Alfred Fiorini Lowell

The practice in the Maltese civil service, inherited from its respected UK counterpart before Independence, has always been for civil servants, particularly those in higher positions, not to participate publicly in matters of political controversy.

I have served my country throughout a 45-year career within the Malta Public Service, from which I retired as Secretary to the Cabinet, and over a further seven years as Chairman of the Public Service Commission before fully bowing out of public life in 2010. During that time, even after I had retired, I scrupulously respected the civil service rule — at times against my strong inklings to the contrary.

What is happening to my beloved country, however, now that we are on the eve of a forced general election, as a result of what often appear to be incredibly perverted and irresponsible actions of the current administration, leaves me with no alternative but to abandon convention and publicly declare my position and my serious concerns over what is happening.

I am not a politician. I have, however, worked closely with many politicians, usually ministers, including but not limited to the six years I served as Secretary to the Cabinet. I have seen, recorded and helped implement many good and often far-reaching decisions by the politicians I worked alongside, which have resulted in the allso-visible progression of my country from a third-world developing one to an active partner of the top-level countries in the European Union, with the resultant strengthening of our democratic institutions and the exponential improvement in the quality of life of the Maltese people as a whole.

Like all of us, politicians and ministers are human beings. As such, they also are prone to making mistakes and to taking wrong decisions. I have inevitably, therefore, also been witness to such faults. However, all in all, I can say that I have been proud to have worked alongside many genuine politicians and minsters who, with all their human frailties, had the genuine interest and progress of their country as their overriding objective, and who had the vision — so visibly lacking nowadays — which is essential in planning the future in the different sectors of our society.

What has been happening in government in recent years is something which is completely different to what went on before, and something which I personally never witnessed anything like in all my years of service under thirteen administrations and six prime ministers of different political persuasion.

Regrettably, over the last years I have followed, from the comfort of retirement, the weakening and corruption of many of the Malta’s institutions — including the civil service I served for all my working life — while the future of Malta is now being put at serious risk.

The usual mix of the good and bad decisions taken by successive governments in the past have been overshadowed by a system of often underhand decisions and actions by a few politicians that could only raise suspicions of selfseeking corruption on an unprecedented and massive scale to the detriment of all of us Maltese. This has in turn resulted in a clear falling of standards generally and, even more troubling, in the serious weakening of our democratic heritage, not to mention the humiliating tarnishing time and time again of our country’s image abroad. The anger with which normal Maltese citizens from all walks of life have, over the past three or four years, witnessed this ongoing rape of their country was, and still is, an often palpable anger accompanied by a sense of helplessness. Ironically, or perhaps providentially, the sudden calling of a general election offers a way out of the situation.

I believe that it is no cliché to state that Malta is now at a critical crossroad in its proud history. The choice in the coming election is not as it has normally hitherto been; whether to vote in favour of the Red, Blue, Green or (now) Orange factions. Today it is simply either to support what looks like the probability of a spiralling descent into the unknown under ‘a government of the same’, or to vote in favour of stopping of the country’s haemorrhage, a return to normality and a resumption of Malta’s progress as a modern, democratic Country. I believe that within this context, the battle cry ‘ Jien nagħżel Malta’ is very apt. This article was penned my article on 24 May, before the Russian debacle and this newspaper’s more recent disclosures.

 

Mr Fiorini Lowell has served in the following positions: Chairman PSC - 2003 to 2010 Cabinet Secretary - 1998 to 2003 Permanent Secretary Housing and Local Government - 1996 to 1998 Cabinet Secretary - 1995 Permanent Secretary Education - 1992 to 1995

He was also Joint Private Secretary to Prime Minister Fenech Adami from 1987 to 1989.

In the earlier part of his career he served, among others, as Secretary to the Contracts Committee - 1965 to 1968 - and Assistant Secretary to the Robens Commission in 1968 to 1969