We have had other problems, but we have never had this Carnival merry-go-round of political appointments to sensitive posts.

The country has become a huge meat market, with posts up for sale and given only or practically to those whose father is a canvasser of a minister, to those whose father is the Speaker and is owed somewhat, etc etc.

The attention by the public at large is exclusively related to the size of the package associated with the post, rarely with the qualifications of that person to the post, and never with relation as to what the appointee intends to do once he/she is in the post.

We seem to have stopped having a post advertised openly, a free and fair contest held, and a transparent competition resulting in a fair choice.

The government would probably rebut this is also what happened under PN. If that is the case, then it was wrong. But if our memory serves us right, the free and fair transparent process was the norm broken by some exceptions. What used to be an exception has now become the norm and what used to be the norm has now become the exception.

It seems this has become the be-all and end-all of political allegiance. People join a party not out of conviction, not out of love for the party’s colours, history, traditions, but so as to get something. And these people would generally have a clear and detailed idea what they want.

It is clear a country cannot be run this way. These people turn John F Kennedy’s maxim on its head: Ask not what the country needs, but what you want and get the country to give it to you.

So much fuss was made in the previous legislature because of the €600 a week raise the MP’s underhandedly gave themselves. But the charade has continued and grown worse in this legislature. We have been told of innumerable side packages offered to back-bench MPs, some of whom now have a package bigger than the prime minister’s one.

We repeat: it is not because these packages have been given to people with qualifications, who can contribute to the national cause. These packages are mainly sweeteners so as to keep them loyal, silent and obedient. The real decisions are taken elsewhere: all that these appointees have to do is to keep quiet and obey.

That is why, then, so many mistakes happen: because people who are manifestly out of their depth get things wrong, communication lines get crossed, wrong decisions are made and the government gets egg on its face.

Like this matter of the appointment of two magistrates, one of which at least should have been stopped at birth by someone who knows what the law says. So it was either that the person who took the decision did not know what the law says or else people in a subservient position were too afraid to point out to their political masters the blunder of the decision. Either way, the government was shown in a bad light as a government made up of amateurs. The government is fast becoming a symbol of incompetence.

Meanwhile, outside the door, the queue gets longer as more people queue up to get what they fervently believe is their due. In other times people kept boasting they too were at Tal-Barrani until it seemed not a single cat had been left at home on that day.

The simple truth is that no government can satisfy all the claimants. So the equally simple truth is soon the claimants outside in the queue will realize there is nothing left for them and that is when hope becomes anger and despair. Then they will list all the lucky ones who got this or that iced bun and ask why is it these got it and they got nothing.

Filling all available posts with party lackeys is a very stupid, short-term escamotage which ultimately is self defeating.