Along with so many, I have been following the many testimonies from the many court cases and procedures centring round Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder – and pondering over the implications.

We must separate the chaff from the wheat and understand what the testimonies tell us about the real inside of the Muscat administration.

It was riddled with people of trust, promoted beyond their abilities and mostly based on blind loyalty. In fact, many blamed orders coming from above to defend their actions and it does look as if they were telling the truth. It will only be if and when the top levels – up to and including Joseph Muscat – are questioned that we may get nearer to the truth and maybe discover the absolutely low level of that administration.

Lower down, this blind loyalty spawned replicas on a lower scale in the Ministries and agencies. Look at any photograph of press conferences and the chances are that they are uniformly male. Press further and the chances are that they are almost uniformly Party men.

Again, they are mostly promoted beyond their level of competence which may also explain why they are so tongue-tied.

Now this also happened during the PN years, but the numbers do not compare. Nor do the number of Ministers compare between Gonzi’s absolute minimum (which brought about his downfall) and Muscat’s (and Abela’s) multiple record.

There is just no comparison. People, as they showed in repeated elections, acquiesced – as it was in their interest to do so – and the economy was on a growth path, but now that the economy has reached a plateau, and the risks get closer, the formulas of past years may not work any more – or may not be allowed to work.

Consider IIP, for instance, or the low interest rates to attract foreign investment (which Robert Abela pledged to remove in his leadership campaign) – and that’s not considering the impact of the coronavirus on world trade.

Nearer home, we may have to consider the unbridled entry of third-country nationals into the workforce, the depletion of open spaces, the sheer difficulty to get from Point A to Point B in a reasonable time and the flighty nature of sectors such as e-gaming – here today and off tomorrow.

Being loyal and obeying superior orders – while being above your level of competence – will not help much when push comes to shove.

Above and beyond all this, there is the elephant in the room – sorry, in the country: the corruption that is endemic in the country and that is fast turning our country into a byword for anything that is bent.

The courts continue working and meanwhile the small fry get caught but the bigger fish keep walking around as free as anything. Robert Abela said on Sunday that the country is now normal: never was a truer word said.

 

Begetting a gerontocracy

So the Executive Council of the Nationalist Party could find no better solution for what is ailing it than to bring out of retirement some of the Party’s retired warhorses.

This is its reaction to multiple surveys that show it disappearing down the spout, especially its beleaguered leader who stubbornly refuses to go.

Nor does the executive (nor the parliamentary group) consider that the leader is still supported by a majority of the delegates who elected him.

Neither does the Executive do anything concrete and sustainable to address a frightful financial mess.

Instead, the Executive finds nothing better to do than appointing some persons who have been has-beens from two legislatures back.

 

[email protected]