Friday’s honours list pointed to the confusion and dishonesty in the Labour government’s thinking and propaganda. It is obvious that certain individuals, most particularly the transsexual Joanne Cassar and the student editor Mark Camilleri, were honoured at the Prime Minister’s behest not so much because of what they did in the service of the Republic – what exactly did they do in the service of the Republic? – but because of what they did to help him and his party make it to government. Both Joanne Cassar and Mark Camilleri campaigned actively for Muscat and the Labour Party, gave prominent testimonials and appeared in Labour Party campaign activities. Muscat probably also thinks that honouring them in this manner makes him and his government look hip, progressive and liberal, when it has had the opposite effect. It has made him seem shallow and ridiculous. This is the effect of the shift from Opposition to government and has apparently taken some getting used to, because Labour still seems to believe that what worked for it in Opposition will continue to work for it in government. It does not.

Exactly what did Joanne Cassar do to merit this honour? The Department of Information press release says that she campaigned to have the law changed to allow transsexuals to marry in their assigned, not birth, gender. But did she really do that? Ms Cassar pursued her cause so as to be able to marry Gentleman X. By the time she was through, Gentleman X had long left the scene and she is now engaged to be married to Gentleman Y. Her achievement was not the result of her pursuit of the cause through the courts, which was unsuccessful, but through her pursuit of Joseph Muscat, who in the thick of an election campaign saw in her an electoral opportunity and the means to target his rival Lawrence Gonzi, putting about the lie that it was Gonzi himself, rather than the Public Registrar and the courts – separation of powers, remember – who had declared that Ms Cassar could not marry as a woman because she had been born a man. Did Muscat actually care about Ms Cassar and her desires? I hardly think so.

It was the same with Mark Camilleri. He did nothing to deserve inclusion in the Republic Day honours list. He published a piece of crass fiction in his university magazine, thinking little or nothing of it beyond his feeling of being daring, and the next thing he knew, he faced criminal prosecution. Suffice it to say that if he knew beforehand that he faced prosecution for publishing that piece, he probably would have saved himself the trouble and not have published it at all. But once he did face prosecution, and the police came calling, he turned himself into a cause, set up the Front Kontra Ic-Censura, and allowed the Labour Party to make him yet another rallying point against the PN government. How this can possibly be considered worthy action in the service of the republic is anybody’s guess. But the fact that Mr Camilleri then went on to give testimonials for the Labour Party and for Labour candidate Owen Bonnici, announcing that he was going to vote Labour and why, is probably what swung the balance in his favour with Muscat.

That’s one part of it. Then we have the inherent contradictions in the honours list. Muscat acts out the role of liberal progressive by putting Ms Cassar and Mr Camilleri on the list, then includes, in the same list, one of Vladimir Putin’s political colleagues, a former Russian ambassador to Malta, who is notorious at home and in the European press for her homophobia and her drive to introduce widespread legislation which clamps down on the rights and freedoms of homosexuals. Beyond this contradiction, we also have to ask why Valentina Matvienko was included in Muscat’s list. She was ambassador to Malta two decades ago, yet the Department of Information press release says that she has been honoured because of her commitment to furthering relations between Russia and Malta. Why would she be working to further those relations, and in what way is she doing this? There is more than a whiff of underhand business interests there.

But there’s more. While environment and heritage groups are up in arms about the government’s stance on planning and development, and its unsavoury associations with developers, and they demonstrated in Valletta last week to make the point, Muscat disingenuously included Astrid Vella of Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, and Lino Bugeja of the Ramblers Association in his honours list. More disingenuously still, both of them accepted the honour and turned up with pleasure to the ceremony. It was a ridiculous sight, and it was blatantly obvious that these two particular ‘environmental campaigners’ had, again, been selected not for their environmental work but for their perceived direct or indirect assistance in helping Muscat to power. There are other, better campaigners in the field who were not selected for honours, but then these did not spend a great deal of time communicating the message, whether intentionally or otherwise, that gOnzIPn was the pits.

 

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