Like any employee, Ministers should be accountable to us if they do not deliver

Sometimes I think Austin Gatt comes out with outrageous statements simply because he knows it will get people’s backs up.

He knows he will be quoted widely, and the Opposition will immediately pounce on it as another example of his arrogance. I also suspect that he does it purely because he gets a kick out of it; because he knows he can get away with it like no other politician can.

His latest quip that he lost no sleep after the Opposition tabled a motion asking for his resignation over the Arriva chaos, is the last in a series of Austin quotes which continue to feed into Austin’s legendary me ne frega attitude. There are those who admire his bluntness, pointing out that his bulldozer approach to getting things done has produced results. I find it interesting that the people who admire him the most tend to be equally ruthless themselves – who cares about people, when it’s the bottom line we’re after right?

But in the current climate, when the public is no mood for tough talking ministers, Austin Gatt is skating on very thin ice.  It’s not because he will be affected at the polls himself, since he’s already made it quite clear he will not be contesting the next elections. What he seems to be forgetting is that with each new off-the-cuff remark he is striking another nail in the PN coffin. Of course, it could be that he simply does not care any more – he’s on the way out so he does not need to choose his words carefully. But it seems he has also stopped caring about whether his brusqueness is affecting his own party. After all, each statement uttered by any PN politician is a reflection on the PN itself.

So when he boasts that the PN will continue to govern for the next 20 years (God help us), or when he belittles people’s anger about Arriva by saying “even after ten years of its operation, people will still be complaining”…let us just say it does not go down too well with Joe Public. These types of statements are just further proof that this administration is now so completely beyond caring what we, the voters, feel that we might as well be back in 1981 under Mintoff.

The Nationalist Party, of course, becomes very upset at being compared to Mintoff’s Labour – the party apparatchiks splutter and choke, and beat their chests and recall Tal-Barrani and tear gas, and object with all their might. And yet, what is so different today? Sure we can all voice our opinions freely as I’m doing here, simply because of the wonderful invention which is the Internet, but look at the mainstream media and if you are an astute observer you will see what is happening as controls are firmly tightened.

Sure there are no roughneck bullies threatening to place a bomb outside your door, but there are plenty of well-heeled bullies igniting psychological “bombs” every day. Sure we can criticize the government and PN politicians to our heart’s content, but it is quite clear that the way it is being handled is to simply ignore the criticism from the general public and ride it out, until the next hot news item comes along which diverts people’s short attention span.  Those calling the shots at the PN public relations factory know fully well that public opinion is breathtakingly fickle.

You can easily gauge this online when you see which news stories get the most responses – at the moment Gaia, the bulldog which died after being suffocated in a skip, is the talk of the town. Yes, such animal cruelty is horrific and unacceptable, and yet I always find it odd how this kind of story always trumps any story about people abusing each other (the story about a man who defiled his daughter, for example, did not get nearly half the attention). Because of the swiftness with which news is bumped off the front pages, the decision to simply sit tight until the wave of criticism passes seems to be working.

Look at the Arriva mess – does anyone care that there are still pockets of areas on the island which have become virtually isolated because of the badly designed routes? Or that trips which used to take 30 minutes are now running into hours on an island which is so small? “U iva, let them complain, they will soon wear themselves out, and find something else to bicker about”, seems to be the government’s way of dealing with it. Do you ever get the feeling we are just tiny ants who do not matter, scurrying about trying to live our lives decently, while the people in charge look down at us with scorn and contempt? Yes, me too.

Meanwhile, no matter whether they deliver or not, our Ministers continue to receive their salaries; salaries which we are paying for through our taxes. Resignation? You are joking, of course. Accountability – what’s that? The incompetent way this country is being run is so in our face that I think we have simply become used to it, resigned to the fact that there will never by any improvement. “This is Malta,” we shrug as we trudge on, numb and almost immune to the fact that we deserve much, much better. The adverts which came out this weekend announcing that Arriva is reintroducing the Mater Dei and University routes (why were they removed in the first place?) claim “we are listening”.

Well every time politicians like Austin Gatt open their mouth, we are listening too.