I had a brief moment back there when I thought it might be a good idea to ring round Malta’s newspaper columnists and suggest banding together. We could release a statement against the violation of human rights by a government determined to use human beings as pawns in an attention-getting exercise. But then I realised that it wasn’t really necessary, because if there is anybody who is perfectly positioned to say in public exactly what he or she thinks, it’s a newspaper columnist.

And sure enough, within a few days every newspaper columnist who writes about current affairs had had his or her say on the matter, and all were united in saying – regardless of their political views before the general election - that this is despicable behaviour. The single, exception is Kenneth Zammit Tabona in the Times of Malta, who filled the air with praise of a prime minister who “took the bull by the horns” and who he described as having “brains, guts and staying-power”.

He may not have been out on a limb with many of his readers, but he certainly was with those who do a similar job. There is nothing wrong with being out on a limb, of course (I often am) and the popularity of an opinion does not mean it is right. And in this case, it is not so much opinion as facts which come into play. If the prime minister’s plans are factually classified as human rights violations in terms of a European Court of Human Rights judgement last year, then it is foolish and pointless to say that you have an opinion that runs contrary to that ruling, that the ECHR might think it a violation but you don’t.

It is the ECHR which rules on what constitutes a human rights violation, and not a newspaper columnist. Now if Kenneth Zammit Tabona meant that he knows those actions constitute a human rights violation, and still he agrees with them, then that is another matter. It is, however, not the sort of opinion you would expect a self-professed liberal to hold. There couldn’t have been a greater contrast than there was with Mark Anthony Falzon’s column in The Sunday Times, under the title ‘Wake up and smell the blood’.

 

What seemed to trigger the revulsion among many of the columnists I read was the very point that didn’t register at all: the selection only of “able-bodied males” for deportation, presumably on the basis that they are fit enough to withstand torture and ill-treatment, while the women and children – their families – were to be kept behind in Maltese detention centres. The ECHR judgement of last year made no reference to anything like this, because it was not a factor in the suit, but we know at a very deep human level that this is a gross violation, that it is appalling. We shouldn’t need to be told why. And it pushes all the wrong buttons in European collective memory.

 

So now, qualifications are subjective

The foreign minister was quizzed about the selection of Labour Party employees for ambassadorial posts. He said he sees nothing wrong with this. Even Obama does it, he said, ignoring the barrage of pungent criticism the US president has faced.

And when he was asked whether these Labour Party employees are qualified to serve as ambassadors, the Foreign Minister replied: “qualifications are subjective and one needs to see their work at the end of their mandate in order to judge their performance.” Ah, but by then it would be way too late, wouldn’t it.

I imagine that the Foreign Minister would feel himself justified in saying that. Many would say that, as a general practitioner in medicine, he is not quite qualified to serve as Malta’s foreign minister. But let’s look at what might happen were somebody not qualified in medicine to start treating patients on the basis that qualifications are subjective. “Ooops, sorry, but I didn’t mean to inject you with caustic soda. I picked up the wrong phial.”

The world is getting more complicated, and while there are some cases in which a non-career diplomat might be a better choice than a career diplomat, I think we really should start out from the point where this is the exception and not the default position, with ambassadorial posts being seen as the spoils of war for party lackeys and fund-raisers and now, even party employees.