Like a well-trained group of recruits, the PL cabinet is steadily advancing with its roadmap for battle and conquest.  The field is mined and booby-trapped and strategic outposts are identified to offer positions for attack. 

Every soldier in the engineered new army that is the 2013 cabinet of Joseph Muscat is ready to carry out their part in ensuring the successful transformation of the grey austerity of Gonzi-PN into the look-how-its-done PL roadshow and servicing of the front and rear guard of Jobs Inc.

Ministry after ministry, corporation after Public Private Partnership, re-styledwork corps – every tool in the box has been used to gain maximum leverage over the pending jobs line.  From glorified watchmen and see-me-now boys to neutralising the arm of the PN in Brussels by placing there the very extreme opposites of previous administrators.  Who now in his right senses would want to have a job there, apart from the partners of the chosen ones?  The scene is set and the trumpets will sound – Labour is back. 

Like the clever administrator of the Bible, who planned his survival by writing down the debt of those who owed his master money, Muscat has ensured that there will be enough grateful debtors to cover any misdeeds on his part or that of his government’s, to see him last well into the next election and the one after that, or so they hope.

The jobs are coming fast and furious at the moment as the ranks of the Civil Service are bursting at the seams, so the new Fort Security Services is built to stock it with all the watchmen and drivers and loaders that it can take.  In the meantime, every ministry is tasked with reviewing the public corporations in their administration, to find every possible pocket of employment for the revivals of the past, the names on the list and across the shallow divide. 

The focus is on new projects that can be turned into job machines, not for production and economic benefit but for the recruitment of staff.The latest scheme is The Hub.  We will have a hub for education, a hub for maritime services, a hub for medical tourism, a hub for trauma treatment and so on.  At whatever cost.  In the past they criticized “money no problem” when it came to building infrastructure and investing in education and new businesses. Now its “money no problem” without the investment and returns.  Like multi-corporations that use loopholes to transfer their money and avoid paying tax where it is due.  Just spending other people’s money.  Give back a VAT receipt on a car whilst burdening the country with running the cars of those who won’t pay for them. Easy.

Something that was missing under the PN administration was a mind for jobs for unskilled workers.  All the qualified found jobs in Brussels and Luxembourg, in new IT and gaming business, in scientific and technologically advanced jobs and professional services.  Small business flourished too.  But those who had previously worked in the hotels and catering business of tourism, or the state enterprises, now redundant, no longer found these jobs available or bothered to do them themselves.  Foreigners quickly came in to take their place and that sealed the deal whereby Maltese school leavers and the ETC candidates, now had nowhere to turn to for an ordinary job. 

During the 2013 election campaign Dr Gonzi had warned that Malta would be needing 25,000 jobs to cater for the new school leavers and job seekers.  But as hopes for a job with the government were fading into the horizon and speaking English and being willing to work were not on their list of qualifications, the jobbers turned to the old faithful, the red soldier of steel and drew their card.

Employing all the promised ones became a major task and for a while it seemed that some hope was lost that all would succeed in gaining their wish but as all the stops were pulled and all the recruits at Castille tasked with presenting their plan for battle, the crises was averted, unemployment came plummeting down and Hamrun breathed a sigh of relief.

What this will do for the future of the economy of the country should be the urgent subject of debate and policy for the PN shadow ministers for Education and Employment and that of the minister for Economic Affairs.  We have a perfect example before us in Greece and the result of excessive demands on the state coffers. This is what the media has to say about Greece:

“Revolving conservative and socialist governments never told them that they would need to learn how to fly by their own means; never attempted to make any sort of structural reforms that would transform the state-owned economy into an open one; never combated corruption; never fought for transparency, efficiency and meritocracy in public administration; and never abandoned a system where government officials promised jobs for votes.”Even now, on the edge of bankruptcy, the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras refuses to relinquish control over the public sector and allow the free market to find its own feet.  In time, there will be a realization here too, that this model is not sustainable.  Lucky for Malta, the previous administration did all it could to combat those very issues which are stalking us and Greece, today.

While constant and determined attention must be paid at all times to ensuring that jobs are not just there for professionals and skilled workers, but also for those whose circumstances, inclinations and ambitions do not drivethem to seek front line work, it is irresponsible to simply force them onto the public payroll, not just for now but also for their continued cost and their pensions.

In the same way that we try to sort the economic migrants from the genuine refugees and seek to send back the former, many of the jobs handed out have gone to not just the deserving but also to the economic jobbers who find having a job with the government so much more convenient than having to compete on the private sector market.

Once they are pacified in this way, there is no way you can retrain them to think differently and stand on their own feet.  They will forever expect a job to be there for them, one that has clear parameters, such as vote for so and so and your job is safe.  After that, its summer and half days are here and the boat houses call. 

Off to the beach we go.