Billboard to billboard – Malta taghna lkoll

Published: May 27, 2013 at 10:47am

billboard to billboard

You must be sure to read this excellent overview of Malta Taghna Lkoll appointments, in The Sunday Times (link below).

Many people – including the spiteful and annoying Martin Scicluna – seem to think that the problem with these appointments is because the people involved are Labour supporters.

No. Wrong. People would have no objection if these appointees were competent and with a good track record, because then their voting preferences would be either secondary or completely irrelevant. Nobody talked about, say, Louis Farrugia’s voting preferences when he was made chairman of Air Malta, did they?

Perhaps some people did, but they would have been idiotic to do so.

The problem here is because these individuals are transparently being rewarded for services rendered to the Labour Party, using state funds and state positions to reward them, when the state does not require their services and when they are not the best person for the job, or even fit for the job in some cases, and when in other cases the job has been created expressly for them.

How exactly can anybody say that Mario Vella, a man with an utterly abysmal track record in the field, is the best person to run Malta Enterprise? How can anyone claim that Ronnie Pellegrini, a retired thug and union fixer, is fit to sit as a director on any board at all, let alone that of a state corporation?

That the state needs to pay William Mangion, a washed-up singer, for a year to look for somewhere for bands to rehearse? Ironically, the people most upset about this, and those least likely to be cooperate and be thrilled, are the bands themselves.

Frederick Testa, a loser who has reached retirement age without doing anything much with his life, paid ‘elf lira fix-xahar’ to advise on teledrammi for TVM?

There are so many more, and I don’t even feel like getting started on Jason Micallef.




14 Comments Comment

  1. etil says:

    Most of the Labour elves took umbrage at this article judging by their comments beneath the report.

    Seems their conscience, if they have one, is tickling them and they need to convince people that what their boss is doing is just a normal procedure by having people whom the boss can trust placed in strategic posts irrespective of their capabilities, etc.

    I wonder who gets to decide on the never-ending list of awards to be dished out.

  2. Jozef says:

    ‘They raised the standards and expectations so now everyone is disappointed’

    No they didn’t, I can’t believe this to be the level of analysis provided by The Times.

    [Daphne – The Times was quoting somebody there.]

    If anything they made a travesty of their standards and subscribed, nominally, to those set by the PN.

    Throw in a number of twerps whose portfolio barely fills a paragraph and the con’s out. It’s called identification by reduction, Obama’s yes we can.

    It’s what makes people buy Mars bars displayed at the cashpoints in supermarkets, an improvised why not.

    The problem will be its inverse, what happens when the ones who didn’t, because they already could, won’t?

    Limits Muscat’s collective capabilities.

    • Jozef says:

      Bit of a whitewash putting it up as a quote, the gist still to think in terms of equivalence. I suppose it provides for ‘balance’ which perversely creates chance, read ‘cens’.

      Let’s put it this way, RCC was evil incarnate when in reality Muscat was overheard lamenting how he wished he could use his services.

      How pathetic is that? Are we to reduce our standards, exclusive by definition, to allow them into the range?

    • Snoopy says:

      Early this morning, timesofmalta.com ran a story about an interview with Mario Galea, chair of the gaming authority and his conflict of interest as a consultant to another competing gamin authority as well as his directorship in a gaming-related company.

      Interestingly, this story has disappeared along with a couple of comments that had already been accepted by the moderator.

  3. AG says:

    I agree with the overview presented in the article although the writer almost lost me with the first few words – ‘Young and fresh-faced Opposition Leader…’. Let me not comment about that.

    It seems to me that Joseph Muscat is paving the way to ensure that he remains in power for more than one legislature.

    This to me is one reason for him appointing one of the largest Cabinets in Maltese political history. Not only is he rewarding as many MPs as possible (also ensuring that no-one feels left out), he is also ensuring that the workload is distributed as much as possible allowing the incumbents to have the time to remain ‘close to the people’.

    The other appointments – to boards, committees etc. – are too much to bear. I recall Joseph Muscat clearly stating that appointments to Boards will be made following public consultation/voting. At the same time he was preaching meritocracy, clearly showing that he was playing for votes. When he came to action, he did neither, but in true Labour fashion simply rewarded those who openly supported him.

    A clearer example of deceiving the electorate there cannot be.

    He is even creating new unneeded positions to accomodate these people.

    At this rate we will soon end up with an inflated public service.

    I wonder where he plans to get the money to finance all these extras.

  4. Josette says:

    Wonder if the little boy and the dog are still waiting for their iced bun? Or maybe a nice big meaty bone.

  5. matt says:

    In spite of all, the public is nonchalant. Sadly, only a handful people are worried.

    The PN is bankrupt so is their media. Muscat is following Mintoff’s manual.

    • Gahan says:

      Both political parties are bankrupt. The PN has got a lot of properties(clubs) around Malta while Labour has got fewer assets.
      They’re at par.

  6. Tracy says:

    Sa fejn naf jien is-sensara jithallsu bil-percentagg fuq l-ammont tal-bejgh. Willy Mangion ghandu paga fissa ghal dan ix-xoghol ?

  7. king rat says:

    By next election we can all have a billboard (300,000 or so) then we can really have a taghna lkoll and bankrupt the coffers as well. At least we shall all be lkoll in the shit together.

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