The nationalist party had promised to present proof that it was Joseph Muscat who had given the game away about the PL’s targeting of JPO for the Mistra affair. We’re still waiting for concrete proof- if there is any beyond the words of PN officials. In any case though the whole story of Joseph’s blabbing away the news is not entirely new since Joe Saliba had in fact mentioned it in an interview four years ago. It explains why the whole business kept ringing a bell.
PN Secretary General Paul Borg Olivier told us all this in a press conference this afternoon. He showed a clip of Joseph Muscat warning of the hot news that would be out in the forthcoming days. Not exactly proof of blabbing in a party.
Well, the Mistra Leak saga goes on but J’accuse is interested in one particular bit of information. Towards the end of the Times article reporting the press conference we find the following:
The issue now was not Mistra itself, Dr Paul Borg Olivier said, but how Dr Muscat was now trying to hide his actions.
A very telling phrase that. A Borg Olivier slip I would add. Why? Because it betrays an eagerness to shift the focus of what actually happened at Mistra back in 2008 to the nonsensical charade of leak accusations that really gets us nowhere. In actual fact shifting the focus away from Mistra means shifting the focus away from the fact that JPO’s dealings were not exactly kosher – whether with or without the knowing connivance of PN officials.
That same non-kosher JPO was part of the team that won the right to govern (and he garnered over 5000 votes). That same JPO of the shady Mistra dealings now sits in an uncomfortable cohabitation with the PN government. Of course PBO would love us to think that the issue is not Mistra itself.
Otherwise we would be forced to realise that this government is now making pacts with an Independent MP who still has a lot to answer for with regard to his dealings in Mistra Valley.
The heat continues. The Times reported JPO’s latest dramatic act with the following headline: “JPO tells Speaker he considers himself in coalition with the government.” My first reaction was something to the extent of thinking that JPO can call the relationship whatever he bloody well likes. Then I read the article and found the letter that JPO had written to the Speaker.
“Mr Speaker
I would like to inform you that I have resigned from the Nationalist Party. I have informed the leader of the party Dr. Lawrence Gonzi that, while I still consider him to be the Prime Minister of Malta, I no longer form part of his parliamentary group and do not consider the PN parliamentary whip as having any form of authority with regard to my actions in the coming months. I intend to continue serving out my term in the House of Representatives as an independent member.
Yours,
Dr. Jeffrey Pullicino Orland M.P.”
Nice isn’t it? Jeffrez informs the Speaker that (a) he no longer forms part of the PN parliamentary group, (b) that he does not consider the PN parliamentary whip as having any form of authority over him, and (c) that he will serve the rest of his term as an independent member.
The Times then asked the Speaker’s office for more details and someone at the speaker’s office said that “Dr Pullicino Orlando explained that he considers himself as being in a coalition with the government and he will continue to support the government in parliament unless he declares otherwise for some specific motion or bill. ”
So Pullicino Orlando said, presumably over the phone, something that was clearly not specified in the letter. I’m guessing the term was used loosely because – as has been exhaustively explained before… IT’S NOT A COALITION. What really jars is that the Department of Information throws in this addendum conjuring up the ghost of coalitions. Here is how MaltaToday reported it:
“The statement, issued through the Department of Information, added that Pullicino Orlando is considering himself to be in coalition with government.”
It’s not irrelevant. This is a concerted attempt to denigrate the idea of a coalition. It is obvious to anyone who cares to invest a little time in informed research that the situation has nothing to do with a coalition. It is a crying shame if the Department of Information and/or the Speaker’s office has joined the idiots engaging in this kind of misinformation.
Over at the Runs there seems to be some backtracking about whether or not the JPO-PN arrangement is actually a coalition. It would seem that someone more competent than Daphne wrote a guest-post upon invitation clarifying why the JPO and PN arrangement is not a coalition: An Independent-Nationalist, not a ‘coalition’. Well there’s nothing new there that we have not been saying before (More Lessons in Irrelevance – 19/07/12)) or that has not been said clearly by James Debono (This is not a coalition – 20/07/12).
There is an effort though to shoot down the term cohabitation:
So, please, let’s use political terms properly and correctly. ‘Cohabitation’ has also been floating around on the internet. But that only happens in France – and the United States, without the term being used as such – when a president with executive powers does not enjoy the support of the majority in the National Assembly, or in the case of the United Staes, of Congress.
Which is stretching things a little bit isn’t it? The anonymous guest poster does point to the UK example of a Conservative MP resigning the party whip and being called an Independent-Conservative. Bollocks. That’s not true. They are called nothing of the sort. They either resign the party whip and become independent or resign the party whip and cross the floor. Here is a list of British politicians who have done so since (hold your breath) 1698. There’s no such nonsense as an Independent-Conservative as there is no such nonsense as an Independent-Nationalist.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando famously “felt liberated” after resigning from the Nationalist Party. He is no longer a member. He is not an Independent-Nationalist. He is an independent MP who has opted for cohabitation with the nationalist MPs on the strength of a number of terms. His vote is conditional on the PN adhering to the electoral manifesto.
