People voted overwhelmingly for it just a few months ago... and they are getting it. A change in mentality, a change in attitude, a change in style, a change in method, and, screamingly obvious, a change in pace.

While there is always a breath of fresh air with a change of government anywhere in the world, whether it’s to the left or to the right of centre, what we are getting here is a hurricane. Such is the enormity of the drive and ambition of the new Joseph Muscat government when compared to the decadent final years of the Gonzi administration, caught as it was in the mud and muck of inertia, arrogance, corruption and self-destruction.

The energy sector is the intended prime beneficiary of this new enthusiasm. After all, the utility bills were a major issue even before the electoral campaign, and Labour was adamant in its insistence that people should be paying less for their water and electricity. Much of the new government’s credibility actually rests on the commitment to tackle the problem that has seen many families brought to their knees and, with them, the business community.

The vast majority of people could hardly avoid observing the contrast. What Joseph Muscat has done in a couple of months, his Nationalist predecessors did not even think of doing in 25 long years. Was it so difficult for Gonzi to strike a deal for cheaper oil from Libya, especially after having, it has to be recognised, successfully played Malta’s cards so well during the recent Libyan revolution? Or were there other “internal” forces working against any such development that could have avoided the horrific increases in utility rates?

Was it so difficult for Gonzi and his Napoleonic predecessor to seek an energy deal with China, the world’s future No.1 economy? Or were there other “internal” forces working against any such arrangement to save Enemalta from bankruptcy and total collapse?

Joseph Muscat has done them both in a matter of weeks and Labour has every right to feel confident it will keep its electoral promise. But of course he did not have any “internal forces” keeping him away from trying to achieve for the Maltese people the best possible energy prices and eco-based solutions. While we are used to often seeing electoral promises going up in smoke, here we have had an excellent example of instant commitment and determination. The stark contrast.

In the meantime, now we all know why the many years of laissez-faire and ineptitude before 9 March. The Public Accounts Committee meetings on the fuel-procurement business at Enemalta under Gonzi have confirmed many people’s suspicions that there may have been those who, for some undisclosed reason, were totally against any solution while they were raking in the millions.

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Inexplicable is the word

More on the PAC meetings and oil procurement. Defending the indefensible is impossible, even for the best legal minds, though of course they don’t mind trying. Certain comments and reactions that the PAC has been getting from that closed circle of Enemalta and Gonzi government officials involved in what has been rightly described as Malta’s worst ever political scandal, can hardly be taken seriously. Inexplicable is the word.

Here’s just one instance out of literally hundreds: “They were not minutes,” ex-Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter told the PAC, quickly adding: “I cannot understand who said that those notes were minutes. Such an interpretation is embarrassing.”

He was of course referring to the only records of decisions taken by the fuel procurement committee – which he led as chairman – and later found inside an Enemalta safe by the National Audit Office during its audit of the utility corporation’s fuel purchases.

It seems he was embarrassed by the fact that there were those who took scribbles and doodles for official minutes... not by the other more sombre fact that the nation’s millions were being spent without anyone bothering to keep a proper record of the proceedings. Inexplicable.

When you consider that every single committee on this island of committees, from band clubs and football clubs to festa organisations and parochial councils, is known to adhere to the healthy and transparent process of keeping minutes, the revelation that the fuel procurement committee did not, came as a shock to everyone except the few Nationalist apologists still thinking in pre-March 9 mode. Inexplicable.

Here we are talking of mere basics. If you go to an exam, you take your pen and ruler with you. If you go swimming, don’t forget your trunks. If you were going mountain climbing, ropes would come in handy. Committees-minutes/minutes-committees.

It is when you realise what was at stake – millions of euros out of honest taxpayers’ pockets – in the volatile business of fuel procurement that you become totally speechless, let alone angry. Maybe one is able to muster a single word: inexplicable.

Perhaps it is about time someone took a good look at the lifestyles and recent possessions and acquisitions of all those involved, from ministers to lowly clerks, in the Enemalta scandal.

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Space is also a consideration

In the ever-going debate on irregular immigration, there seem to be those who are unable to accept the fact that Malta’s problem is closely related to its population size and there have been arguments and comparisons involving places like Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden.

The question of “positive decisions to asylum claims” has also been turned into a convenient bone of contention with the use of much statistical data and more than an elastic rationale. But integration is not merely a way of squeezing in the thousands, more a social and educational process that has to be based on realistic and practical possibilities.

Space is the all-important prerequisite. Even Luxembourg, whose population is more or less similar to Malta’s, has a lot more territorial space where to take the new “citizens” to, let alone Italy and Sweden where population density is not exactly a matter of much concern.

I dare say Malta’s case is waterproof, even if rules and regulations have been leaking in rather worryingly for this tiny dot on the EU map that the Brussels bureaucrats often seem tempted to overlook.

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Washing that space

Washing that little space that we have seems to be a problem, though. Just back from a few days in Andalusia, I couldn’t help noticing the extremely efficient way they have to clean the streets and roads – including the most popular and pedestrian ones – of their villages and towns, as well as big cities like Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga.

You sleep, one sangria-filled night, and you then wake up to a clean, detergent-smelling outdoors environment. If they can do it, with so much more space to wash and to keep clean, why can’t we, at least the more popular, hence the dirtier, thoroughfares? And remember, we have lent Spain a few good millions as our share in the bailout arrangement!

Sadly, the public hygiene issue has for too long been something of a hot potato between central government and local councils. Perhaps it is about time some serious rethinking is done before the stench overwhelms us all.