€40,000 of public funds to drub a political opponent

So it turns out that the great unveiling of the first Marsa flyover on the eve of Independence actually cost the taxpayer a grand €40,000, which, in the grander scheme of government expenditure, is a drop in the ocean.

But to the thousands of regular people making use of the flyover, it is an awful lot of money for what was quite clearly an exercise in political vanity and, pun intended, political mileage.

But, according to the Prime Minister, who cut the figurative ribbon at the ceremony, this was an ‘Independence present for the country’ from the great benefactor himself. This reminds one of one of the memes doing the rounds on the social media lately, which goes something to the effect that ‘to applaud a politician for building a road or a bridge with your own money is like applauding an ATM for giving you cash from your own account’. And that was exactly what the whole thing was: a ‘present’ for the people purchased with our own money, plus the added €40,000 expenditure for the grand and curiouslytimed unveiling ceremony.

You see, a politician has to either be rather tone deaf or a person who takes the populace at large for fools if they are to pass off a project, which will actually be an impressive one once the whole thing is ready, that was paid for with their own tax euros as being a ‘present’ for them.

But what was the exact purpose of that grand unveiling? Was it really the unwrapping of the 55th birthday present for the country? We think not.

What it was, in actual fact, was a master class in drubbing a political opponent. The opportunity to upstage Opposition Leader Adrian Delia, in the grandest of ways, just before he was to take the stage for the Nationalist Party’s Independence mini-mass meeting was not missed on the Prime Minister or his public relations team.

On the evening of the Opposition leader’s traditional Independence speech, a previously unannounced and sudden press call was issued to the effect that the Prime Minister was to open one of the flyovers at Marsa, which he did about an hour before Delia was due to take the stage.

But that was not all, shortly after that, another surprise was in store: the launching of the long-awaited public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a mere 45 minutes before he was about to address the party faithful.

One may talk about pulling the rug and stealing the thunder, but the double move was a master stroke par excellence.

It is, of course, part and parcel of the power of incumbency to hold all the strings that are able to be pulled, and it is also the power of incumbency to pull those strings whenever one chooses. But along with that power of incumbency come the responsibility of incumbency, which needs to be leveraged to the best effect for the benefit of the nation and not of one’s political exigencies.

And when such exigencies cost the taxpayer in the region of four annual minimum salaries or two average annual salaries, the priorities are very clearly being misconstrued.