The cryptic replies given by Peter Paul Zammit to the media, on interview of his role as Head of Security for International Events, sounds like a kindergarten ditty and could not be any more out of touch with the public then they are. The only information to come out of his jingle is that he answers to the Prime Minister and gets his orders from him.  If he cannot see how poorly this reflects on the OPM then he is really in first grade.

Naturally, the public will not ask for a list of files that he is dealing with or the persons and tactics involved in carrying out his work but it should be within his grasp to define the scope of  his job and give an account to the public of the purpose of his Scale 2 salary, amounting to a tidy €38,937.  Unless he is paid by a private corporation, it means he is a public servant – not a Joseph Muscat servant and he should be proud, if it is the case that he has been entrusted with high level security and the protection of individuals.  Or are those individuals only foreign dignitaries and applicants of Maltese Citizenship who require to skip customs on their way in to Malta or passing through Malta?

One may also enquire whether his job clashes or conflicts with that of the Army or of the Commissioner of Police.  Who now is actually responsible for decisions that can affect the security around us and during international events?  What personnel does he have to assign to various details?  What are his resources and where does he get them from?  Is he a de-facto Commissioner of Police?  Or head of a spy service?  Or is he a minion at the Office of the Prime Minister who has been given some Pink Panther task to keep him quiet?  If he is not capable of respecting the public enough to give them an account of his responsibilities and function, then the Minister of Home Affairs should step in and clarify for us on what it is that the Head of Security for International Events is actually assigned to do.

No less secretive is his boss, Joseph Muscat, who expects the public to be satisfied with a Not in the Public Interest reply.  The recent statement from the Minister of Finance about the €88 million loan security for Electrogas with BoV, saying that sharing the details of this would jeopardise the economy and create turmoil is revealing in itself, about how seriously the Prime Minister ought to be taking his account to the public of each and every person employed and each and every question raised by the media.   This grey area of dictatorship with a dose of liberalism is getting on everyone’s nerves and will consign the government back to the opposition or the dark days that this labour leader boasted were over and a thing of the past.  Very clearly they are not at all.

This can lose the next election for the PL or whatever they will call themselves next time round.  The method of corruption has now assumed a corporal figure and unless it goes onto a strict diet and some tough gym sessions, it is only likely to grow.   This figure of perceived corruption, though, is used by the government to lend authority to themselves.  Without confirming and without denying, they chose to leave themselves open to interpretation.  What they cannot achieve by their competence and commitment, they must somehow project by giving the impression that they are above the public and the arbitrary rule of law.  The de-merger of the environment from MEPA is the most complete example of this incompetence dressed as public interest.  The propping up of Electrogas and the power station image is also a gross failure assuming a disguise as a secret service 007 mission with Konrad Mizzi in the role of James Bond. 

The failure is leaking from everywhere now.  No thrillers from Zammit are going to keep it from sinking into people’s psyche that Malta is on the edge of reason.  From daily life on the buses, on the shut- down roads, on melting food in the fridge and perspiration rolling down our chest, to struggling businesses and hidden taxes, the realisation will dawn that we are quite scuppered.   As in the days of socialist Mintoff, jobs will be there just for the party’s chosen ones and a brain drain will surely occur as clear-thinking students will see that their future here is in jeopardy.  How many grandparents will have to wait for a few weeks in Summer to see their grandchildren from abroad?

For the sake of a clock, a €500 honoraria, shifting the immigrants problem onto Italy, a return to the Valletta bus terminus with the usual undisciplined drivers and paying lower electricity bills, the country now faces an even worse fate, with chronic risks to the economy, failure in most sectors, cultural and environmental degradation, in-fighting, and no one to blame it on after having been convinced that we are to be delivered from imminent death. 

Events will follow, to entertain the masses and take their mind off their sore heads, if not their hungry belly.  Expect staged parades in the way of CHOGM and the EU presidency to give the people some consolation that we are not fallen to the bottom of the pack.  If the monument of the gas power station has not yet risen, then some other grand monument will have to be erected – the communist wall at Marsamxetttorpedo depot is a taste of what is to come, along with the netball pitch in Castille square.  This will be followed by doles of cash and the undoing of all social and moral values – or those that are left, at any rate. 

By the time the conversion is complete, Malta will have become the dredge of Europe and its people will no longer remember what it is that they wanted for it.  Maybe Mr Zammit can find that file and stamp it with CONFIDENTIAL – Not in the people’s interest.

The Opposition cannot start too early to rally the people and fight for democracy and the way back to decent standards and normality.  Bring forward the vision, the energy, the style and trust that has been lost and lead our country to its rightful place amongst respected nations with a mind for what it needs to be coherent and consistent in the job, whilst never forgetting it too answers to the public.