Nothing will change, if you do nothing to make it change

I remember someone once telling me, ‘you have to create your own Garden of Eden, and not wait for someone to create it for you.’

Saviour Balzan 20 August 2010, 12:00am

3 min read

Barnier

EU vice-president Michel Barnier: he told the government it played around with emission rules to suit BWSC.

In simpler terms: if you have to go and get it, just go for it. Don’t wait around.

I have no idea why I am saying this, but I guess it has to do with people coming up to me grumbling about this government and deciding to do nothing about it.

My week was dominated by the State funeral and the comments I had over my piece on Guido de Marco, published last Sunday in MaltaToday’s print edition. There were those who praised it and others who derided my style.

I have to say there was overkill on the whole issue, with of course The Times making it a point to go really overboard. This was the same newspaper who earlier on in the day of Guido’s death, had comically trumpeted how better he was feeling. But then if you want a credibility check, check out the words of wisdom from Joe Borg’s poison-pen, who has taken it upon himself to rubbish MaltaToday because we carried a survey which ridiculed the Times’ survey. Borg said The Times had credibility. We don’t. Of course.

Joe Borg will not be writing any scathing articles on Enemalta by the way. Or on E U vice-president Michel Barnier’s letter to Lawrence Gonzi that there was some fishy business in the State of Denmark. Borg has other pressing moral issues to pontificate upon.

Barnier of course is unaware what a disaster Enemalta is in. A mess which we have to say, was exacerbated when Austin Gatt took over as minister and appointed two new chairmen who followed through with a new management structure, which simply made the whole corporation literally unmanageable and worse off.

And now with Tonio Fenech at the helm, a rather absent but new chairman is in place – having replaced Alex Tranter, the inoffensive-looking Gatt appointee, who works for PN donor Zaren Vassallo – and the inconsequential figure of the CEO, Karl Camilleri, and his rather unsavoury second-in-command, the former inspector Raymond Cremona who is Chief of Corporate Services.

How a person with a degree in criminology could end up as chief of corporate services at Enemalta beats me.

The Barnier letter is however an indictment on the Prime Minister. It proves beyond doubt that all the allegations and insinuations made against Enemalta were credible.

Credible by the way, is a word which only Joe Borg can refer to. Barnier would have to pass the Borg test, if he wanted to be taken seriously. Pity we do not have more priests in Brussels.

Barnier’s comments would have led to a massive outcry in another country. And it would have not only recorded reporters reporting instead of asking pertinent questions.

There was no tsunami hitting politicians after this revelation. On the contrary OPM spokesperson Gordon Pisani relayed a typically dismissive comment on the whole saga.

Austin Gatt of course could not give a toss, and the rest of government including all those backbenchers such as Franco Debono are ducking for some cover to avoid questions. Debono, in normal circumstances, would be crying wolf. Now we know that all he is after is some media attention.

I do not believe the government will budge on this one. Even if the EU goes ahead with more ‘irate’ letters and warnings or sanction, Gonzi will go ahead with his project.

He has the confidence to ignore the writing on the wall. He has the presumptuousness to believe that he can get away with murder. He has the arrogance of a political leader who believes he is always right.

If Joseph Muscat knew he had a watertight case, he would publicly declare that if elected in the next election, he would rescind the whole contract with the Danish firm.

The fact that he does not leads me to believe that nothing will really ever change. And that no one has the proverbial balls to stand up and be counted.

Now, where was that Garden of Eden?

Founder and co-owner of MaltaToday, Saviour Balzan has reported on Maltese politics and...

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Alfred Galea •

If "perceived corruption"was the Woprld Cup, Malta would be winning it in 2014.

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Peter Paul, I think the novel you read is a different one. I am referring to this investigating book. The Power and the Glory : Inside the dark heart of John Paul II's Vatican by David Yallop. Thank you.

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Dare we ask if Dr Gatt was politically responsible? Have we forgotten that the PM removed EneMalta from under Austin's ministry? It is true to say that the management at EneMalta is overstaffed and that there are far too many captains. This happened under Austin Gatt's call. This is the tip of the iceberg. Over the last years we have turned a blind eye to the way contracts have been awarded. Times I guess are changing. Which is why the EU is so important for us? Because most of the time we cannot act as our own watchdog.

