Robert Abela Must Stop Blaming Regular Workers And Start Taking Some Responsibility
Robert Abela’s first election post-mortem was full of rhetoric that is open to interpretation but only one concrete promise – regular government workers must work harder.
“There is no problem with my commitment to the cause, nor the commitment of others at the top… no, the real problem is those at the bottom who aren’t working hard enough.”
Seriously, what is he on about?
First of all, in any company, if workers aren’t motivated to work hard enough, then questions must be asked to those at the top. Are there enough incentives? Is there a problem with the work culture? And, in the case of government, are all workers being treated fairly? Are they getting rewarded and climbing the ladder based on merit or are they landing top jobs simply because of political loyalty and favours?
The best way to encourage hard work is to incentivise it, and not try to scare workers for not being dedicated enough to some greater cause or guilt-trip them for exercising their right to disconnect by not answering their WhatsApp messages outside work hours.
And responsibility for a problematic work culture always lies with the people in charge.
There are certainly multiple reasons – personal, social and political – that caused the PL to shed so much support. Clint Azzopardi Flores succinctly listed 11 of them, from high rents and long operation waiting times to excessive bureaucracy and temping agencies. Abela also pledged new reforms in terms of the environment, women’s rights and construction.
But the PL should also reflect on its own election campaign, which Abela himself pitched as a choice between himself and Bernard Grech. It was largely a vicious and negative campaign, with the Prime Minister denouncing his critics as being part of the “establishment” despite being the most powerful person in the country.
There was practically no focus on the European aspect of the election, other than to try and make people believe that Roberta Metsola wants to send Maltese children to war.
Middle-of-the-road voters were almost completely ignored, and Abela’s focus was almost exclusively on pleasing the partisan sentiments of the party’s most loyal supporters.
And even that strategy had massive gaping holes, because there was too much mixed messaging on the Joseph Muscat court case. On the one hand, Abela ripped into magistrate Gabriella Vella for concluding her inquiry so soon before an election and repeated several of Muscat’s talking points.
On the other hand, the state’s own bodies – the police and the Attorney General – quickly charged Muscat, Chris Fearne and everyone who was mentioned in the inquiry without even interrogating them first.
It seemed as though he tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds and hope his supporters don’t realise, but when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.
A true leader leads from the front and takes some responsibility when things go wrong. Abela should look at why his own campaign failed to resonate with the majority of the electorate; immediately casting the blame on civil servants is a low move.
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