One small step by Muscat, one giant leap into the dark

The decision by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to propose legislation to allow MPs to sit on government boards is a step in the wrong direction, for the very simple reason that it is a throwback to the past and lands us in a worse situation.

Years back, when Muscat was a toddler, we had a Bank of Valletta Chairman who was a Labour MP. He was called Dennis Sammut.

I shall avoid returning to the past, but there are those who remember Dennis Sammut for his good and for his bad.

The good were his wild parties and pro-Muammar Gaddafi initiatives (TV presenter Joe Mifsud could fill us in on these).

Those who remember Sammut for the not-so-wonderful things will remember his habit of not paying bills for his extravagant lifestyle before escaping off the face of the earth. 

This was before 1987, and if Muscat does not remember it, I do.

MPs are legislators for f***'s sake, not managers.

Joseph Muscat should rethink this idea. In his electoral manifesto, he said that he would like to see a role for the backbenchers. Fine, but this is not a role, this is a death warrant for transparency and accountability.

This is not a role but a big step into the dark; this is an unacceptable situation wherein elected MPs in government are being asked to be managers of entities, when they are meant to be lawmakers and policy-makers.

The previous administration shamelessly ran many boards with party functionaries and even appointed MPs to posts, as was the case with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando - setting little or no example.

In 25 years, the PN administration, which meant well in the beginning, valiantly followed in the steps of Mintoffian habits and never looked back.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is probably a very competent person, but his role was never to be the chairman of a board.

But introducing legislation to give the whole exercise a legal basis is dangerous.

It just exposes to ridicule the whole contention that meritocracy is indeed a priority for the Muscat administration. It is not.

It also shows that nine-seat majority has only served to flash the green light at a new way of doing politics, which may not be too new after all.  Muscat has a nine-seat majority, and it should allow him to make the necessary changes to reform the various entities and institutions.

Making MPs into managers - not legislators, or combining both - is a mistake.

There is little doubt in my mind that the PN will oppose this piece of legislation. They will do this magnificently and they will be expected to do so.

The death of a flamingo

The very fact that a closely guarded flamingo, a colourful rare migrant water bird was killed by shooters at Salina shows how extensive and widespread the hunting problem is in Malta.

It proves that no matter how much we talk of enforcement, it will always fail. And if Lino Farrugia wants to kick out all the errant hunters, he should think of kicking the whole damn hunting fraternity out of his organisation and perhaps even himself.

Let us face it, Maltese hunters will never learn.

They will always be what they have always been: a bunch of antisocial animal killers who simply enjoy killing for the sake of it.

Peter Davies would resign if he had any self-respect

Peter Davies's wife travelled as a staff member on an Air Malta flight that was overbooked by four. Rules are rules, and she was allowed to take a seat that should serve as a table between two seats in club class.

The people in club class, who pay through the nose for the service, were not at all amused with the presence of Mrs Davies.

I would not be either, having paid such a ridiculous fee for my club-class seat. Why people pay such ludicrous amounts beats me.

The very fact that her name was and is not on the passenger list betrays the fact that regulations and software do not allow her to be registered as a passenger. Her presence on the plane was irregular, in other words, and Gatwick personnel confirmed this to MaltaToday.

Well, Mr Davies and apparently Mrs Davies are away in South Africa for an IATA meeting and a two-week break. In the meantime, Air Malta suffers delays, and what's more, the airline is entering what the airline industry considers prime months.

The €500,000-a-year CEO did not even have the brainpower to ensure that his original bumper contract includes a number of AirMalta tickets for travelling to and fro the UK and Malta.

I am sure Air Malta under the PN finance ministry of Tonio Fenech could have bent over backwards for poor Mr Davies.

So instead he has to depend on staff tickets when his wife travels.

It is a pity that Air Malta Chairman Ray Fenech does not have the proverbial balls to turn around to his CEO and ask him to resign - turn to the current minister, for being simply too nice to a CEO who, with all due respect, is not fit for purpose.