72 hours… the beams in one’s eye

I still have to find one good reason to give the Nationalist Party a honeymoon. 

That's right: the PN, not Labour. 72 hours after the election, former minister Mario de Marco, or the de facto editor-in-chief at The Times is crying wolf at the so called 'politicisation of the civil service'.

He wrote: "Civil servants need to know that they can work unfettered by the shackles of partisan influence. While it is their duty to implement the policies of the government of the day, they should never become simple extensions of the Party machinery. I have already stated that the Opposition will be monitoring the situation to ensure that government does not undo the good that was done in the past decades. We need to be there to ensure that the legitimate rights and interests of public sector employees are fully respected."

Now Dr de Marco, who controls the Times and the Strickland Foundation, and uses The Times to support his campaign for the leadership is seeking attention by attacking the first decisions taken by Muscat as PM.

Mario de Marco might be suffering from a touch of amnesia. His ministry was run by a diehard Nationalist, Peter Portelli, for permanent secretary, and one who should really be questioned about his management of the ministry in the past five years. Under De Marco, MEPA's chief executive officer Ian Stafrace was appointed without a call for applications, as was Petra Bianchi to head of the environment authority. Even the Abela family [of Presidential fame thereof] was appointed to handle the MEPA caseload without a call for applications... but that was the time the Nationalist government wanted to be nice to George Abela et al.

So many friends were given decent 'culture' positions: Michael Fenech, chairman of the St James Centre for Creativity, was formerly a PN campaigner in previous elections; even the Queen of Bile's sister was given an appointment, of course, given that it saved him from being hit out at in the same way his late father Guido de Marco and sister Gianella de Marco, and of course her partner George Hyzler.

And these are just some of the questionable appointments. I could go mentioning all the people who were appointed because of their political colours. Or that de Marco's legal firm had a retainer from Malta Enterprise even though ME had its own legal team.

Mario de Marco is of course applying the usual PN tactic of deviating attention from the disaster within the Nationalist Party and flexing his own muscles by hitting out at the young Labour government.

His focus should be on seeing whether the PN should just go for a facelift or a complete sex change. It is not the Mario Cutajars of this world that De Marco should be worried about. If I were him I would truly worry about the Strickland Foundation (the trust that runs Allied Newspapers) and the way it has been taken over by a group of individuals who are being legally challenged by the true heirs of Mabel Strickland.

And more significantly: he should also start worrying about his future in the PN.

As many in the tourism and culture ministry can attest to, his history of sluggish decision-making does not make for a promising future in the PN. On the ground his canvassers are one of the more ruthless and despicably negative of all canvassers. They specifically told voters in the election not to transfer their vote to his own party colleagues.

If the PN choose him as leader they would have chosen a charismatic leader but one who, very much like Gonzi, talks a lot but when it comes to crunch does absolutely f*** all.