The recent prime ministerial visit to Singapore, accompanied by public official Keith Schembri and Minister Konrad Mizzi signifies the style and substance of this very amateur government.

In truth there is no more of Government of Malta in the visit than there is water in the desert.  The capacity of their visit is more within the strategy of a failing business trying to keep its creditors off its back and making a show of integrity and strength of influence, rather than to serve the country and its people.

It is also another form of rebuke to the critics of the energy plan that was never presented as installing a Floating Storage Unit, in the electoral campaign.

There is not one whit of bother by Muscat and his insiders to not draw attention to the subject of corruption arising from putting Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri back in the spotlight and launching that beast which will dominate the once pretty bay in Marsaxlokk because of a perverse sense that this very rebuke is what the people should be fed and what he delivers.  On the contrary. It is a form of rehabilitation, a graduation after completing a course on a bad habit.

It gives the finger to anyone who thinks that doing politics honestly is held in any regard by Labour or its supporters and possibly a good portion of the public in general.  The evidence is floating.  Right there in the middle of the bay, indifferent to any danger, lack of impact assessments, eyesore or any other label.

As they pose for pictures and issues press releases, the image of a CEO and his Marketing Chiefs makes the newspapers and online portals.  Keith Schembri was excused of any wrong doing by Joseph Muscat on the premise that he is a private successful business man.  By extension, Dr Muscat and Konrad Mizzi are also ipso facto business men in Singapore to close a deal and consequently corruption does not apply to them because they are private business men doing what they know how to do best – make money and hide it.  This is, besides anything else, unfair to honest business men and women who pay their taxes and work by the law and regulations.

Any old enterprise will do.  This one happens to be the energy plan of Malta for the next 18 years.  In reality it could have been sewage treatment or dismantling Mdina stone by stone and having the Chinese rebuild it.  This one, the power station debacle, was a nice off the shelf project which could be designed to look necessary and important and amounted to selling ice to an Eskimo, seeing as the PN had just finished implementing the long term integral energy plan for Malta and so had the added bonus of spitting in the face of Dr Gonzi. So, even a good laugh was ensured.

And that is how we speculate the mood of the visit to Singapore to be – a free trip on the back of the people, publicity and buddies having a laugh at the expense of the country.

Anything that can generate commissions or funds is commercialised and the latest account of medical visas being issued for hefty commissions is just another division of the company. 

It makes you wonder why the Government of Malta does not come right out and say that it wants to cooperate and extend preferential visas to people of North Africa – mostly Libya and Algeria, in the way that the EU was going to arrange visas for Turkish people, in return for cooperation on the migrant issue?  Simply put, there would be no cash generated in doing it that way.  7,000 visas to Algerians in a year and a half and the issuing of 14,000 residence permits to Libyan nationals in the space of a year and now the €38,000 worth of medical visas is worth much more as a clandestine affair than as a legitimate agreement.

Much in the same way that illegal drug smuggling does not profit on the legalization of drugs.

It does not take far to see that the whole of the American University of Malta isn’t just another visa factory with access to daddy’s bank account for the picking.  All in the same vein of making money out of Malta’s status as an EU and western country. 

The semi/full donation of assets and land and even intellectual property to any sort of outfit that shares the same management credo is the badge of honour for Muscat, the proud salesman.  The sense of ownership by government and the transfer of power from the right to govern to the self- determined entitlement to do whatever pleases the cronies, set above rebuke, is essentially complete.     

Those who continue to apply a parliamentary system to what is an unlicensed commercial enterprise are bound to be continually frustrated.  Having Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) is as absurd to Dr Muscat as having a Commissioner of Police actually prosecute crimes of fraud and money laundering by a public political person.  Besides, the PMQs as practiced in Westminster are couched in a sharp wit and acumen of intellect which is way out of Muscat’s reach and he would not want to appear as a political person when he defines himself much better as the Merchant of Castille.  It would be really hard work, too, to answer questions about contracts which have not even been tabled in Parliament.  Which CEO answers questions about deals, partnerships and competitors?

Have even the employees of Air Malta learnt what will happen to them once the company is handed over to a third party?  They can only speculate and in return be taken to court for doing so. 

So we are dealing here with two completely different management models, which do not have the same objective.

The clash of democratic government and the normalisation of corruption in the commercialisation of people, goods and services has become a side show for professionals in the business.  Historical trends and the street wise mentality of an urchin have produced the kind of wit which is as unlikely to be found in Parliament as it is to be found the back rooms of smoke filled clubs. 

The tanker vessel will come, the crowd will cheer and celebrate with a bang whilst the next town hides its wine, like the Secret of Santa Vittoria.