The year has got off to a grand start. Aaron Farrugia, poor lost soul in our soulless world, was given his marching orders by the Prime Minister. A new man is in – some other superman – to fix it all for us inferior beings of this galaxy: transport, infrastructure and public works.
Poor Aaron. Unlike the biblical Aaron with his miraculous rod which could solve all ills and problems, our own Aaron was a walking, sleeping, dazzling disaster. The more he tried the worse it all got and now only miracles can ever get us out of the messes he, and his predecessors, has put us in.
It is the turn of Chris Bonett to take over and wave his magic wand. Should we all applaud Robert Abela, our own wizard of outstanding capability, for having axed Aaron Farrugia from his cabinet?
Ever since the Labour Party was voted in by a landslide over a decade ago, the situation on our roads has gone from pathetic to tragic. The roads, the infrastructure, the public works, road management, public transport, are in such shambles, in such dire straits, that it can’t be just the doing of one minister, however incompetent.
Aaron was bad. But all around him, all the ministers, all their teams, all their plans and idiocies, all their grand schemes, these are all to blame. Foremost of the ones to blame is the prime minister himself, who has never tried to understand or tackle the situation which gets worse on a daily basis.
The roads are a disaster. The pavements, if existent, are half unusable; signage is terrible; traffic is slowly grinding to a halt everywhere. There is a lack of safety that should scare us into action especially seeing the number of accidents that happen. Most of Malta faces interminable roadworks, road diversions, congestion and terrible air quality.
If we imagine all this is Aaron’s fault, we should have our thinking capacities checked. Granted that the guy is useless. His decisions, his leadership, his ideas, are, if at all extant, beyond poor. But the onus of the whole shambles, the whole mess we are all in, rests on the entire army of bigwigs making up this government.
If Aaron, poor guy, is out, the rest of his colleagues and all those involved in this country’s infrastructure and vision should also be out. Out, preferably in some remote island where they will not be allowed to administer anything.
Poor, poor Aaron. He shouldered the blame for all that is wrong with the country’s roads. Someone asked if this minister was sacked because he is involved in some scandal. Since when is a scandal – the bigger the better, in Labour’s topsy-turvy world – enough to sack anyone?
A day after he sacked Aaron, Robert Abela addressed a Labour Party activity and actually praised Joseph Muscat, calling him ‘sieħbi’ (my friend). Muscat is the former prime minister who was meant to make Malta shine more brightly than anything in the world and ended up shining a light on us as a nation best known for our mafia ways, the murder of a journalist, corruption, cover-ups and scandals. A scandal, surely, couldn’t have marked Aaron out as the sacrificial lamb.
In one of his farcical feats of word play, Robert Abela said that he had sacked Aaron even though the former Transport minister was amazingly competent.
Faced with the ongoing reality that the Labour Party will be in power for quite a while, the least they can do is accept that they have failed in this aspect and take action. Proper, lasting, long-term action. They have all failed as a group, so taking decisions on a whim about the way forward will be useless.
They need to set aside pride, get real experts on board, open discussions with all stakeholders, find out the needs and problems of all users, and work out a way forward not for a quick solution but one with a vision behind it. This vision has to be long-term, not tied to political gains or money-grabbing, and be embraced by everyone involved in the roads.
Until this happens, until a proper way is found to make our roads not just safe but a joy to walk in, to cycle through, to breathe in and finally – but not most importantly – to drive in, our land will remain a jungle of cars, fumes and naturally concomitant anger.
If Robert Abela still refuses to implement this, no sacking of competent Aarons will solve any problem.
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