This is how civilised people do things. And yes, it matters.
Here are a couple of photographs taken to mark Brigadier Carmelo Vassallo’s retirement as the army’s commanding officer, and Brigadier Martin Xuereb’s appointment.
You will notice that Brigadier Vassallo bid his retirement farewell and posed for a properly formal photograph with the prime minister – and not because he was army minister but because that is the way things are done by civilised people.
Those in the highest authority – including the police commissioner and the army’s commanding officer – present their resignation to the prime minister and bid him farewell formally. There are certain exceptions, as with judges and the Speaker of the House, where the resignation is presented to the head of state, rather than to the head of government, but I’m not up to explaining the details as to why, because even the fact that it has to be explained at all is exhausting amid print deadlines.
Not only that, but when the resignation is not sudden or in protest, and has been well anticipated (as was Martin Xuereb’s) the prime minister ensures that the new commanding officer is formally appointed concurrently with his predecessor’s resignation, so that at no point is the army without a commanding officer.
The outgoing and incoming commanding officers are then photographed together, with the prime minister, to symbolise not only seamless transition but also the fact that the army’s commanding officer is answerable ultimately not to any cabinet minister but to the prime minister – and that even though he answers to the prime minister, that is qualified because in his own sphere of administration his authority is supreme and acknowledged by the head of government.
Anything less is utterly slapdash.
Now compare and contrast with Brigadier Xuereb’s resignation photograph – an informal mess, nobody properly dressed or posed, and the brigadier has chosen to take his leave of the cabinet minister, the prime minister’s junior, thereby putting himself, but more importantly his position, down by several notches. The army’s commanding officer, this situation says loudly and clearly, is junior to a mere cabinet minister.
As for his replacement, there is no mention of him, though we can take it as read that they have somebody for the role already, and have long done, which is why they persuaded Brigadier Xuereb out with a post at Dar Malta in Brussels, with better pay and the convenience of being in the same city as his wife, who works for the European Commission.
So why wasn’t it done properly? Why was this officer not formally appointed and presented to the country the day Xuereb resigned?
Because Malta is now run by uncivilised people who think these things are not worth bothering about, that’s why.
The Maltese army has no commanding officer, a politician in the role of minister for the army has taken it upon himself to play at doing the job himself, and nobody bats an eyelid. And then we wonder how and why we always end up in a mess under Labour: it’s because people let them get away with it, expecting no better.
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I had the pleasure and honour of working closely with Brigadier Carmel Vassallo for many years. He is definitely a Labour man, to the bone. He never uttered a word about his political leanings and was always extremely courteous, correct, punctual and precise.
His written English was a pleasure to read and his bearing was Prussian.
The Nationalist government did not habitually appoint those who voted for it to head important bodies of state. Often it was Labour-leaning competent individuals who were appointed. The key here is the word “competent”.
It is such a pity that “competence” that takes 26 years to build is wiped off the slate in less than 26 weeks.
And again, Brigadier Vassallo was a real, true, gentleman.
Carmel Vassallo never went to Sandhurst. He was commissioned during the Golden Years of Helsien mill-Barrani, and did his officer training in Italy. It goes to show it’s not the school, but the man.
Xuereb passed out from Sandhurst and yet he turns up for his formal resignation in shirt sleeves order.
With no one but our blogger to point out these things, I expect another twenty years of Labour government at the very least.
[Daphne – Your blogger, H. P., is unfairly advantaged in these matters by dint of historical circumstance rather than special individual effort, but yes, I do agree that it’s quite a serious problem.]
Unfairly advantaged? Hardly. You’re not pointing out the arcane niceties of using fish knives or wearing tweed to one’s club on a Friday evening, but bog-standard rules of behaviour in the civilised world. They should be common knowledge. To government officials, they should be their daily bread and butter.
Ours probably use a fish knife for that.
So now we have a temporary Brigadier Mallia.
Looks like we’ve got Dad’s army.
Meanwhie, here’s Franco Debono again, this time with Ronald Urry, who was recently charged with murder, albeit about a different type of crime this time.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131001/local/court-case-over-unlawful-passession-of-cheque-pending-for-23-years.488552
I agree with everything you say, Daphne, and with others, re Brigadier Vassallo with whom I had a close friendship.
I am very disappointed with Martin Xuereb, however. Another question arises regarding those overlooked by rapid promotions – will they resort to the former Brigadier Calleja’s Committee appointed by GOC Mallia?
Oh yes it matters – and how. But the Maltese mindset is such that the concept of symbolism is not understood.
Everybody knew what the political leanings of Brig. Vassallo were but nobody can say anything against him. Brig. Vassallo was humble also. Once, when he was Deputy Commander of the Arrmed Forces I had to enter his home for a service I was providing, and seeing his uniform hanging in his bedroom, and oblivious who he was and the significance of the insignia on his uniform, I asked him wheteher he is a soldier? (kind of a private of the lower ranks). His humble answer was “Yes, that’s where I have spent my life”. It was only afterwards that a friend of mine told me that that man was not a ‘soldier’ but the Deputy Commander of the AFM! Sorry, I wrote in length, but although our political leanings are totally opposite I have always admired Brig. Vassallo.