The GWU studies: an anti-EU conspiracy?

Almost a month has passed since The Times publicly exposed the General Workers Union, the largest trade union in Malta, for concealing from its thousands of members and the public at large, vital self-commissioned EU-related studies.

The studies made it abundantly clear that it would be advantageous for Malta and for the workers to join the EU in the first upcoming enlargement.

The GWU happens to have a long history of active connivance with the Malta Labour Party, the only social democratic party in Europe that is against EU membership. Furthermore, the Union's most revered consultant is Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, the leader of the Campaign for National Independence. The CNI is viscerally anti-EU.

As time went by, other newspapers, including The Sunday Times, revealed more GWU-commissioned reports which all suggest that it would be detrimental for Malta and the workers not to join now. One of the reports, it must be recalled, made it clear that "shelving" the EU application would have highly detrimental effects for the nation as a whole.

The revelation came days after Dr Alfred Sant made the impulsive suggestion on "shelving" in his weekly column in The Times entitled "Pronto". One cannot blame critics for having started to refer to Dr Sant as "Mr Pronto".

After the "shelving" fiasco he had two other pronto ideas that boomeranged. He got the history wrong on Dr George Bonello DuPuis. His memory was also shown lacking when he likened the Nationalist boycott on the EU referendum to the boycott on the Integration. Dr Sant never recovered from the salvos fired in retort by Notary Bonello DuPuis and Professor Joe Pirotta.

For weeks the GWU leaders, known for their effusive traits, said nothing on the revelations on the studies other than a "no comment". The union's large-circulation newspapers, l-Orizzont and It-Torca never printed a word. But when the pressure mounted, It-Torca carried an interview with GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb, last Sunday, while l-Orizzont commented editorially last Wednesday.

The GWU leader admitted that the studies had been carried out but was rather purse-lipped on issues such as why asking the union's general conference to take a vote on the EU while concealing the reports.

On the issue of the GWU studies, Dr Sant keeps a deafening silence, as does the party's powerful media machine, which includes a television station, a radio station, a Sunday newspaper and an electronic daily newspaper.

If anyone is to believe that the GWU-commissioned studies on EU membership were not available to both Dr Sant and to Dr Mifsud Bonnici, its top legal adviser, then one can believe that it snows in Malta in summer. On the GWU studies the CNI too acted like the three monkeys.

Another body that for weeks remained silent on the issue was the News Division of PBS which is consistently instrumentalised by the anti-EU brigade. While this conspiracy of silence began to founder, the Broadcasting Authority has allowed itself to be entangled in the web with its draconian decision against PBS on the MLP spots issue. I shall explain.

While PBS, with the blessing of the Broadcasting Authority, regularly broadcasts 'news items' lifted from discussions on a private station (PBS does not have the decency to say that the radio is Super One) it did not see any news value in lifting The Times and The Sunday Times revelations on the GWU studies on the EU. The event has hitherto been only mentioned once, and en passant, in the 8 p.m. news and this was when quoting the Prime Minister personally referring to the case.

For at least seven consecutive Thursdays, PBS reported speeches made by Dr Sant during 'meetings' with self-employed and other groups. On the seven consecutive Thursdays neither PBS nor Super One showed any film footage of Dr Sant's hustings. Quite a curious coincidence that the two stations which follow Dr Sant everywhere, had a 'story' but no film on seven occasions.

Invariably the EU membership comes under fire when Mr Pronto speaks. It is also a well known fact that such Thursday meetings stories are not covered by PBS staffers. The content of these meetings imparted in the 8 p.m. prime time news bulletin and other television news plus radio news, is actually a press release entirely produced and communicated by the MLP when and where it deems fit as if it owned PBS.

That stories on public events are allowed to be carried by PBS when not covered by staffers does not seem to bother the Broadcasting Authority; this is only one example of the combination of the BA's deplorable inertia and naiveté. In so doing the BA wittingly or unwittingly feeds the insatiable crocodile of television by press release.

Can the taxpayers who pay for both the Broadcasting Authority and the PBS know whether during any of these Thursday meetings by Dr Sant anyone present asked about the GWU studies? The BA's failure to do nothing in such cases of engineered news further demonstrates this important institution's ostrich-like character.

The concealment of important details on PBS when it comes to coverage of the EU issue is another important factor in the anti-European brigade's strategy. Key soundbites such as those deriding the concept of Switzerland in the Mediterranean are often cut and several reports lack whatever it takes beyond relaying press releases.

The recent European Parliament vote on abortion is one of many cases in point. Why is it that PBS did not say that the vast majority of the MEPs who voted 'yes' for abortion were Social Democrats and Greens? Only nerds would believe this is the product of consistent journalistic lapses.

The revelation of the GWU commissioned studies should have stirred up a more active debate in the country. But the MLP-GWU propaganda machine continues to sprinkle decoys to alienate public attention. Furthermore the IVA movement, composed of well-meaning people but who have no clue of communicating with the media and the public, seems only to exist on paper. IVA has to date failed miserably in its brief.

In contrast, the MIC, quite rightly, sticks to its brief and imparts only irrefutable facts. This is why it is constantly under fire. Its slots on the crucifix in classes, on abortion, on overtime and other topics are far outnumbered by the free coverage the anti-EU brigade gets on TVM news day in day out.

The secrecy followed by deafening silence on the GWU studies on Malta and the EU by the anti-EU brigade has all the ingredients of a conspiracy. It also gives an inkling of what the MLP means by the slogan "rajna f'idejna". The democratic, economic, political and social agenda behind this concealment must be unmasked.