Minister for IT and Investment Austin Gatt is pretty unique in Maltese politics. He is the only politician around who has become more popular by making himself practically invisible in the popular media, more politically credible by self-professing his own arrogance and more respected by sometimes being rude – indeed he is the only local politician who can get away with being rude. In terms of political image building I think that his self-branding has been a success.

He has also managed to position himself on a different plateau to his Cabinet colleagues by creating the impression that he is more of a business turnaround specialist than just a politician – a cross between Gianfranco Fini and Jack Welch. His image as the national champion behind major information and communication technology initiatives, as well as that now famous photo shoot with the richest bloke on the planet, have definitely sealed his position as the most focused, determined and hardest-working minister around.

However, as far as the Greens are concerned, politics is just a bit more than image-building. Furthermore, we live by the saying that “one must respect hard work, but should only award performance.” The purpose of this article, therefore, is to look at the performance behind the image.

After the 2003 election, Dr Gatt was thrown in at the deep end. He was entrusted with a portfolio of government investments that since the first Nationalist administration had been allowed to rot, many a time in secret. The job is certainly hard – and one that I do not envy. Unfortunately, the legacy left by ex-Minister Josef Bonnici was not one on which Minister Gatt could build.

With the assistance of some clever propaganda in his party’s media, usually involving the repeated use of the word “sostenibbli” (sustainable), Minister Gatt embarked on a number of so-called restructuring exercises, PN-style. Apart from the one at Air Malta on which I hold my judgement, these exercises have involved either paying employees – with our taxes – to leave loss-making government companies or transferring employees from one government entity to another (or, worse still, to the civil service) or a combination of the two. We have witnessed this happening at Malta Drydocks and PBS, and I believe we will see a few more in the very near future – but not in the 12 months prior to the next election, however.

With the Drydocks case in particular, apart from the early retirement of many, we saw the setting up of a new company that would absorb employees who did not tick the “early-retirement” box – all 900 of them. The solution was transferring their payroll cost on the Drydocks books’ onto those of the government. What these people are doing remains a national State secret to this day. What they should be doing is what was recommended in the Appledore report, ie building a few hundred thousand solar panels to cover all our rooftops. Here was a unique chance to establish a workable public-private-partnership, that would have given these people a real job, gradually lowered our dependence on fossil fuels, given good returns to a consortium of local entrepreneurs and benefited our environment.

Why didn’t Dr Gatt implement the recommendation in the Appledore report? Why was a good idea binned? My guess is that he did not travel down this road because this report was commissioned by Labour’s short-lived administration. How could a government that needs every single last vote to win the next election, ever give even the tiniest credit to Labour for such a smart suggestion? There is a not-too-polite Maltese version of the saying “cut off your nose to spite your face” that fits this attitude so well.

It is the same reasoning that Labour took in the 1970s when an utterly foolish decision was taken to stop the Regional Road project in Msida rather than continuing the road all the way down to Marsa, as it is today.

It is a mutually destructive culture that both Labour and PN share – one that is responsible for the economic and political coma our country is experiencing. A change in this country’s electoral system that enables the building of political alliances is the only thing that can change this destructive culture. There is another Maltese saying about how a pot should stand that comes to mind.

There was more to the down-sizing of PBS, the one that NET TV calls “restructuring”, than meets the eye. It is indisputable that PBS was over-staffed with both Labour and PN sympathisers. The minister could no longer tolerate and explain a staff list that included messengers in the age of the email, porters in the age of electric doors and layers of middle managers in the age of flat management structures – granted.

However in a European democracy it is not acceptable that the company responsible for public broadcasting is short of journalists. Believe you me, PBS journalists have to work at the speed of light to do their job and they are having to compromise journalistic quality that I am sure they are capable of providing.

Too many times during the local council elections campaign, PBS would send just a cameraman to an Alternattiva Demokratika press conference – no journalist would attend. So much for the pluralism, democracy and constitutional provisions regarding balance in the media we were all promised before the referendum.

The PBS exercise was as much an ideological-cum-commercial ploy as a cost-cutting measure. Let me give you the Green version of the story. TVM is a commercial organisation with two major competitors in the local marketplace – one called NET TV and the other SUPER 1 TV. It so happens that both stations are owned by… get it? Need I say more? Can you read, albeit in very small letters: “Conflict of Interest”? Do you now realise why the downsizing of PBS was not the subject of nagging big-time by the opposition? Have the government and opposition found an issue on which to build political consensus here?

The reforms at Gozo Channel may just work. However, Dr Gatt’s recent comments on the viability of the transport link to Gozo were somewhat threatening and out of place. I am sure that, as a Gozitan, he understands that the company is not just a commercial operation. Unlike other government entities, an option to close down Gozo Channel cannot even be contemplated. Even if the reforms are successful, the company may still need government subsidies in order to offer its services at a socially acceptable price. Gozo’s geographical insularity is not something a restructuring exercise, however brilliant, can eliminate.

“Austin Gatt jahdem, jiddeciedi u jipperformja” (“Austin Gatt works, decides and performs”) is an utterance I often hear. It is perhaps a subconscious comparative assessment that people make when they compare him with the other members of the Cabinet. They most probably assume that the others don’t work that hard, never decide and cannot perform.

Even I thought Minister Gatt had these qualities, until the fiasco of the last two months that is. It is now rather disappointing to note that the man who has made it his political mission to give this country broadband Internet, was not able to take proper and prompt responsibility for two months of complete failure in the delivery of bottled gas, during what is the coldest winter in living memory. Enemalta ain’t as glamorous and as reliable as Microsoft, I’m afraid.

The many attempts to shift the blame onto everyone else was very short-sighted, devoid of leadership and, in the case of the guys who deliver gas (in some cases up never-ending flights of stairs in some block of flats in Minister Gatt’s very own Valletta), grossly unfair. By all means discuss the solutions to the problem, but take responsibility for it. In this country, people’s anger will no longer be appeased by a belated “Sorry”. In the Green book it is OK to fail; it is unforgivable to refuse to admit to and learn from failure.

During this farce, which for some turned into a mini personal tragedy, Dr Gatt was unable to distinguish himself from the typical crass attitude of his government – that of denying everything unfavourable that happens. Good leaders show their mettle under pressure. Instead of taking charge of the situation, Minister Gatt took refuge behind his party’s spin machine that worked tirelessly to remind us of the flour queues of the 1970s, and the blackouts of the 1980s. This behaviour is frankly insulting. Are we to assume that our government has no intention of benchmarking its performance on the European standards we were promised? Is the government measuring itself with KMB or the EU?

Our ministers relish hosting (or rather dominating) press conferences during which they announce even the tiniest speck of good news for which others have worked. When bad news must be delivered they all retire into their hole, shielded by a mini-army consisting of press secretaries, bullet-taking parliamentary secretaries, personal assistants and ultra-loyal chief executives.

The chairman of Enemalta did offer his resignation – a very unique and laudable act. Minister Gatt refused his resignation. By doing so the minister has assumed some responsibility for the fiasco. During this time the regulator responsible, the Malta Resources Authority, took no responsibility. The country demands an investigation by the regulator. Next time this thing happen, heads should roll – if necessary, even the minister’s.

Despite the above criticism, Dr Gatt still remains the government’s best minister, their best performer. What I still cannot understand today is why, with his reputation and record, did Minister Gatt not take a shot at his party’s leadership. Something tells me, however, that his fighting spirit is more suited to another job – that of leader of the opposition.

Edward Fenech is spokesman on Finance,

Economic Affairs and Tourism for Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party