A minister stoops very low.

Politicians and irate ex-wives have much in common. In the achievement of their goals, both habitually fuse together isolated facts to cunningly fabricate a politically expedient version of events.

It is fair game for politicians to use these fact-warping techniques upon the opposing party or politicians because their victims have the necessary infrastructure to answer back either in Parliament or via the party media.

But the use of this technique upon defenceless non-political individuals is unacceptable. The man in the street has no defence mechanism against the might of a political attack.

A case in point was Minister Tonio Borg's heavy-handed treatment of his Ministry's Public Registry employees.

In a bid to kick-start the subcontracted computerisation of the search process, the Minister, crucified his own employees for charging unofficial manual search fees.

The Minister knows well enough that Registry employees have traditionally charged unofficial fees since time in memorial. In Malta, this was an accepted business usage. So, why did the Minister bring up the matter now?

These fine men and women at the Public Registry have provided a good painstaking service throughout the times. There was no need for the politically almighty Minister to bulldoze them in so shocking a manner just because their services are no longer required.

Every man and his dog can achieve his goals in so ruthless a manner.