GUEST POST
Somebody who was quite involved in Malta’s EU accession work has sent me this and asked me to please use it as a guest post, though anonymously because his current position – not in government or the civil service – does not permit such engagement.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO RICHARD CACHIA CARUANA IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS
It is primarily wrong because Joseph Muscat has wielded one of the highest institutions of the land as a weapon of petty spite and vendetta. That JPO and Jesmond Mugliett have stooped so low is bad, but not particularly surprising.
But that the man who is chafing at the bit to be PM should do so is chilling.
It is also wrong at a human and moral level. Like him or hate him, or his methods, Richard Cachia Caruana is someone who has devoted his professional life to fighting Malta’s corner. Not the government’s corner, not the Nationalist Party’s corner, but Malta’s corner.
As someone who has seen him extensively at work, I can confirm that his people-management skills were never of the soft and cuddly kind, but I also saw clearly that he has been one of the strongest possible forces for trying to raise and maintain standards across government.
I once stayed up all night to prepare a document for him that I thought was pretty good. When he tore it to pieces on the basis of a single paragraph, I told him, very exasperated, “Can’t you see I’m doing my best?”
He answered, “You are working for your country. It is not enough to do your best; you need to do what is necessary”. I went away and did what was necessary. And many times since, I have remembered those words and tried to do a little more than my best.
While Richard will do very well for himself in the private sector, if that is where he decides to go, I hope this gives a tiny idea of what has been thrown away for the country by the Labour Party and a couple of lost souls on the government benches.
Personally, it makes me see clearly once again how important it will be at election time to make sure that these chancers don’t get some real power to play with.
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Very well said. And I can just guess by whom. Breeding always will out, and JPO, Jesmond and Franco have clearly shown theirs too, as have Richard Cachia Caruana and Carm Mifsud Bonnici.
People like Jeffrey and Jesmond and Franco, to say nothing of the various elements in the Labour Party, simply cannot understand that you can’t strip people of their dignity. You can only do that to yourself. And those individuals have demonstrated this on a very public level.
Temporary setbacks do not cause the strong to waver.
While the Nationalist Party can identify the minority of malcontents and weed them out at the first opportunity, the exact opposite is the case with the Labour Party.
The Labour Party has really got to use a magnifying glass in order to find, identify and classify less than a handful, who one can label as moderate and trustworthy. The vast majority are pure trash.
One hopes that the very same people they antagonized, will come to haunt them for many years to come. The truth is that Joseph fears for his tenure as leader and for him it is a case of ‘do or die’.
I haven’t understood whether at this stage, it’s Joseph who’s pulling the strings or if the outsourcing has taken over at Hamrun.
Now that Lino Spiteri has mixed feelings about the Labour Party’s identity, it will be a question of time before the traditional Laburisti take up his uneasiness.
Joseph seems too smitten with the PN vote to realise that what he’s been avoiding all along, face the electorate, will be forced onto him by his own people.
Even because they’ve noticed the backlash his style is causing among traditional Labour core voters.
They were promised a victory by this leader for the right reasons, not these cheap shots.
First Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, now Richard Cachia Caruana – so who is next? If an ambassador makes a mistake (if), is not the Government answerable? Was the Cachia Caruana motion in order? Was it acceptable?
I had only a cursory experience of Richard Cachia Caruana. His systems may have been hated by many but his achievements are enjoyed by a lot more, even if they do not know how important his input was.
And here’s the supreme irony of what Joseph Muscat, Leo Brincat, George Vella, Luciano Busuttil, and all those other ghastly ghouls on their side have achieved with the help of the dentist and the engineer on the other side – they wouldn’t have an EU passport if they got their way and Cachia Caruana hadn’t negotiated the right deal.
There are no engineers in parliament (unfortunately). He is a perit.
@ A.Attard
Most periti graduate A+CE – Architect and Civil Engineer. I believe the illustrious Mugliett is an A+CE.
‘Perit’ does not exist in English. It is a gratuitous title, cooked up to satisfy the psychological – not professional – need for one to rival that of other professions.
One can be an architect, an engineer or both. If one is both, then it is correct to say that that person is an engineer. If the person in question objects to being referred to as engineer, he can suit himself. There are plenty of other things we can call him and, I can assure you, the list does not include ‘perit’.
