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

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 EU 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?