Blasts from the past, hectoring us about the future
They say that only cockroaches will survive a nuclear holocaust. I think those cockroaches will have Karmenu Vella for company. Here he is in Red China, 40 years ago, with Dom Mintoff.
This is part of my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, today.
Those blasts from the past, Edward Scicluna, Mintoff’s Minister Karmenu ‘Il-Guy’ Vella and Charles Mangion addressed a press conference yesterday morning.
All three are rival contenders for the desirable and opportunity-laden post of finance minister, which John Dalli held so ably for so many years.
Seeing them lined up, each seething with anxiety that Joseph Muscat, a man embarrassingly young enough to be their son, will give it to one of the others, was almost funny.
Well, I would have laughed if it were not for the still-fresh memory of Karmenu Vella being carried shoulder-high with Mintoff and then with PM Zero, as one of their most cherished ministri tal-qalba. You just know that he is going to fight off Scicluna and Mangion with a knuckle-duster in a velvet glove.
You just know that come the nuclear holocaust, he and the cockroaches will be the only survivors.
The content of their press conference was more depressing still. It is obvious that they are preparing the way for their own inadequacy and the imminent time when, safely ensconced in the Ministeru tal-Finanzi, they will have to begin shouting about hofor as they did the last time round.
“The government should come clean on its finances and not leave any surprises for the next government,” Edward Scicluna said. “Labour will hold the government responsible for its management of public finances.”
Something must have been lost in translation there, or maybe Labour is having trouble adjusting to the thought of actually being the government. Because if Labour is the government, then how can it hold the government responsible?
Karmenu Vella, who believes that his track record as a government minister is excellent, spoke about Malta’s “structural financial problems” and how “the situation is going from bad to worse”.
That must be why his cruise business is so very busy, then.
Bear in mind always that this is the man who coined the term zmien id-deheb (the golden years) to describe the time when his idol Dom Mintoff was busy breaking the country’s back and giving us a prolonged taste of life in a small town in Enver Hoxha’s Albania.
Charles Mangion, taking a break from acting as notary on major land development deals (but not on Yana and Anne Mintoff’s with Charles Polidano, because they chose Alex Sceberras Trigona instead), told us how the private sector should be the motor of the economy.
Tell us something we don’t know, Charles. Isn’t this one of the main reasons why Labour lost every election bar one since 1981?
Karmenu Vella for finance minister – how’s that for a bit of a thrill? It beats invading Poland (see previous post…).
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Just a little reminder.
1. Back in January 2011, Karmenu Vella was appointed by the Great Leader to write Labour’s electoral program.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110201/local/vella-aims-for-consistency-in-new-pl-programme.347992
2. One year later, in January 2012, the Leader gave Vella a Secretary to help him.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2012/01/oh-dear-god-in-heaven-aaron-farrugia-jinhatar-segretarju-tal-manifest-elettorali-laburista/
3. The next day we learned that Labour was ready to present the electoral program.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/mobile/view/20120110/local/pl-ready-to-present-electoral-programme.401814
4. In August 2012 we were told that Labour will approve “guidelines for the electoral manifesto” in its September Congress.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Labour-congress-to-approve-guidelines-for-PL-electoral-manifesto-20120809
Karmenu Vella has not delivered. But this says a lot about Joseph Muscat’s vision in appointing Vella to do the job.
Karmenu doesn’t write that well. He has the gift of the gab, but not the pen.
Visionary skills? Je ne pense pas. Short term money ambition quite high, though.
Don’t think little Joey knew that. He’s much too superficial (and dumb).
Our juvenile prime minister will be put aside as soon as they’re in power, I use the term objectively.
Imagine the government having a say in plain market economics. Joseph just gives the game away, citing the upmarket property mantra.
The latest interview with our economics guru;
‘Moving onto more concrete (literally) proposals… in one rare instance, Muscat did give a clear indication of the direction a new Labour government would take. He declared that he would embark on a ‘land reclamation’ project once elected.
Yet his timing was unfortunate. For one thing, Gonzi had already toyed with the idea of ‘artificial islands’ – which would also involve land reclamation, though the two concepts are not interchangeable – only to abandon the idea after a report concluded that the costs involved would be positively astronomical.
The study was conducted by British consultancy firm Scott Wilson, and its findings suggest that the cost of land reclamation would be between €250 and €440 million. An artificial island would cost even more…
Muscat deflects these and other arguments with what seems to be a simple declaration of faith. “I am totally convinced it’s both sustainable and affordable,” he asserts as I draw his attention to the above objections.
But what is this conviction actually based on? “For one thing, the fact that it’s already happened. The Freeport, Marsa, the power station… these are all examples of projects involving reclaimed land. Honestly I don’t understand the environmental argument against land reclamation. It not as though we haven’t done it before…”
Muscat goes a step further, arguing that the initiative may even have environmental benefits: one idea he floats would be to utilise construction waste which would otherwise have to be dumped in a landfill. “Though having said that, there might be not be enough of this sort of waste,” he adds as an afterthought.
As for the figures mentioned in the Scott Wilson report, Muscat reminds me that they were cited in relation to a specific project… and as such do not necessarily reflect the cost of land reclamation in all circumstances.
All the same, he refuses to be drawn into specifying precisely what sort of project he has in mind… other than to say it would be a public-private partnership, in which the actual investment will be made by the private sector.
“I have no doubt that if someone were to invest substantial sums of money into any given project, they will surely conduct the necessary due diligence exercises. And besides, the idea to reclaim land is not an end in itself: it will have to be part of a master-plan, with a very clear objective in mind…”
Still, one aspect of the environmental concern remains unaddressed. Regardless whether the land reclamation project ever gets off the ground (ahem) or not, it seems as though Muscat’s plans for stimulating economic growth will involve continued reliance on the construction sector – an issue for which the extant Nationalist government has routinely been criticized by environmentalists in the past.
The net result of this policy has been to engineer a glut within the property market – a surplus which may in turn affect the price of property, thus undermining many a small investment and conceivably threatening the economy as a whole…
“Without going into specific details I can assure you that any project involving land reclamation will not be to just build blocks of flats. That’s where the glut you refer to really is – in the two- to three-bedroomed apartment sector. But when you look at larger investments in more up-market properties, the situation is different. Those properties still sell…”
And isn’t he sweet when he adds his afterthoughts?
Which investors does he have in mind, where does he envisage this thing, what masterplan, and finally, to what extent does he think should a government get involved in upmarket property?
” … Labour will hold the government responsible for its management of public finances.” (Edward Scicluna).
That is precisely what a chastened Malta electorate did to a short lived MLP government under Alfred Sant and its mismanagement of Malta’s finances by abolishing VAT and replacung it with CET!
They most certainly do not survive Piff Paff