Yes, the world according to Austin Gatt starts with a big burp.
Austin, you see, is revered as a man and politician who can take decisions. And since no one else takes decisions in his government, he is described by the blue-eyed platoon as a very good politician.
That, of course, is not a sine qua non. Yet, no one seems to underline or emphasise that most of his decisions are incorrect.
I think some examples could help illustrate the point.
Let us start with the least popular of subjects: the cost related to a funeral.
Well, Austin as we all know reformed the hearses’ sector and and liberalised the funeral system. Now, it follows that with more hearses and a constant flow of mortalities, a dip in the cost of funeral arrangements would ensue.
Once again, refer to reverse psychology to understand the whole process and what do you get? Yes, you get a more expensive funeral arrangement.
The logic behind Austin’s reform is in a few words best described as a veritable ‘VROMA.’
Now Austin, who everyone knows will not stand again in the next general election, will be remembered for instilling in his ministry the arrogance that we persistently refer to as the Mintoffian diktat.
Most of his acolytes are so infatuated with his style that they end up walking, talking and even looking like him.
Take his former personal assistants Claudio Grech, Manwel Delia and – with a little stretch of the imagination – the little-known public relations ventriloquist Amanda Ciappara. All of them bark like Austin, and rudely respond to questions by saying in so many other words: F*** off.
Which brings me to another of Austin’s great achievements. The hedging agreement: that is, the purchase of fuel at an elevated price resulting in the unnecessary high tariffs for electricity and water.
Now anyone with free access to newspaper archives should go back to the days of good old Josef Bonnici, the rather unimpressive Nationalist minister who was not reappointed by Gonzi in 2004.
Then when he shared collective responsibility with other ministers – and one of them was Dr Gatt – the good old Josef waged a war of attrition against the Labour party for suggesting that fuel should be purchased by applying the hedging principle.
Josef was of course deported to Brussels away from ministerial duties... many of which were taken up by Austin, who sanctioned many of the political appointees to do just the thing he once simply described as a wrong decision.
But if this is BAD – as Michael Jackson sang along in his happier days – the whole Enemalta fiscal scandal, and the way their problem was made to be our problem, is the perfect illustration to figure out how someone of Austin Gatt’s stature can get away with murder.
Mismanagement under consecutive Nationalist ministers, leading to inefficiencies and the fear of taking tough decisions, led Austin to dump all the debt accumulated by Enemalta onto the Maltese taxpayer. If it were up to him we would be paying even higher tariffs.
The infamous accusation that Alfred Sant’s government was a ‘gvern tal-calculator’ could easily be tagged to Dr Gatt.
Well, Dr Gatt’s Greek tragedy at Enemalta did not stop here. He went on to defend the decisions taken in the new extension at Enemalta. His latest missal defending his appointee Alex Tranter, and declaring hand on heart that Tranter had no conflict of interest when he himself is no longer responsible for Enemalta, was simply not on.
It is useful to point out that the Prime Minister was not happy with Austin Gatt’s handling of Enemalta and the tariff structure, which is why he clipped his wings and removed the energy corporation from his super ministry – giving Enemalta to another Minister who surely has a larger-than-life one.
In other words, Austin was demoted and yet no one seems to link this demotion to his bad politics and haughtiness.
But back to Tranter, who has been exculpated by Austin for any conflict of interest. Well, that is what he is saying. Thank God most people with grey cells between their ears will agree that Austin’s appreciation of conflict of interest is equivalent to his appreciation of good manners.
If there is one person who should have resigned a long time ago, it is Alex Tranter – a man renowned for overseeing the highest utility tariff implementation ever; for having allowed for a scandalous hedging agreement; for being there when the tendering process at the Enemalta extension was open to allegations of impropriety; for defending the indefensible blackouts; for having an undeniable conflict of interest with his link to Zaren Vassallo, and a new company with interests in alternative energy; and for being named in the Auditor’s report as someone who should have resigned but did not.
But then again, conflict of interest is of no consequence. It is all a question of education and culture. Austin’s understanding of conflict of interest is equivalent to a Saudi judge and mullah being asked to respect the rights of a woman. Though it must be said that some Maltese members of the judiciary have the same problem as that of Mullahs.
Austin’s list of political appointees including his most precious yes-men: Sonny Portelli and Mark Portelli are the ideal examples to illustrate how his mind works.
The latter, Mark Portelli, is clearly a good example of someone with a direct conflict of interest because of his vast business interests in the maritime and transport segment, and his role as Chairman of Transport Malta.
Like Mr Tranter, Mr Portelli will think that we are being personal: yet another example of the arrogance of appointees who refuse to acknowledge the role of the independent press and their obligation to probe... more so when the money and assets they administer are not theirs, but ours – the taxpayers’.
Hence the reason for Mr Portelli’s and Mr Tranter’s decision to boycott MediaToday on publically-funded marketing campaigns.
Austin’s long list of ‘impressive’ decisions takes us right to the heart of disseminating information to the public. I am referring here to PBS. It is here that one can best understand the phrase ‘gvern tal-calculator.’
PBS today is a propaganda machine for the State, run by political-leaning individuals who are willing to prioritise on the news in the interest of their high moral value: that is, the value of retaining the rule of law in that of this government. Phew!
Instead of seeing PBS as a model with a commitment to disseminate the news and uphold its commitment as a broadcaster, Austin proceeded to reform PBS and denude it in the same way the Americans napalmed the Vietnamese tropical rain forest.
Of course he conveniently left out his cousin Mr Bondi from the destruction process, and all the others who offer a splendid gate-keeping service.
The world according to Austin has no limits. When his personal assistant Claudio Grech negotiated the sale of an immense stretch of land to Dubai, we all thought: how very impressive... only to find out afterwards that the same Grech was to become the new CEO of Smart City Malta.
When we suggested that it was ‘unethical’ for the man who sold to Smart City to also work with Smart City, Austin fired back and once again retorted in one of his inaudible croaks. When it was suggested that Claudio Grech’s position as CEO at Smart City and Chairman of MITTS was an unhealthy dual posting, once again we were called all sorts of things.
And when it was discovered that there was a very serious security breach of government emails at MITTS, instead of seeing Claudio resign, we were once again regaled with a plethora of barks and snarls. Claudio by the way is still Chairman at MITTS, although he left Smart City – citing the usual unintelligible reasons – when the Dubai investors got sick and tired of his highhandedness.
This is, of course, a never-ending story.
Tonio Fenech, who has taken over Enemalta, has privately conceded that he has inherited all the ‘zkuk’ of Austin Gatt. Typically for Tonio, who routinely badmouths most of his colleagues (ask John Dalli and Michael Falzon), he will find a way of wriggling his way out of this one.
More so if the opposition fails to garner an efficient marketing campaign to convince the people that the endeavours of Evarist Bartolo to unearth the ‘dirt’ and ‘scandal’ at Delimara are not a figment of his imagination, but a real story that needs to get tackled not buried and ignored by most of the media.
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