I couldn’t help but chuckle at the news that Armed Forces of Malta commander Jeffrey Curmi will become Transport Malta’s CEO. Back in October, then transport minister Ian Borg had announced that, after a decision “taken with the cabinet of ministers”, the super-regulator would be split in three.

Now that the military’s been sent in, comparisons between TM and post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina are automatic.

There was no official explanation for either of the two decisions but it’s ‘unusual’ for a prime minister to send in an army man to head transportation, especially considering the dearth of suited yes-people at his disposal in the pool of potential CEOs.

The public has only recently got to know about few of the scandals at the authority, those involving licensing scams and sexual harassment. But it’s not like Robert Abela doesn’t know about other deeply-embedded landmines that need clearing.

Top posts will become available in the new aviation and maritime authorities and there is no doubt they will be Abela loyalists. Now that he commands an unassailable majority, internal purges are to be expected. There will be a few surprises in the composition of the multitude of government boards and one wonders whether the updated rosters are a reflection of a prime minister wanting to exert total control on the day-to-day operation of the authorities or even limiting their scope.

It’s nothing too different from what we’ve seen before March: the Environment and Resources Authority, for one, has been the prized lapdog of arrogant road builders and greedy developers. Under Victor Axiak’s tenure, the authority has cowered to, or actively promoted, the wishes of Fortina and Infrastructure Malta by closing an eye to illegal works, or quietly changing permit conditions to facilitate developments under appeal.

Axiak had arrogantly blamed the residents of Marsascala for overdevelopment in their town while voting in favour of the contentious relocation of a waterpolo pitch to a residential area. The courts would revoke the permit after finding it breached the very policies which Axiak was hired to safeguard.

Similarly, his ERA followed the line of trying to imply that NGOs have no “judicial interest” in matters related to their very own raison d’être: another ruse which was decisively crushed by Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff in a landmark hearing.

Meanwhile, Alan Deidun, former NGO representative on the ERA board, resigned his post after the Comino kiosks debacle. I don’t blame him, for these wars of attrition can wear out the thickest of skins. The systematic trampling of laws and procedures, in the thriving culture of zero enforcement, is the perfect way to clog an authority into uselessness.

Labour were quick to pounce on Christopher Ciantar’s appointment as the PN’s representative following Simon Mizzi’s departure, made public at the same time as Deidun’s. They did so with a hint of acquired hypocrisy: in criticising Ciantar’s appointment for his proximity to George Pullicino and the disastrous 2006 local plans, Labour forgot to mention they used the same plans to facilitate the plans of many an electoral donor. That the PN, too, would want to open its own pro-development window on the ERA board would hardly be surprising. But that’s a stone Labour can’t throw, seeing they’re the ones sitting in the more expensive glasshouse.

The ERA has been the prized lapdog of arrogant road builders and greedy developers- Wayne Flask

That said, I don’t see how Axiak’s track record will see him head the authority again, unless, of course, some “continuity” with the past is needed. It would also beg the question as to why some ministers were booted to less important quarters but their acolytes left in key places by their colleagues.

The same could be said of Martin Saliba, one of the most servile CEOs the Planning Authority has ever seen but an honest analysis of this particular phenomenon deserves a column of its own.

Interestingly, while Transport Malta’s fate is in the hands of the military, a referee is taking over Infrastructure Malta.

Hopefully, Trustin Farrugia Cann – whose name rings like an Obama slogan – will set on redrawing the muddied lines and twisted goalposts left by his predecessor, who slithered from energy to road building ushering in a golden dawn of arrogance and bullying rarely seen since Lorry Sant’s days.

In this regard, the attention is on how IM will handle the contentious Msida and Mrieħel projects, which have incensed residents and farmers before the election. The opposition to both led them to be only temporary shelved, despite careless whispers in political circles hinting at their withdrawal. So far, Transport Minister Aaron Farrugia has been non-committal on amendments to original plans but made it clear he will go ahead.

I’d be tempted to ask when “all this” will stop and the day will finally come when there isn’t a single road diversion, a street being redone two years after it was built, a country lane being tarmacked and possibly widened or a roundabout that needs a new soulless monument to the gods of stone and steel.

But there are EU funds to be taken up, even if that means discarding more intelligent, cheaper solutions.

Abela has so far shown himself ruthless in the elimination of figures close to Muscat and Keith Schembri, from both government and party. But that line keeps getting blurrier. New faces emerge to replace deadwood and ‘enemies’ and the induction of family members to the circle cancels that line altogether.

Discordant voices in Labour have been kicked out, sideways, and back in again even before the last election. The composition of the authorities’ boards and the renewal or hiring of their CEOs and chairpersons will give another sign of Abela’s heavy-handed intentions to govern.

The smoke signals we’ve seen so far have been far from encouraging.