Secret diplomacy

The allegation made by Leo Brincat, Labour's spokesman on foreign affairs, that talks between Malta and Libya held earlier this month were kept secret, has been clearly and swiftly exposed as being utterly deceptive by Foreign Minister Michael Frendo.

I need not comment on that aspect of Mr Brincat's false statement any further, but I cannot resist wondering what made him commit such a blunder, and why he spoke in the same breath of a change in the nomination of an ambassador of Malta to Tripoli.

When I was appointed Secretary at the Foreign Ministry after the 1987 elections, I came across many instances when Mr Brincat made statements in parliament, or in the press, based on documents which moles in the ministry passed on to him.

These documents did not reveal any wrongdoing, and his interventions only went to confirm that there were officers at the ministry who showed that they owed loyalty to the Malta Labour Party, and not to the government democratically elected by the Maltese people.

Does this faux-pas on Mr Brincat's part reveal that moles are becoming scarce? And coming to think of it, what link, if any, is there with the nomination of a new person to the post of ambassador to Tripoli?

There is no diplomatic error in a minister exercising his right to appoint a person of his own choice to an ambassadorial post.

Dr Brincat does a disservice to serving officers when he speaks to show off that he knows allegedly confidential matters, without taking into account that he may be casting shadows on other people.

When I was Secretary at the Foreign Ministry his bravado led to mistrust among the staff, and to transfers of officers whom he unwittingly betrayed as being the suppliers of his information.

Finally, I find Mr Brincat's crusade against secret negotiations and for transparency as rather hollow and unconvincing. Was it not the Malta Labour Party, when in government, which negotiated a secret agreement on military matters with the communist regime of North Korea?