From billboard to board

Young and fresh-faced, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat was extremely convincing when he promised his party would cast aside the partisan politics that plagued the island in favour of an all-inclusive country. Labour’s rallying cry, Malta Tagħna Lkoll (Malta Belongs To Us All), promised the electorate that meritocracy would be rewarded and it would no longer be a place of who you knew, but what you knew. “Malta doesn’t belong to one politician or another, of one party or another – Malta Tagħna Lkoll,” Dr Muscat stressed at every opportunity he had ahead of the general election. It was a compelling message many warmed up to and really wanted to believe, eager to treat the disease of favouritism practised by politicians in the past. So when the new Labour Government started to thank those who appeared on a party billboard or in the promotion video by appointing them on a government board, the reaction was one of derision. Jobs for the boys also came in the form of other divisive appointments – Mario Vella, an economist and former Labour Party president, was chosen to chair Malta Enterprise; Jason Micallef, former Labour general secretary, was appointed chairman of the V-18...