Our View: Form takes precedence over content

All ministers and deputy ministers will gather at the presidential residence in Troodos today for an ‘informal’ meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides. This would not be a council of ministers meeting, as one was held in Nicosia on Thursday, with under-secretary to the president, Irene Piki, clarifying that no decisions would be taken on the mountains.

Instead, this would be an opportunity for ministries and deputy ministries to present their targets and priorities, “to see what we are aiming for in the next period, based on the people-centric programme of the president of the republic,” Piki had told Cyprus News Agency.

“A brainstorming will take place, an exchange of views,” said Piki, explaining that the procedure that would be followed “will probably start with a positioning by the president, how he views we must proceed, which must be the priorities, which are the main issues that we will deal with and then of course there will be positioning by all the ministers and deputy ministers.”

This is a perfect illustration of the government’s obsession with form and disregard of content. This government trades in vagueness and shuns the specifics of government which it dutifully avoids. Piki spoke about targets and priorities that will be presented by ministers, implying the president does not know what these are and will find out about them during the informal meeting on Troodos during the brainstorming session.

It is all about the form because presentation is all that matters for the president. Piki did not give a hint of a specific example of the priorities and targets that would be discussed at the meeting, apart from revealing that this will be based on another nebulous concept – the ‘people-centric’ programme of the president. The overriding impression is that the government, after being in power for five months, does not really know what its priorities and targets actually are, but might find out during the brainstorming session.

Even the decisions taken and marketed as radical innovations involve the setting up of more committees – as if there are not currently enough delaying decision-making – to create the impression of better government. The so-called ‘Opinion council’ that will accept applications and make proposals to government regarding appointments to semi-governmental boards is little more than a publicity gimmick.

As for the ‘group monitoring the government’s work,’ which will be under the authority of Piki, it is difficult to understand its role. Piki said it would ensure “the implementation of government programme” and monitor this in “a much more systematic way than is being done today.” The group, which will be made up of about 12 civil servants, will presumably check that ministers are doing their job competently and efficiently, because in previous governments, presumably they did as they pleased. Even if the president wanted ministerial work monitored, could this not have been done discreetly, without the public fanfare?