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Mr T Mifsud can you tell us whose politician was involved in handing BWSC the contract?

Mark Fenech •

Dear Saviour, One day I will narrate what Austin Gatt had done to me because he knew that I was a laborite, although at Enemalta I always treated everybody on same level and have worked well with previous Ministers Ninu Zammit and Prof. Bonnici. But, Austin Gatt have always made it known that he wants only to work with nationalists. The problem is that by his action Malta gets worse. In my case in my days we were just 4 officials handling the finance department of the three divisions of Enemalta and we used to present the monthly management accounts to the board in the last week of the subsequent month, inspite that the number of officials has gone up to over 10, these and other important financial documents are always presented much later. In my days a small team and I as the kingpin used to buy petroleum products for our country, charter tankers to carry our products, etc etc. We were not experts, we were not paid extras, we were just officials who treated tax-payers money with diligence. Everybody knows what the experts he brought in has done to our nation. But, he is happy for they are not laborites. How unfair can one be in this country. Afterall, Austin Gatt will only be remembered for his arrogance, for the raising of court fees so if you are not well off you cannot go to court, for the handing of public monopolies to private entities, Sea Malta which he just gave away to an Italian company for nothing, the closing of Malta Shipyards and handing it over for practically nothing to a small italian company, and the gas division of Enemalta, which since it was privatised it has practically tripled the prices, and finally raising the rates for electricity and water to such a level, that the standard of living of many families has been downgraded and many are now living below poverty line. The BWSC contract for Delimara Power Station was the icing on the cake, now even the EU has taken us to task. No matter what replies the government has given to EU, it has always been crystal clear, that in this contract there were political interventions to hand this contract to BWSC. That is enough for now.

Joseph Galea •

@ minnfommirrrih I haven’t read ‘The Silence we keep’ and I have made a mental note to read it. But I have read more than once ‘The Power and the Glory’ as it happens to be one of my favourite English novels. I cannot understand your reference to this novel. The ‘Whisky priest’ of the novel is a saintly priest who found God not in the chaste prosperous life of the times when the Catholic Church in Mexico was ‘triumphant’ but amid the material and moral filth of his fellow human beings when the Church was persecuted. He was a priest who put charity before faith, the love of the neighbour before the laws of the Church, and found salvation by ‘sinning’ and finding the weaknesses of humanity that binds us all. I agree that many Catholics in Malta should read this novel, especially those who often display a holier-than-thou attitude towards those who are ‘sinners’ – gays, divorcees, cohabiting couples. The Whisky priest can teach many staunch Catholics, priests and laymen, what Jesus meant when he said ‘Love thy neighbour’.

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Salvinu, What you should focus on, is where the commission that will be paid is going to go; who is sharing the pie and if tax will be paid by those fortunate enough to divide this windfall from tax payers money. Or maybe these things have already been settled through the tax immunity incentives that the revenue department introduced a few months ago. Father Borg and his ilk are another matter. It's beyond belief how the Maltese people allow such theocracy and hypocracy rule their lives. Perhaps the Maltese should read the books; 1. The Power and the Glory 2. The Silence we keep. To understand what people like Father Borg are capable of. Thank you. Minnfommirrih

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I sympathy with you(Saviour Balzan) because you have the courage that what is blue you say it's blue and what it's red you say the same thing .In this country we have a PM and a minister AG that are so arrogants and that they think that no one can do anything except themselves and their things are always the best Minister Austin Gatt is so ARROGANT a few weeks ago we went to his office at Hamrun talking with him about our matter ex port workers OH MY what an ARROGANT man he is he told us about our matter that he is the minister and he do want he wants and also he told us to walk out off his office because we are wasting his time what a DISGRACE that we have such a minister what does he thing he is the HAND OF GOD will hand eveyone Dr.austin Gatt so be carefull of what you are doing because one they it will be YOU and what a PM we have he come here for the funeral of our former presitend and after the funeral he went back enjoying his HOLIDAY that's how much you FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR FRIEND THE LATE DR.GUIDO DEMARCO