Nothing short of murder could force the hand of government ministers and officials to offer their resignation in this country, Malta, in 2011. This is supposedly the epoch of democracy, accountability, and transparency.
We do not have to rehash the whole sorry issue, but this matter is related to Children’s Commissioner Helen D’Amato, who this week quoted selectively from a report on divorce and children, drawn up by US experts. Without going through all the motions again, Mrs D’Amato quoted passages from the report, claiming that kids whose parents are divorced, end up with higher mental illness risks, disease risks and more. What she failed to point out was that while some kids are affected badly, the report concludes that most “do well”.
TMI contacted Mrs D’Amato, and she initially told us that she had been misinterpreted and did not admit her mistake, when we pointed out that she had quoted from the report selectively. TMI published the story, but we were not satisfied and sought the opinion of her boss, Minister Dolores Cristina. We asked the minister, plainly, whether she thought Mrs D’Amato should resign.
What we received in return was a reply that was wishy-washy and basically, without actually saying so, acknowledged that Mrs D’Amato had made a mistake and never meant to mislead or misinform people in what she had said.
Bearing in mind that this newspaper published a second leading article some weeks back (‘Silence is golden’), in which we said that ministries fob off questions put by journalists, we put the question clearer and asked it to the minister again: “Does the minister think Helen D’Amato should resign?”
The answer we got was terse and simple: “No, the minister does not believe that Mrs D’Amato should resign.”
When one puts it into context, there were calls for Dolores Cristina to resign some months back, when departments under her remit messed up royally and lost EUPA funds (for education), funds that have still not been reinstated to this day. Mrs Cristina was backed by the PM and did not submit her resignation. In other Western democracies around the world, people that hold such public posts would immediately tender their resignation and disappear into obscurity.
Malta has always had this problem. Being the type of nation that we are, everything is a crisis and everything is the end of the world. Before the story has even settled, another issue always crops up and deflects attention away from what has happened. Sadly, the people keep electing the same candidates to the House of Representatives, and that is because of the very strong partisan roots of the country. So, in a sense, the people of this small nation really do get the government they deserve.
It is 2011 and the events that are taking place in Malta are more befitting of the 1920s and 1930s. We have not even entered the 20th century, let alone the 21st century and rather than move forward, the country is regressing at an alarming rate. The government tried to inject new blood into the system after the last election (mostly after repeated calls from the electorate in the run-up to the polls), but it backfired quite spectacularly as the naughty children on the back bench stamped their feet and bawled and bawled.
When you give in to such demands, this is what you get. Crass incompetence, rewarded by a talking to and “as you were”.