He reiterated that he would continue to collaborate with the government on the points listed in the electoral programme but said it would be a mistake by the prime minister if he did not consult him on a one-on-one basis as agreed, on matters which were not specifically mentioned in the electoral programme. This also included the Budget.
There you go. It’s not a coalition. He is not an independent-nationalist.
1. The current arrangement is not a coalition. It’s cohabitation, stupid.
2. Gonzi’s right to govern is as legitimate today as it was on March 10th 2008.
3. There has still not been a successful vote of no confidence in this government. There is therefore no reason for this government to resign.
4. The cohabitation is based on an agreement on the electoral manifesto – a surprising revival of the role of the electoral manifesto. So long as the PN sticks to the manifesto JPO will vote along with the PN (funny how we thought it was the duty of every MP to do that).
5. Speculation on the date of an electoral showdown has to be linked to the eventuality of a meltdown in parliament – with JPO pulling the plug. Chances of an early post-summer election are increasing.
6. Considering that there is a world outside Malta and that September 12th is an important day for the European Emergency Economy measures (on that day a German court will rule whether the measures comply with national law), do not underestimate the importance of the next Budget. Will this financial measure be the PN’s trojan horse – forcing JPO to vote it down and call it a day or will efforts be made to get this through before any electoral gamesmanship comes into play?
7. Distractions will abound over the summer. Don’t expect them to be relevant to the election or to the next choice that the electorate has to make with regards to what is the best choice for the next government.
7.1 Note to Labour: try spending your holidays getting acquainted with that piece of paper we call the constitution. It helps to be informed.
7.2 Note to John Dalli: Let us forget for one minute the decorum that should be associated with the post of a Commissioner of the European Union, I would suggest a chat with Neeli Kroes. Given how she is Commissioner for the Digital Agenda she might know a thing or two about blogs, comments and hacks. What you saw were not blogs. Thanks to Josanne Cassar who runs an interview website we found out how to access these “blogs”: google : “john dalli cv eu”. Turns out that the “blogs” are one-post wonders – simple setups that were created on anonymous sites to disseminate information about alleged discrepancies in John Dalli’s CV. The only relevant point here is whether it was someone from within the PN doing this job – as in we would confirm the obvious: that internal party struggles get dirty. Nothing to write home about – let alone write to the police. It figures though, no real bloggers are involved in this mess. No, John, not even the Bidnija Witch.
7.3 Franco Debono will continue his zen blogging on www.francodebono.com and expect blog posts to become more frequent whenever the media finds another focus. JPO is set to become resident pundit on Labour media while the Times of Malta will continue to print anything that it receives in its newsroom from garbled press releases to unconfirmed allegations to the coma-inducing comments in the comment boards.
7.4 Boiler Number 7. Where are you?
8. You will not be able to discuss and compare the political party’s electoral proposals over a glass of wine by the sea in the evening. You have no policies to discuss yet. You just have Dallas, Dynasty, Eastenders and more being played out on the news. If it’s not a Commissioner riding the wave of disgruntlement to repeat a nauseating grudge then it’s the media spin about “coalitions” and how wrong they are for the country.
When if we were judging by the choices that people made last election then the worst thing the country can do is vote the PLPN duopoly back into parliament.
Joseph Muscat is away in Italy on holiday but the Times still reports him as “speaking on the radio this morning”. Well, J’accuse has not given someone the Lorna Treatment for quite some time and why not give it a try with Full of Potential Joseph? From the article entitled “PL well prepared for an election“.
The Labour Party is focused on the country’s problems (really? Like JPO, Dalli and Mistragate? Are they the country’s problems?) and the electoral manifesto it was working upon (working upon? For a party that acts as though there should be an election tomorrow the least you would expect is a FINISHED manifesto) was not a wish list, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking during a radio interview (recorded anyone? hello? Times of Malta?), Dr Muscat said the country needed a road map for economic growth (yes Joseph and that would include concrete measures) and the private sector had to be allowed to work to create this (and a square has four sides and the sun always rises in the East). It was only in this way that deficit could be reduced in a sustainable way.
The Labour leader referred to the current political situation and said there had not been as much consensus as now on a political matter for a long time (ok this one is as enigmatic as whether a Labour manifesto really exists).
Everyone realised that it was time for the Prime Minister to call an election but Lawrence Gonzi wanted to keep the country hostage for a bit more (hostage? This gets at me big time. What exactly is being kept hostage?).
The PL had been very careful and it was not calling for a general election itself (snigger, snigger, snigger, another vote of confidence perhaps?) but all civil society and the media, irrespective of whether they supported Labour or PN, were doing so (no they aren’t – it’s Varist and Leo on Facebook who are spreading misinformation on the constitution or JPO asking the President to do things he isn’t obliged to do), because this was what common sense dictated (common sense dictates that there is no need for an election until the government loses a vote in parliament).
Dr Gonzi, however, wanted to remain at Castille for a bit more (yes, the electoral mandate) and the more he continued acting in this manner, the more beneficial it was for the Labour Party (at most they get more time to finish the electoral manifesto for an election they don’t want themselves).