An engineer is a graduate of the faculty of engineering holder of an engineer’s warrant. Periti are none of the above.
A civil engineer is an engineer.
Just my two cents worth;
I think it was against Malta’s interest to lose someone as well-suited and experienced for the prestigious post as Mr Cachia Caruana.
The way this deplorable coup was carried out the other day is to be roundly condemmed. It is shameful, not of the gentleman concerned, but to all those spiteful conniving little creatures who conspired to vote him out of his post the other day.
If Labour, whilst still in opposition, are willing to pull this stunt on somebody whose service to the nation has been beyond reproach, imagine the vindictiveness they are capable of on lesser fry, when in government.
It is now up to Dr Gonzi (and his team of very capable and reliable men and women) to deliver the country from such a fate, by keeping his word to listen carefully to the feedback sent in by ordinary citizens and acting on it.
“Personally, it makes me see clearly once again how important it will be at election time to make sure that these chancers don’t get some real power to play with”
I agree wholeheartedly with that last paragraph. Dr Muscat goes on and on about how united the PL are, while he does his best to turn people within the PN against each other. He’s opportunistic and a liar.
Excellent piece. Richard Cachia Caruana has always been and is one who only accepts and insists on nothing but the best. It was probably because of his quest for perfection that he has managed to set up and manage Malta’s EU office which has, over these years, achieved much success.
As the writer said, he will do well for himself anywhere he decides to take his skills but the overriding question is will our EU office do as well without his capabilities and knowledge of how the EU works?
To the person who wrote this:
Thanks for shedding some light on this man whose name is known yet who is an unknown to the wider population. Private industry have a jewel up for grabs and the man shall surely land on his feet, all in all a sad day for Malta.
The one good thing to come out of this sad saga is that the snakes have exposed their fangs .
It is not enough that the snakes’ fangs have been exposed. The snakes’ heads must be crushed, sooner rather than later.
All true, every last word.
Can you imagine either Debono, JPO, or Mugliett doing what RCC has been doing for the last decade?
Just imagine the these scumbags would have done to the nation.
It is a very topsy-turvy world indeed when despicable scumbugs, with the aid of a scrounging Labour Party, are allowed to harm worthy people whose shoe-laces they are not even fit to tie.
But why do I suspect that Johnny D was the hand behind this RCC show-of-hate?
The Nationalist Party should weed out all those who have shown disrespect, and/or outright hatred at the Prime Minister and his trusted fellowmen/women. This is the party that has shown immense courage when it came to difficult challenges, like Independence, EU, Euro etc.
It should now show the same courage to take all the necessary steps to clean out the whiners and haters, once and for all.
Then, the renegades can go form a political party of their own, should they so wish.
This has been a lesson learned and I am quite confident that going by today’s PN statement, this is the path the Nationalist Party is slowly (agonizingly, I would say) taking.
The three buffoons did not hesitate to do that to Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Richard Cachia Caruana. Why should the Party allow them the ‘privilege’ of walking away like any retired PN MP? They should also live by the historical fact of actually having been thrown-out by the Party they have repeatedly abused for their own reasons.
So very true. Pity that only those who have worked with or for the Permanent Representative know these things. Most of us who have done so consider it a privilege which is unlikely to be encountered again in one’s career.
Having worked alongside Richard Cachia Caruana from 1987 to 2003 (with a break of 4 years) I can subscribe to this assessment of his contribution in the interest of Malta. Yes, he could be a hard task-master and there was one occasion when I disagreed with the way he chided one of my staff.
Yes, he had the ear of his prime ministers, but if his advice was accepted this was not because he was undemocratic in any way, but because his advice was deemed worthy of acceptance. I am fully aware of occasions when his views may have annoyed ministers, but it was for these ministers to show the prime minister that they were right and Cachia Caruana was wrong.
In the realm of high level politics all this is to be expected, but it can never be the valid subject of a censure motion in parliament against the adviser of the prime minister. The contents of this debate will be a document of shame for our parliament, exposing the motion as completely baseless, and in any case directed at the wrong person, while giving the opportunity to members of parliament with a grudge against Cachia Caruana to seek revenge.
In particular, Pullicino Orlando’s contribution dripped with personal animosity which had no reference at all to Cachia Caruana’s behaviour as Malta’s permenent representative tro the EU.