All these letter writers showing their bleeding hearts in the newspapers because of Richard Cachia Caruana’s ousting, ignore one significant point: the patrician Mr Cachia Caruana was not a civil servant in the traditional sense of what a civil servant is, he was a political appointee, with political connections and duties, and enormous power that he wielded against whomsoever he decided, for valid and, I can guess, invalid reasons.

If there was any doubt about that, the Prime Minister’s reply to a parliamentary question requesting information that the government has found embarrassing to reveal, proves it. Mr Cachia Caruana, the reply clearly says, is/was no ordinary civil servant. Neither is/was he an ordinary ambassador.

Of course not. Those who claim the Labour Party did wrong to single out a “civil servant” need to re-adjust their thinking.

Senior civil servants are not usually political players. They usually remain behind the scenes. They advise, but do so behind closed doors. They usually work their way up the ranks of the civil service. They do not wield power to the enormous extent that Mr Cachia Caruana did. They are not, after all, political party strategists. I do not know how many of them, if any, would be involved in political campaigns.

Mr Cachia Caruana was a highly visible political animal. He exuded politics in all he did. And his brand of politics was, and obviously remains, Nationalist, which made him a legitimate target for the Labour opposition.

By playing partisan politics, Mr Cachia Caruana raised his head above the parapet, so he should have expected to be shot at. As, indeed, he was. And hit.

The power he wielded derived not from his intelligence or ability, which he had to a huge extent, but from the blind trust the government’s leaders, Eddie Fenech Adami, and, after him, Lawrence Gonzi, bestowed so generously on him, and which Mr Cachia Caruana used to the full.

That wide use of the power he had reflects badly not only on him, but also on his masters, who let him wield that power without hindrance, who did not rein it in, they did not check it. Dr Fenech Adami especially, and Dr Gonzi to some extent, were content to sit back and let him do their dirty work for them, and there was a lot of dirty work to be done. Mr Cachia Caruana did their dirty work efficiently, if not with gusto. And some of his own dirty work too, I imagine. He must have had some scores to settle.

Unfortunately for Mr Cachia Caruana, he was not so intelligent as to realise he was making enemies in using that power with such abandon. And that one of those enemies was bound, one day, to break loose, in the way things go. As an enemy did, indeed, to such devastating effect.

I remember in particular one lunch that I had, together with other journalists, with Dr Fenech Adami. The occasion was the CHOGM in Harare, Zimbabwe. I think it was 1991. Dr Fenech Adami always invited the accompanying media entourage to a meal, as his guests. It was the public purse that paid, of course. This lunch in particular was taken at the Harare Hilton.

For some time before lunch was served, the tension at this table – it was round, and huge, accommodating all of us – could be cut with a knife. The dissension, very polite, very civil, just an undercurrent, but, oh so thick, was between Mr Cachia Caruana and Dr Fenech Adami’s Foreign Minister, the late Guido de Marco.

I do not know what the cause of the dissension was, but there was something that had happened. Prof. de Marco was using a chummy tone with Dr Fenech Adami, calling him “Dward” and “Dwardu”. His tone was of the playfully pleading sort. He was seeking support and trying not to show it.

Dr Fenech Adami held back, aloof. He did not want to be involved. Prof. de Marco’s tone was not finding any resonance with him. It was obvious that Dr Fenech Adami did not want to take sides. He obviously did not want to appear to be siding against his foreign minister, but his hatchet man was too valuable to offend. So Dr Fenech Adami did not take sides against Mr Cachia Caruana who, to be fair, did not intervene in such a way as to ask for support, furtively or obviously. Mr Cachia Caruana merely stood his ground against the foreign minister. Politely.

But that – Dr Fenech Adami not at all reining in, or showing displeasure with, his personal assistant, mildly, or obtusely or in whichever way – displayed a significant lack of support for the foreign minister.

The matter passed on. I cannot recall if Prof. de Marco seemed at all miffed. I don’t think so, he was too cultured to let a thing like that show.

Dr Gonzi has been embarrassingly supportive of Mr Cachia Caruana, showering him with praise for his efforts “for the country”. In Parliament, everyone on the government’s benches who spoke, apart from Dr Pullicino Orlando, expressed admiration for the “ambassador”. The obsequiousness must have intoxicated Mr Cachia Caruana.

Why shouldn’t Mr Cachia Caruana do something for his country – the country has been very generous with him. To the tune of Lm30,000 compensation for a knife attack, for instance. Which has never been irrefutably proved, as far as I know, to have had anything at all to do with his job. Which probably it had.

But, if linked to the job, it could have been someone getting his back for a backstabbing – real or imaginary – by Mr Cachia Caruana. If it was the result of an act of ill intent by the Prime Minister’s personal assistant, the Lm30,000 would not have been merited. We do not know. But Mr Cachia Caruana got the money, anyway. He was the protégé of the Prime Minister.

The country has also showered salaried bounty on Mr Cachia Caruana. By golly, he is made a millionaire. Because he worked “for the country”. No wonder the government withheld as long as it could details of Mr Cachia Caruana’s earnings from his posting in Brussels. No wonder Mr Cachia Caruana, having been forced to resign, is looking like a headless chicken. That was a valuable nest to lose.

The sum total of those earnings are proving nearly as embarrassing as the €500 a week increase the Cabinet awarded itself behind the people’s backs. It is a Cabinet, let us not forget, which has driven us into a recession, and a bottomless pit of public debt.

The question I would now like to be answered is: is there anyone in government who earned more than Mr Cachia Caruana?