Editorial

In the past week Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has continued to wade into the political equivalent of the Big Muddy. If he was waist deep last March, he is up to his neck now that people have had time to reflect. The more he talks, the more he risks drowning.

His PR offensive had started well on March 1, when in an opinion article in The Times he launched a pre-emptive strike against the Labour Party's expected assault on his connection with the Spin Valley disco in Mistra.

He wrote: "I own a plot of land near the sea which has been rented out to others for some time now. Three years ago, these others applied for a permit to build an underground lavatory and an open-air dance floor less than two metres high... The application has been pending all this time and no final decision has been made. I don't even know the applicants. I have never met them."

He insisted - and was believed by the public, the media and, it seems, the Prime Minister - that he was the victim of a smear campaign. His tears at one of the Nationalist Party's election rallies and dogged determination to put his case across may have even caused the then opposition leader to start believing him, since Alfred Sant did not release the most damning evidence until the very last day of the campaign.

But then the contract finally emerged between Dr Pullicino Orlando and Dominic Micallef Jr, who although not the official applicant - because he did not want his competitors to get wind of the disco plan - was certainly the man behind the project.

That contract, dated January 17, 2008, contained many details, such as the €1.9 million (Lm816,000) Dr Pullicino Orlando was due to receive over the 15-year rental period, the €349,000 (Lm150,000) in improvements the developer had bound himself to undertake at the site, as well as the precise nature of the operation of the disco. What other substantive details were there for Dr Pullicino Orlando to know?

And there was more. It also emerged that government officials and Malta Environment and Planning Authority board members had told police that Dr Pullicino Orlando, an MP who rode the wave of his green credentials, had urged them to "keep an eye" on and facilitate the application process.

Police concluded earlier this month that Dr Pullicino Orlando did not do anything illegal - though they charged two ex-members of the Development Control Commission along with a former tourism consultant in connection with the case - which prompted the MP to make a statement effectively saying he had been vindicated. He has not.

The Prime Minister immediately said he had seen nothing new to merit changing his decision not to offer Dr Pullicino Orlando a Cabinet position, which can only be seen as a vote of no confidence in the MP.

But Lawrence Gonzi has to go further than that. First, he must say in unequivocal terms whether it is acceptable for any Nationalist MP to contact Mepa with respect to their, or other people's, applications. Second, he should reveal - as he told this newspaper he would do once the police investigation was concluded, which it now is - whether he was misled on this case by Dr Pullicino Orlando.

Dr Pullicino Orlando has insisted throughout the past week - he unwisely took part in two television programmes - that he will not resign as an MP. But in the light of Dr Gonzi's statement, there is little point in him remaining.