change tack, she must be in denial. It was JPO’s one seat, and the rebellion in the parliamentary backbench group, that led Gonzi to change course.
Gonzi of course cannot do anything to control JPO. If he did not have a one-seat majority he would undoubtedly have called JPO to Castille and the scene would have been something like this:
Castille. Gonzi walks away from his laptop and asks Jeffrey to take a seat.
Gonzi – “Jeff, how white your hair has got… everyone is getting older eh? (Laughs)
Pullicino Orlando – “Well Lor, what do you expect after all this campaign against me?”
LG – “Hmm” – avoids eye contact with JPO. “Do you want coffee?”
JPO – (Replies curtly and brusquely flips his sleeve to see the time on his watch) “No.”
LG – “Jeff, we have looked at your situation and we think… we believe… we think… that it would be best for you resign.”
LG – “Jeff, there is no other alternative, this is for the good of the party.”
JPO – “I AM NOT GOING TO RESIGN, h*** ****! I have much to offer.”
LG – “Jeff, lower your voice please… and this language. I have to insist you must resign. If you do not I will make a public statement about the matter.”
JPO stands up, Edgar Galea Curmi walks in, together with an unidentified government messenger.
EGC – “Did you call me, Prim?”
LG – “No it is okay Edgar.”
JPO – Looks at the PM and points his finger at him. “This is not the last you have heard of me!” Storms out of the room.
EGC – Turns to the PM. “Coffee? Prosit Prim, you were really good.”
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Search:
MALTATODAY
BUSINESSTODAY
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
On telly, a series that helped kill the time was aptly named The Professionals. It starred Bodie, Cowley and Doyle and it was created as a response from the other side f the Atlantic to Starsky and Hutch.
