Empty boasts – Rachel Borg
Boasting very often comes hand in hand with political statements. The nasty bits and less flattering news are pushed aside or below the surface and papered with sound bites and selfcongratulatory speeches.
With the help of a media that can promote rather than challenge various declarations, the truth is tucked away where it can stay until the facts lift the lid and become self-evident.
A new road or a flyover can be inaugurated as many times as it is re-tarmacked. Credit is taken from others, as for example in the research of the new vaccine, making it sound like placing an order with the EU-wide supply chain is equivalent to having invented the vaccine. The work of the front-line nurses and doctors in the hospital becomes secondary to the boastful remarks about getting back to normal by March or that we will be hitting the ground running in a very short time.
All the while, numbers and pleas by the Medical Association and other organisations contradict the claims that recovery is imminent.
Ministers spend more time looking after their image than they do dealing with the needs of the public. One after the other, they feel offended by criticisms or accusations and dedicate column space in newspapers, airtime and online into refuting the issues surrounding them. Rather than just say, mea culpa, they go on the attack and like petulant children waste our time and resources in trying to forge a different truth than the one that has already been made clear to anyone with some sense of justice.
Perhaps the biggest fight is to keep justice at bay. To delay, to de-rail, to avoid and to twist the ropes so that chaos and confusion become a daily method. No better way to start the day than to shift the blame elsewhere, throw the facts into disarray and replay the scene from back to front. The accused become the victims, the victims become the bad guys and common sense is given a shot to put it in a coma.
In the past, when the Nationalist Party enjoyed a long stint in power, it was said that they had become unapproachable and that the ordinary people could not voice their complaints and needs without getting shot down with a cliché. And, largely, it was so.
Come the freshly starched Labour, they made sure that the opposite happened and that anyone who was disturbed by a fly that landed on its nose could receive an enthusiastic reply and a standard cover-up. Some, willing to play the game, would be elevated to the 4th floor from where the sky was the limit.
Which means that the ordinary person still remained alone in their complaints and their needs ignored. But what matters now is that the minister can boast about his or her achievements and cast off any shade that falls over them.
Power is once again grabbed by the powerful to be used in their personal campaign in whatever way its suits them. An outgoing minister will ensure that he will be kept well paid in his next career change and award himself a salary increase. A disgraced minister will make sure of his reward on the way out and land a consultancy role worth thousands of euros. Fictitious jobs are handed out. An elected Member of Parliament trades his seat at a whim. A secretariat is created with the job of protecting the minister and his or her image. Tentacles from the positions of trust spread like an octopus towards the vulnerable and suck them in. Political life becomes a strategy of survival and ensuring that justice will be kept at bay.
The concerns of the public are many. Sometimes they are so ignored that they take the decisions and the lead in protecting themselves. They know better than to listen to boastful statements that work against the interest of the nation. They are able to assess the reality better from their own experience and knowledge rather than from the mouth of a dis-credited public figure.
The job of the opposition is hindered by a government bench of self-serving MPs under the control of the one to whom they largely owe their padded income. The first instinct is to repel any legitimate questions and divert the issue towards an empty and useless answer. If there were real concern and proper interest, then the commitment to the truth and justice would prevail. It would not be a partisan or amateur reply but a genuine cooperation and investigation to resolve the problem. It would also take preparedness on the part of the Minister who would seek to gain knowledge about their portfolio or at least to have experienced staff to guide them.
Important contracts and documents would be laid on the table of the house and not hidden away or all redacted when they are finally presented. Calls for Inquiries would be cause for concern and every effort made to address the faults that led to tragedy or misappropriation of national interests.
Instead we have the protection put in place to make sure that the truth and accountability will not be discovered. An inquiry into the tragedy that took the life of Mrs Miriam Pace is deliberately avoided. Contractors will not be accountable by law for blame in building incidents and accidents.
So, rather than the ordinary citizen receiving the security they deserve to have from a democratic government, they face isolation and any power they had at an election is quickly wiped away in favour of keeping the system in place and safe from any threat.
The people were told that they would have a new health service with the sale of the three hospitals to Vitals and then to Stewards. We know now that millions of euros of our taxes are going towards the upkeep of a private company, not of our health care service. A new University would launch a revitalized south only for it to remain empty and take over public land.
The people were also told that high utility bills would be scrapped and replaced by cheaper rates. All the while, once again, a carefully built conglomerate siphoned off our cash and locked us into paying a rate for electricity several times higher than the market value.
Our environment screams for air and survival but instead gets handed over to hunters and road building bringing us back to the 3rd inauguration of the same road costing the tax payer thousands of euros, whilst the travel and leisure industry is brought to a stand-still by the pandemic.
But, we are told, we are the best in Europe and live in paradise, thanks to our resourceful and unflummoxed, young and vibrant PM and his faithful team of rising stars. Governance by WhatsApp.