You just have to laugh. The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association bought into the Taghna Lkoll project before the last general election because they were promised cheaper water and electricity bills. The cheaper bills haven’t materialised, the floating gas storage unit is going to be a major tourist attraction out in the bay, that tourism outsider Gavin Gulia was made chairman of the Malta Tourism Organisation and now, Josef Formosa Gauci, the MTA CEO who is much respected in the industry, has handed in his resignation because he can’t take it anymore. Clearly, he has been forced out to clear the way for some Taghna Biss appointee.

Has the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association raised its voice in concern? If it has, I missed it. The last time the MHRA made its voice heard in public it was, once more, in favour of something Joseph Muscat had done or said: selling passports. The ‘Maltese citizenship for sale’ scheme, the Prime Minister boasted at a press conference, had been agreed with, among other lick-spittle organisations like the Chamber of Commerce in its current incarnation, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association. And you just had to wonder, of course, what the MHRA had to do with the sale of passports. Maybe they thought the sudden influx of new Maltese citizens from Kajikistan and Saudi Arabia would mean more money spent in their hotels and restaurants? No. I think they were just sucking up, yet again – and asked by the Prime Minister for their backing, they scurried forward on their bellies.

Now where there’s a real issue that concerns the hotel industry, they keep quiet. We don’t want to offend Joseph and the Forty Thieves, do we? I must say, though, that the MHRA issued a statement expressing its “reservations” when the newspaper owned by the General Workers Union, l-orizzont (its Sunday sister, It-Torca, is edited by a rabid Communist who uses the twin symbols of communism as his profile picture on Facebook) went for Formosa Gauci’s jugular back in January. You could see the lie of the land already then. When parts of the Labour media are used to attack individuals you know for sure that their days are numbered because there’s somebody who’s gunning for them personally or because they want their job. This is how Labour operates.

The Malta Association for Hospitality Executives, though, has spoken out, expressing concern yesterday evening not so much about the fact that Formosa Gauci has resigned (they seem to understand that he no longer wants to stay in that environment) but as to who will replace him. Major non-Maltese tour operators, the association said, are asking concerned questions about his resignation and have particularly taken note of the attacks on him in the Labour-leaning media. The statement said: “Mr Formosa Gauci has always been praised by the industry for his in-depth knowledge and close contacts with key stakeholders that form the tourism industry both locally and internationally. He was always considered a team member rather than boss, who had only the best interest for the industry.”

Finding a new CEO is not going to be easy, the association said. That’s not what the government thinks. Finding CEOs and directors and such is always easy for them because being fit for purpose is not a requirement. The Labour Party has always regarded key positions of responsibility as part of the spoils of war, and not positions of responsibility at all, but rather perks and privileges. So they fill them with inept and incompetent party favourites and court jesters, believing that the set-up can run itself. This is the thinking that permeates all the way through. It is the reason why the Labour Party and its supporters dismissed and belittled all the achievements of previous Nationalist governments and the chairmen and directors and other corporate leaders who strove to pull Malta out of the mess in which successive Labour governments left it. They actually think that the job did itself, by magic, and had little or nothing to do with the people involved.

The Malta Association of Hospitality Executives thinks it will be hard to find a new CEO only because it believes the new CEO should be, like his or her predecessor, a “knowledgeable person who understands and feels passionate about tourism and hospitality”. The government does not believe the same thing. If it did, it would not have put its machine in motion to force Josef Formosa Gauci out.

 

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