Money, sex and power
It seems a long time ago since Joseph Muscat unveiled his roadmap with a lot of fanfare and imagery but in fact it has only been around four years. Today it can be consigned to the rubbish heap along with many other elements of the Labour government.
Rachel Borg is an independent columnist based in the tourism industry
At that time Muscat thought he had captured the imagination of so many people and that he could lean back and allow his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and his newly discovered energy guru, Konrad Mizzi to take the lead and implement the major commitments set out in his roadmap whilst he went to the gym and cherry picked the job of Prime Minister.
Only today, we know that the roadmap was there to fool people about substance, whilst, in invisible ink, the real roadmap beneath led the way for the benefit of the labour army of ‘long suffering’ staffers and the many business, construction and special interest groups who were expecting their promised reward at the cost of others.
No sooner had this work began, than the scandals started flying across the airwaves and getting splashed on blogs and social media and it hasn’t abated since then at all. If you campaigned on a populist platform then you can expect that populist stories will be front page and centre.
Again, if you campaigned with visual imagery such as roadmaps and simple explanations of “It’s doable” to explain any argument put forward against the building of another power station to work on LNG, then you cannot blame the population when they are very quick to get the picture of one scandal after another. It’s simple – money, sex and power.
Like so many countries who enjoy a good soap opera, here too we are no different. When I see some trailers on TV of a local soap, I cringe at the crass level of it, as it emphasises and brings out the worst traits of the common person and that along with Xarabank they remain the cultural reference of so many. But, apparently, this is what a wide segment of viewers love to watch. Fantasies of the life of the rich and powerful, or of the miseries of the downtrodden and suffering. All hopelessly caricatured and exaggerated.
Only, the world of soaps and the world of the Labour cabinet seems to have become blurred and it has become really difficult to see where one ends and the other begins. This week the people were treated to a special episode, as the alleged story of the minister and the nudie club hit our screens upfront, full on and had record numbers of viewers on Daphne’s blog.
Coming so soon after the Dubai mini-bar binge, not long after New Year’s Eve revelries and with carnival coming up soon, this latest bit of gossip has not failed to entertain us during the otherwise dreary winter. Much better than watching the lumpy tanker bring a consignment of gas into Marsaxlokk harbour when Konrad thought he could distract us from his Panama millions for a while. Though the hijack story did manage quite a bit of interest for the wrong reasons.
Politics as it is done in third world countries. We even have the lions and tigers and stuffed birds along with fast cars and splurging of the country’s money to really complete the scene. Fuel smuggling, car bombs and photo ops at the Vatican testify to the real work being done.
As far as serious government business is concerned however, Prime Minister (eventually, if ever) will serve to convince anyone anymore of the relevance of this government. They should go. The sooner the better. This country is not their brothel but that is what they have made it.
Those who were promised jobs and permits and fancy contracts without tender or vetting, those who have taken out huge loans on the back of fat salaries and made purchases way beyond their imagination or who have been so excessive that they are even in debt, will undoubtedly work to save this Hotel Castille and get it re-elected in any way they can and at any cost to others. Only this time they must do it on the back of scandals and lies and hope they are not hounded out of their cushy jobs at the end of it.
They had campaigned on what at that time was branded a scandal for the government. It is clear today that the only way in which the Opposition has failed is in that their scandals are so dull that they fail to make any impression. Anyone wanting to be somebody in the Labour clan, has to chalk up their scandal graph so that the impact is spread evenly between them and not all lumped onto Joseph and his cronies. Share and share alike. That is the kind of socialism that is practiced here. Take some of the heat off Konrad, Keith and Joseph and their enablers. Everyone is free to choose what they want – money, sex, power.
Certainly this last one of the alleged romp at the German brothel is entirely symbolic of the whole of this cabinet’s achievements – and they know it. Too late now to play the innocent.