Monkey business – Rachel Borg
Re-wind to the hectic few weeks of December 2019 and January last month, when an unusual chart in the sky opened a brief crack in the fortune of the Labour government and its members, starting from Keith Schembri, Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and the surrounding orbit.
In this short window, some of the loyalists actually took a moment to speak their mind, at least on Twitter or Facebook, and condemn the status quo. Most know only too well that no circumstances can ever give you permission to go against the party, but rather take selfies and laugh in the face of the people’s protest. One person who called it, though, was Randolph Debattista, who, until this week, was the Labour party CEO. Now fired. Randolph was quite upfront in condemning the corruption and urged the party to take responsibility for the implications and actions of those who had brought the shame on them. He was not alone. Others made similar sentiments sort of clear too. But, out with the old, in with the new was not meant to include the CEO too, I expect. Maybe it was easier to remove him than others who carried votes. What is given can be taken away and most know this all too well. Let it be a warning. We are, after all, talking of what was until recently a Mafia here.
The firing of Debattista goes to show that with Robert Abela, it is still a matter of addressing the party’s importance over the country’s. Loyalists will continue to be rewarded while those who are too close to the edge get a push.
People, though, have had enough of the monkey business and want to see a government for all, not just for those forming part of the PL and the pocketeers. One such case this week was brought up by The Malta Producers Association, which has called for the immediate resignation of film commissioner Johann Grech. The association was reacting to a story in the media claiming that the Malta Film Commission was choosing to promote certain local film production companies to international producers while excluding others. The Commission says that this is false.
The growing sentiment in the business sector, the Police Force and just about every sector of the population is that this distortion has gone too far and there needs to be a levelling of the playing field, free of interference and of those loyal to the Labour party with their head in the trough.
The fabric is coming apart at the seams. Malta was once proud of its business community, civil service and the career jobs that came with it. Qualifications were set high and the loyalty was to the people they served, under whichever government was in power. There was fairness and scrutiny, accountability and integrity. A career was for life and was earned not scavenged. Businesses worked for their success and invested their profit.
Now, the career is dead and all we have are the loyalists put in place to toe the line of one corrupt government. Positions of Trust and Persons of Trust fill the dodgy corridors. Anyone who disagrees with the prevailing policy of internal promotion, cover-up and benefit system, is quickly dismissed. Others at the table who have shown themselves to have no problem at all in dancing to the tune like circus monkeys have the right kind of mettle to meet the test.
On the receiving end, farmers are deprived of their living due to incompetency, honest police of their pride in their job, self-employed persons of their right to an equal field. Nationalists are ignored or discriminated against, journalists served with SLAPP suits, teachers and nurses lied to, the elderly either used or forgotten, the poor made uncomfortable, immigrants and prisoners in precarious conditions, our environment reduced to foul play everywhere you look. Meanwhile, the big shots of Castille, Electrogas, Vitals, the building conglomerates and the whole Mafia system are put under protection orders. During this process, all Malta suffers the loss of good reputation and business ethic and the resulting economic fallout.
We are not a marketing project, we are individuals, people. We are not just numbers and votes.
Robert Abela will not be given the same trust that Joseph Muscat had from all those who were letting things slide and ignoring the corruption around him and his gangland. And this is because it is the very same people who gave their vote to Labour who are now complaining and rejecting the failed model of Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, Edward Scicluna and Joseph. They see the disease that has set in.
Instead Abela is seen to keep and indulge the likes of Joseph Muscat, ex-Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, Chris Cardona, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and the failed Ministries, simply re-stocking the bench or Vital’s Ram Tumuluri paying himself five million euros of our money for nothing and the Finance Minister who has no problem with any of it, as he did not have with the Pilatus bank directors.
It is quite the same reason why people have left the Nationalist Party under Adrian Delia. The trust is gone. There is too much that is about a campaign to stay elected and not enough about putting the people first, pampering an inflated ego instead of nurturing a long-term career.
The fragmentation into voter segments is falling apart because, in essence, niche sectors want justice and to have a functioning democracy. That is why people chose to join the European Union. Taking from one segment to advantage the other is just a shortterm game. Social justice needs to have the right balance. Markets need it too. A leader needs to get that balance right every day, otherwise there is a distortion which leads to revolution.
Again, the Nationalist leader Adrian Delia should learn a lesson from this and see that focusing on one segment to the detriment of the whole will never earn you the trust of the majority. Just because he claims to have the support of the members who voted for him means little when he is turning his back on his colleagues and the wider voting base while delegitimising the trust they put in him.
The time has come for us to have a better country, better representatives and better leaders. If this cycle has lost the plot, maybe it will have generated a “just say no” culture that can seek out legitimate power and justice instead of the fake news-grabbers and celebrity junkies. Speaking out is the first step, coming together and creating a new reality will drive change and those who should be behind bars will be put there where they belong. Those who don’t get it must make way for those who are way ahead already.
Labour’s stint is over, let’s hope, though they remain in power. The genie belongs back in the bottle. With some similar celestial fortune, perhaps the PN can still be saved and see if they can form a healthy alternative which seizes the moment. No more monkey business.