PM, Sant in heated radio debate

The Prime Minister yesterday accused Labour leader Alfred Sant of "unfair" and "unethical behaviour" in the way he was treating journalists in the last part of the general election campaign.

During an animated two-hour debate between the two leaders broadcast jointly on RTK and Radio Malta, Dr Fenech Adami said that the way the Labour Party was behaving with the media exposed its state of panic. He said that over the past days it become evident that Dr Sant was not prepared to submit himself to the "test of the media" and had become "intolerant" towards journalists.

The debate between the two leaders was presented by PBS journalist Ivan Camilleri and RTK head of news Sylvana de Bono. Dr Sant said he was participating in the debate under protest.

During the debate Dr Sant indicated that if elected, he would close down Malta's embassy in The Hague, claiming that there was no need for it.

Dr Fenech Adami referred to "attacks against journalists" last week, including the occasion when Dr Sant interrupted an interview with The Times and stormed out of his own office. There were also various other instances where journalists were not being given the opportunity to ask Dr Sant questions, he remarked.

"These events have made people realise that Dr Sant and his party are panicking and have become nervous," Dr Fenech Adami said.

But Dr Sant denied the accusations claiming that part of the media was participating in the political game. A section of the media was also blocking the party's messages instead of transmitting them. He said it was also evident that there was an element of political manipulation going on.

Asked to specify whom he had in mind, Dr Sant mentioned The Times and The Malta Independent.

He also claimed that certain journalists thought they could take over certain press conferences organised by the Labour Party. He said that there were time constraints during press conferences and that was the reason the number of questions was limited.

Dr Sant also accused The Times and PBS of not giving the two parties equal time. He said that The Times was giving the MLP a fraction of the space it was giving the Nationalists.

He complained about the behaviour of a journalist during an interview at his office last week, insisting that journalists were not supposed to get involved in controversies of a partisan nature.

During the debate, both Dr Fenech Adami and Dr Sant made it clear that there should be no problem in the interpretation of the general election result, whatever the outcome.

Both leaders said the Constitution spoke clearly about the interpretation of the result and that they were committed to abide by the outcome.

For instance, Dr Sant said, if only two parties were represented in Parliament but neither of two obtained the absolute majority of votes, the party which got a relative majority would win the election.

Dr Sant said that in the case of only two parties getting seats in Parliament, the Constitution also catered for the situation which may arise, where a party has a majority of votes and minority of parliamentary seats: in such a case the party with the majority would be given the extra necessary seats required to ensure governability.

Dr Fenech Adami also mentioned another possible scenario. He said that in the case that the three parties managed to obtain seats in Parliament, the Constitution states that the party with a majority of seats will govern: "For instance, if the MLP gets 49 per cent of votes and the Nationalist gets 48 per cent of the votes... If AD get one seat in parliament and the Nationalist Party get a majority of two seats in Parliament, the Nationalist Party would be in government."

Asked whether he would abide by this result, Dr Sant stressed once again he would definitely abide by the Constitution.

During the debate, Dr Fenech Adami confronted Dr Sant about his interpretation of the March 8 referendum result. The Prime Minister said that although it was crystal-clear that the referendum was won by those in favour of membership, which obtained 54 per cent of the valid votes, Dr Sant kept insisting that this was not the case.

"I stress that democracy requires everyone to respect the result in favour of Malta's EU membership. For Dr Sant to claim victory is a democratic heresy."

Dr Fenech Adami said that as soon as the referendum result was out, it became evident that Dr Sant was not willing to give his party the time to reflect about it.

Dr Fenech Adami said, he was doing something different, in this campaign, because he was visiting homes: "I am meeting Labour supporters who are telling me that Dr Sant has left them no option but to vote PN, especially, when he said he would not sign the accession treaty on April 16."

Dr Fenech Adami stressed that Saturday's general election was extraordinary because it was an important "test for our democracy."

But Dr Sant said that the consultative referendum of last month had the same destiny of the referendum held in 1956 on integration with Britain and the 1964 referendum on the independence Constitution. He said that both referendum results were open to two different interpretations.

On the March 8 referendum outcome, Dr Sant stressed that his interpretation of the result was "politically and morally valid".

Dr Fenech Adami also accused Dr Sant of creating serious anxiety among HSBC employees over his declaration on the future of HSBC under a Labour government. He said that Dr Sant's declarations on HSBC - the largest bank in the world - had damaged Malta's credibility.

But Dr Sant said that depositors, employees and shareholders should not be concerned over his statements about HSBC. He urged depositors to keep their money at HSBC since this was "a very strong bank."

He said that if elected, a Labour government would start discussions with HSBC to ensure that the bank would honour certain commitments it had made to its employees and not kept, and to discuss the bank's dominant position in the market.

Dr Fenech Adami also told Dr Sant that if he won the general election and did not go to sign the EU accession treaty in Athens on April 16, he would bring disaster to the country and he would turn the country into a "laughing stock" around the world.

But Dr Sant said that Dr Fenech Adami's attempts to frighten people were pathetic. He said that his government will negotiate the partnership option and that afterwards he will hold another referendum for the people to choose between partnership and membership. He said he would implement whatever the people decided in that referendum.

"How can I sign the accession treaty on April 16 when I am aware that the parliamentary majority in Malta would not vote to ratify the treaty."

At this point Dr Fenech Adami accused Dr Sant of trying to take people for a ride and insisted that if Malta did not sign the accession treaty on April 16: "our unique opportunity to join the EU will be lost."

Dr Fenech Adami also questioned Dr Sant's statement that if he were elected, he could not sign the treaty because the majority of the Maltese MPs would not vote for its ratification.

He said that there were people close to Dr Sant, including former ministers, who were in favour of Malta's membership. He accused Dr Sant of running his party by diktat and of hijacking his own party.

To this claim, Dr Sant said Dr Fenech Adami was lying when he said that there were Labour MPs in favour of Malta's EU membership. He challenged Dr Fenech Adami to name these MPs.

Dr Fenech Adami replied by mentioning Labour MP Chris Cardona.

The Labour media subsequently reported that Dr Cardona planned to file a libel suit against the prime minister.

The debate ended with a heated argument between the two leaders. Dr Fenech Adami accused Dr Sant of making a U-turn when he decided to participate in the debate. He told Dr Sant that he had only decided to take part in the debate at the eleventh hour after speaking to the Broadcasting Authority chairman Joseph Said Pullicino and he was told that the programme was going ahead with or without him.

Dr Fenech Adami said that Dr Sant was originally refusing to participate in the debate broadcast on the two stations because of one of the journalists presenting the programme.

But Dr Sant denied Dr Fenech Adami's statements claiming that he had tried to show solidarity with the PBS journalists and wanted to give them priority because over the past years the only people who invited him to participate in PBS programmes were "contractors" and not staff journalists.

Dr Fenech Adami ended the debate by stealing one of Dr Sant's famous clichés: "I agree that we all have to remain cool and relaxed and I am cool and relaxed. It is a pity that not everyone seems cool and relaxed."