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Once upon a time there was a man called Dom Mintoff, and in 1987 we thought we had him consigned to the rubbish tip of history.
Then he returned, purposely reconditioned by the PN media who needed his TV sound bites and commentaries to get Alfred Sant out of government. That was 1998. The autocrat and the uncouth and unrepentant old world socialist, is still around but worst of all, his legacy is still with us.
We face a crisis over Enemalta and what happens when the rumour goes round that a fuel strike is underway and cars block thoroughfares to queue at petrol stations? The GWU looks the other way, and the government, well very much the same.
We still think in Mintoff style: the queue, the attitude towards the establishment, the reverence to politicians, the nepotism, and the belief that there are things which are our right when they should not be.
There is still this belief that everyone should mind their own business, that screwing the government is a virtue and not a sin, that avoiding tax is talent, and that getting the best for the family at someone else's expense is a reason to die for.
In 1987 we all thought that it was behind us but it was not. The PN was simply the lesser evil.
It did liberalise, reduce the controversy, bring the peace and regulate with structures, but in the end it was all very superficial.
The same parochial and political patronage that excelled in the sixties and was crowned in the seventies and eighties had returned albeit at times in a very subtle manner.
Take the appointment of legal advisors in all parastatal or government-financed companies. I cannot find any proof of favouritism but somehow the names all point to people who have positions or connections in the Nationalist party. It used to be like that before under Labour; it is the same now for the PN.
I remember that at Lohombus Bank before 1987, you would have to be red rather than dead to get a job as a lawyer and the same applied for any other government entities including banks and corporations.
Then came 1987 and the Red chairmen were replaced by the Blue chairmen. The only thing that has changed is that they are now called by the ridiculous title of chairpersons.
Even the appointment of magistrates seemed to follow the same pattern.
Take Malta Enterprise and its subsidiary Malta Industrial Parks. Wonder of wonders, we have Mario De Marco, a Nationalist MP, and Dr Victor Scerri, the President of one of the branches of the Nationalist Party administration, as the companies' legal advisors.
Now none of these two lawyers are incompetent or lousy and I am sure they were chosen on the basis of meritocracy rather than their political connections. But why is it that every single legal appointment appears to go to those legal firms with 'blue' genes?
Coincidence I guess.
It does not always work that way. Former Labour Party deputy leader George Abela's firm has a handsome contract for services rendered to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Dr Abela is not a Nationalist as far as I know, and I am sure his choice has also nothing to do with the Nationalists' Machiavellian way of keeping potential MLP leadership material, shall we say, out of the way.
A cursory look at all the consultants of other bodies will point to the same group of names with affiliation to a political party. It does not only stop with consultants. The Foundation for Medical Services, that body that will forever be remembered for masterminding Mater Dei, has for its public relations officer the one and only unimpressive Clyde Puli, a Nationalist MP who is to the PN what Lord Haw Haw was to the radio waves.
Every single commission, appeals board and government funded operation, is dominated by individuals who have either been canvassers, holders of PN membership or people the state would like to hopefully 'control'. And this is no exaggeration.
Can we go on like this?
Of course we can, because this is what the Maltese want and because it is very likely that when and if Labour is elected, the Mario De Marcos of this world could be replaced by Jose Herreras, and the Victor Scerris by the Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardis. But I could be proven very wrong. And then I would have to offer both Drs Zrinzo Azzopardi and Herrera a well-earned trophy for standing up and proving to everyone that there can be a different sort of politics in Malta.
There are very few people who get into politics for ideological reasons. I mean, just look at Silvio Parnis and Stefan Buontempo. I cannot understand what they are doing in politics, more so with a left wing party. Why don't they just simply set up the Salvation Army or the "Good Samaritans With The Silly Smiles Look"?
Now if there is a case of people staying on in politics despite the graffiti on the wall, it must be the strategy group of the Nationalist Party. And please do not ask me who they are, because no one in the Nationalist HQ knows that either.
Although I do not read her column anymore, I have been told that Daphne Caruana Galizia has painted the whole local council result as a business-as-usual affair.
How surprising?
Well, if that is the case, then we should really encourage the setting up of the Abstention Party. The reality check for the future is that politicians across the board are facing a credibility crisis.
The PN is facing a serious malaise. Indeed it is in a catch 22 situation. If it wins the next general election it could be facing the same fate of the Italian Democrazia Cristiana: irrelevant, ancient, tired, jurassic and dependent solely on networking and the feeling for nostalgia.
The campaign slogan will definitely read: "Avoid change, Vote for us".
If it loses in the next election it will be unable to tackle internal reform, as the messages and images after the local councils disaster last week proved beyond doubt.
I listened from a quiet distance arguments about how not at all an arrogant person the PM was. Indeed, MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said on radio that Dr Gonzi was anything but arrogant.
Until I heard the judgement and political analysis of the result by Lawrence Gonzi himself the day after
His message was that no one is to blame but the voter. 'I will go on in my endeavours and reforms,' was the other.
Egged on, no doubt, by Secretary General Joe Saliba himself, who is seemingly not remorseful and unwilling to take any responsibility for the last two electoral defeats. He loses the plot by addressing every argument as a numbers game.
If that was not enough, we have Tonio Borg, the deputy Prime Minister, who continued to shoot himself in the foot, with his 'voting with their feet' comment.
No apology was forthcoming, just the expected defensive response from the PM, telling a Times journalist: "U ejja!"
And "u ejja!" is just what we should be telling them. Them are all the politicians. Get real, talk about the real solutions and real problems.
Regarding accountability for the electoral fiasco, I would think that we will never see the day when Joe Saliba will climb down and take responsibility for his party's electoral result.
Which is why you cannot blame anyone in the government service, from the police officer who never wanders far from his police station or the nurse who is deaf to the patient's cries in the middle of the night, if they shrug off responsibility for their mistakes and their behaviour and continue to hang in their petty regimens.
As my old mentor used to say, "Politics and power is like money, the more you have the more you want."
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