Dr Muscat said that as a result of the Prime Minister’s behaviour, decisions which had to be taken were not being taken and the GonziPN clique was greatly damaging the Nationalist Party and genuine Nationalists (and he’s worried).
However, the ball was in the Prime Minister’s court and the decision that had to be taken is his responsibility (he’s taken it Joseph. You’re going to have to wait till there is a vote in parliament).
In spite of the fear campaigns being carried out at several places, including at SR Technics and at Air Malta, the PL, he said, was well prepared for an election (it’s not – it has a manifesto to finish), whenever this may come and the main issue now was what was happening in the country and the Prime Minister’s attitude (his attitude? Ah yes, the country. Remember that one Joseph? Beyond the cliques, the grudges and the splits – there IS a country to run).
Dr Muscat said he would have expected the Prime Minister to put the people’s mind at rest about what was happening in the health sector. The situation was disgraceful with medicine not being bought and tenders being given but orders not being made.
He said it seemed this was because there was a problem of a lack of funds. But if there was a sector where this should not be an issue, it was the health sector, which should be treated as a priority (Is this health bit an addendum, like when you get tired of taking notes in a lecture and suddenly your notes become unlinked and sporadic?).
It’s the battle of the leaks. You can barely read a bit of news nowadays without a leak being mentioned somewhere or other. So who gave the game away to the Nationalist party that Dr Sant had a trick up his sleeve? Who gave away the hints that it would be Mistra and that JPO would be the target? Who in the Nationalist party leaked the parts of the contract to the Labour party so that they could make a meal out of JPO? Who knew about the leaks? Who stayed mum?
You hear so much about the leaks going this way and that that after a while you forget what was actually leaked. Then you get caught in the cross-fire discussing the leaks and before you know it Joseph Muscat is accusing the PN of being inconsistent in their lies (you can only lie consistently). It’s a short step away from Alice’s Wonderland. It’s not so much reading the news as deciphering it. After a while you really have to take a deep breath and wonder – but what is all this really about?
What do we learn from the leaks business? Not much really. We already knew that both our main political parties could number enough slime-balls among them to be able to throw a successful Back Stab Themed Party (no harm or pun intended). We learnt that at some point in the campaign someone in the nationalist party found out about JPO’s Mistra dealings and started a damage limitation exercise because the Labour party were onto the said dealings.
We learnt that the damage limitation exercise is what we saw unfold before our eyes – the hounding of Alfred Sant by watery eyed JPO. The PN provided him with a press card (Press Ethics? What Press Ethics?) they shuttled him around yelling at the Leader of the Opposition like a mad man. And now we have it on the authority of Gordon Pisani (PN Communications man) that the services of Daphne Caruana Galizia were enrolled in order to ghost write an article for the hapless dentist who in the meantime kept (according to the latter day version) lying through his teeth about the Mistra situation.
Now we don’t really care whether DCG is ghost writing per amor patriae (dulce et decorum est) or for mercenary remuneration (or we wouldn’t care had this actually not been denied many a time when the question was asked) – her work, her business, her rewards after all. After all we too share the immense fear of seeing Joseph Muscat elected to government come next election so we should keep mum about the fishy picture that is emerging here.
It’s hard really for the non-partisan observer to separate the wheat from the chaff. We’ve hardly begun to ask the questions actually. The problem is that no one has. The press are busy reporting allegations about leak and counter leak but fail to want to dig deeper. And when people like Daphne ask very pertinent questions .- such as was the RCC conversation that appeared on ONE News the result of an illegal phone tap – you cannot help but remember that this is a person who ghost writes for the spin machine of one party so there is always the suspicion of a tint of bias. Incidentally, the Super ONE spin on that conversation is one hell of a mindfu*k. Implika????
The Labour party is having a free ride on non-sequiturs, basing itself on the biggest non-sequitur of all: if the others are swimming in shit then we must be right. Joseph Muscat is on a roll sending irrelevant message after irrelevant message out to the electorate without even trying to fake any interest in real policy and real ideas. There they go again cracking stupid jokes about Gonzi’s Coalition with JPO and how this is about “Flimkien Kollox Possibli”. The Labour party was even unable to see the real purpose of this parliamentary recess and is still hoping that some new twist will happen that will precipitate the end of this government. They still think JPO is relevant. They still have no idea about how the constitution works and how governments are formed or fall. Yes, the Labour machine is still fuelled by ignorance.
Do you know who the biggest loser is? The biggest loser in all this is the voter. The more I speak to people the more I get the same reply. “U mhux kollox jibqa l-istess la jghaddi dan kollu. Flok buzillis wiehed ikun hemm iehor u xorta jien inhallas u nidghi“.
Well, at least our quoting Tommasi di Lampedusa millions of times in the past eight years might finally make sense.
Because yes, once the fireworks are over, once the cacophony dies down and the new die is cast then you realise that for all the main protagonists in this saga there is one thing that is more irrelevant than anything else – and that is you… the voter.
Or in the words of the Italian poet (yes, the Italian of Espresso, Panorama and Corriere della Sera):
This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to provide a more personalized experience and to track your whereabouts around our website in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation. If you decide to to opt-out of any future tracking, a cookie will be setup in your browser to remember this choice for one year.
