Transport reform was not exactly the last Nationalist government's finest hour. A PN MP who criticises Labour on public transport needs to be sure of what she's saying. But the Minister of Transport, Joe Mizzi, makes it easy.
We've all lost count of the number of ministers and cronies with their hands deep inside the state's cookie jars. When it comes to incompetence, however, it's Joe Mizzi who takes the biscuit.
The man acts like a floor supervisor or a shop steward, not like a minister. His flippant talk of solutions before the last election, and even the one before that (2008), were often ridiculed, not least his theories on oil exploration.
We all thought it was April Fool's day when, on Monday 1 April 2013, it was announced that the Mizzi in Cabinet running the oil search on our behalf would be Joe, not Konrad, the actual energy minister.
Joe Mizzi is in fact responsible for Transport and Infrastructure. A quick glance at his mission statement on the gov.mt portal immediately raises questions:
"To promote and develop the transport sector in Malta by means of proper regulation and by the promotion and development of related services, businesses and other interests, both locally and internationally and to enable the effective implementation of programmes and capital infrastructural projects which fall within the remit of the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure."
OK, this isn't the first mission statement to sound big and momentous while not saying much at all. But now take the next couple of sentences: "The Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure is committed to continually improve on the services it offers."
Given that commitment, we have the right to ask: Just where is the improvement on public transport? Has traffic management improved? What about road works and projects?
In Opposition, Joseph Muscat and his cronies had a field day with public transport. Is transport any better today?
My constituents in St Paul's Bay and Mellieha tell me that, transportation-wise, this summer was a total disgrace. The list of problems is never ending: long queues at bus stops, no air-conditioning on buses, no access for the disabled and elderly, etc.
Meanwhile, there are bus drivers complaining of being left idle. And it's all costing us around three times as much as before in public subsidies.
In November last year, Joe Mizzi had said that he will be exploring new means of transport like an underground, monorail and sea transport. Can't he first get the buses right? We'd be a lot more confident about his ability to manage the other systems.
What about the new parliament project? When did Joe Mizzi really get to know that he had everything under control?
In July 2014, during a visit to the site, he told the Speaker of the House that work was on schedule and in time to be used after the summer recess. A mere few weeks later, he somehow realised that he actually has no clue as to what is really going on with this project. All we know is that works will not be finished on time. We have no idea when the project will be completed. Definitely not in time for next week's parliamentary sittings.
Another year, another April Fool's joke. On 1 April 2014, Joe Mizzi announced in Parliament, while replying to a parliamentary question by Toni Bezzina, that he has an "inside man" reporting to him who stationed on the oil rig which was carrying out test drills 150km south of Malta. At the time, the man for the job was yet to be identified but the Minister felt it was great to boast about it in parliament.
Why does the Prime Minister therefore humour him? Mediocre dilettantism and sheer incompetence are Joe Mizzi's signature traits. Maybe that's his star quality in Joseph Muscat's eyes: Mizzi is the useful fool who distracts us from the incompetence and mediocrity of the other ministers. And when the time comes to offer the public a scapegoat, Muscat has an inside man who is ideal. No doubt, even as preparations for the sacrifice are made, Muscat will boast about him in Parliament.
Claudette Buttigieg MP - [email protected], twitter: @ButClaudette