Sending the wrong responses

They’re at it again. The government taking an important statement made outside Malta, carefully excising anything that could be construed as criticism and then blaring out its policies have been praised.

And naturally hoping the Maltese average reader does not have the time to pay more than a cursory glance at the issue. That’s how spin works. And aided and abetted by a comatose media and the ever-optimist TVM newsroom, public opinion is again fed the lie.

On Friday the government issued a statement claiming that the Venice Commission has acknowledged the legislative reforms carried out by the government of Malta.

This was the Venice Commission‘s final opinion on the ten draft laws about which the same Commission had expressed an opinion in June.

The government statement on Friday said that the Venice Commission had commented favourably on six out of ten legislative reforms which have been amended in Parliament and now form part of the Maltese Constitution. These amendments required a two-thirds vote in parliament but were unanimously agreed on with the Opposition.

The statement, the government of Malta continued, highlights the speed and efficiency of the government of Malta’s legislative process. It noted that discussions on these constitutional and institutional reforms have been going on since 2010, when studies and discussions were presented at the Malta President’s Forum.

The government of Malta added that it is good that the Venice Commission has acknowledged the work carried out by the present administration in the few months of its existence on reforms that had been on paper and the topic of discussions for many years. Such reforms have now been implemented following unanimous agreement in Parliament.

The government of Malta added that work on the other reforms agreed with the Venice Commission will continue in Parliament in the coming days and will be complemented by what it described as “other initiatives to continue strengthening the rule of law and good governance in Malta”.

Finally the government of Malta added that it was also taking note of the observations made by the same Venice Commission regarding the four other reforms that are subject of the discussion in the Maltese Parliament taking into account the preparatory work being carried out by the President of the Republic in preparation for the establishment of the Constitutional Convention.

But the Venice Commission also criticized the “rushed” adoption process adopted and the cutting short of wider consultation about the changes. About this there was of course no mention in the government statement except by the slenderest of nuances.

The commission emphasised the importance of a transparent, inclusive and deliberative legislative process and recommended that the remaining four bills be discussed in a wider framework also with civil society.

This to my mind encapsulates the way the Labour administration under Robert Abela and also under Joseph Muscat treats the country – extract any slight whiff of approbation, minimise any criticism and ride roughshod over criticism.

It was also exemplified in the past week by the harangue with which Robert Abela welcomed Bernard Grech in the first meeting between them, a public scolding of which there exist no precedents in Maltese political history, not even under Dom Mintoff.

Grech should have stood up and left the room. He was wrong when he suggested the first meeting should be held at Castile but again Abela was unnecessarily rude (and wrong) when he stated that only after winning an election would he be allowed in (he himself did not need to win an election to be allowed in).

Abela had prepared for this dressing down by challenging Grech to agree with him that Malta was “full up” (much like the bus drivers of old). Grech had made a rather loose statement that there is still space available in Malta and in fact later adjusted it to propose a commission to discuss.

But humiliating in public the newly-elected Leader of the Opposition shows unbearable pride and hubris. Certainly the relations between Abela and Adrian Delia were different, which goes to prove what maybe got Grech elected. The public humiliation would have reinforced it.

This administration continues to shoot itself in the foot. On Thursday Saviour Balzan had Silvio Parnis as one of his guests.

The day before Parnis had replied to a rather timid reproach by Bernard Grech on the high numbers of elderly who have died of Covid by going off in a Philippic of vituperation against the Nationalists and Grech in particular.

On television Parnis did not repeat the previous day’s exploit but kept going round in circles thoroughly angering Balzan.

All he had to do should have been to list the great number of homes for the elderly who have kept Covid at bay, including the great St Vincent de Paule, point out that the Residenza San Guzepp in Fgura is run by the private sector and that a commission of inquiry is examining what went wrong.

This is a very sensitive subject for even the elderly have relatives and family. There is a lot of anger at ground level and stupid responses like sending roly-poly to the elderly just rub people the wrong way.