Berta Sullivan
Comparisons are odious
During an interview in The Sunday Times (September 28) Joseph Muscat was asked: "Before coming to Brussels you campaigned strongly against Malta's accession to the EU. Do you admit now that you were wrong?" Dr Muscat replied: "First of all I wasn't alone. There were also others like me who today are very pro-Europe. When Tony Blair entered politics for the first time he campaigned for the UK's withdrawal from the EU. One of the best visionary speeches on Europe I've heard in my four-year stint as an MEP was from Blair".
In the same vein, during a television interview on our national station, Dr Muscat referred to Mr Blair's anti-EU stance alleging that as a candidate in 1983 Mr Blair was routing for the UK to withdraw from the European Union.
I quote what Mr Blair actually said in the "best visionary" speech Dr Muscat referred to, which was delivered to the European Parliament on June 23, 2005: "I am a passionate pro-European. I always have been. My first vote was in 1975 in the British referendum on membership and I voted yes. In 1983, when I was the last candidate in the UK to be selected shortly before that election and when my party had a policy of withdrawing from Europe, I told the selection conference that I disagreed with the policy. Some thought I had lost the selection. Some perhaps wish I had. I then helped change our policy in the 1980s and was proud of that change".
Mr Blair also said that when he was Prime Minister he signed the Social Chapter in 1997 (which was previously opposed by his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher), helped, along with France, to create the modern European Defence Policy, and played his part in the Amsterdam, the Nice and then the Rome treaties. Now, in all honesty, does this sound like a politician who, according to Dr Muscat, was campaigning for the UK's withdrawal from the EU?
More from Mr Blair: "Today, the EU stands as a monument to political achievement. Almost 50 years of peace, 50 years of prosperity, 50 years of progress. Think of it and be grateful". The thrust of Mr Blair's speech was the need for renewal: "The issue is not about the idea of the European Union. It is about modernisation. It is about policy. It is not a debate about how to abandon Europe but how to make it do what it was set up to do: Improve the lives of people". Anything but withdrawing from Europe or abandoning it, wouldn't you say?
For what it's worth, Dr Muscat was perhaps too young to remember what happened in 1975, in 1983 and in 1997 but, when, four years ago, in June 2005, Mr Blair publicly declared his passion for Europe and the British membership, Dr Muscat was supposedly a mature adult sporting a sharp memory. So, I ask, how could he have misunderstood and misinterpreted Mr Blair so very, very badly? What possible motive could he have had to mislead us so completely? Not once but twice in two different interviews!
Dr Muscat and Mr Blair lie poles apart. Mr Blair had the guts to go against the current and publicly declare his disagreement with his party's policy to withdraw from Europe. Dr Muscat, on the other hand, followed the current, advocated his party's policies (Malta à la Suisse and The Partnership) and subscribed staunchly to the "no to Europe" scaremongering campaign.
I don't believe that Dr Muscat is malicious by nature so, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I will ask again: Why cast imaginary shadows on an international figure? Is his memory so frail, so selective? Was this simply a case of being frivolous? If so, how often have Dr Muscat's speeches been laced with such superficial statements?
Mr Blair's concluding words can serve as a lesson to all who are aspiring to a Premiership: "In my time as Prime Minister, I have found that the hard part is not taking the decision, it is spotting when it has to be taken".
Dr Muscat missed the opportunity to take his words back or to come out with some simple justification for such a gigantic misrepresentation of the truth. From this day forth I will only accept his statements with a pinch of salt, if at all!
(The full text of Mr Blair's speech can be read on www.number10.gov.uk/Page7712.)
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G. Curmi
Oct 30th 2008, 13:51
@ Mr. Gerard Cassar
Please allow me to invite you to carefully re-read my post for better understanding.
What I wrote was "Dr. Muscat unsuccessfully tries to compare himself favourably with Mr. Blair. In your dreams Dr. Muscat. One can imagine you somewhere down the line trying to compare yourself favourably with Winston Churchill or Mahatma Ghandi."
At no point did I mention anything about Dr. Muscat imitating those illustrious gentlemen - although perhaps he should consider imitating them. I simply pointed out that Dr. Muscat is unsuccessfully attempting to compare himself favourably without someone who clearly outclasses him - Mr. Blair.
May I suggest to you and Mr. I. Galea that when you write, your (red - MLP) slips are showing?
Gerard Cassar
Oct 25th 2008, 17:58
Mr Curmi. Ghandi and Churchill are two outstanding persons with two different ideologies One insisted for the freedom of his country against a Colonial Regime the other fought to keep his country free from a Nazi anf Fascist regime. He even allied with his worst ennemy the Communist USSR or URSS as one pleases to call Russia. Both succeeded
Both are considered models to imitate. So what's wrong to try to imitate them. One has to start to reach the higher echelon. May Gonzi try too. No wrong. Efa tried unseccessfully. Dom Tried and succeeded 3/4.Way back Borg Olivier succedd 3/4 and went back 1/2 and settled with 1/4. Nerik Mizzi tried but succeeded failed with a 0 result.. Every one who endeavours to run a country have models to imitate. Nothing wrong with that. A person in authority without a target is not a valid person. Has no direction. He is a flop.
l Galea
Oct 24th 2008, 22:46
Alfred Camilleri
The little elves are those who see nothing wrong with the PN Government when it has led us into this abyss with its mismanagement.
Alfred Camilleri
Oct 24th 2008, 19:10
Poor lil'elves, as our ABC likes to call them. Their frustration still shows 7 months after the Event. What am I saying, 7 months? They've been at it for 21 years, except for a hiccup lasting less than 2 years.
The NP government can do nothiing right. Labour, even if it were to be led by Gahan, can never do anything wrong.
Makes one wonder why they have spent all these years in the wilderness.
G. Curmi
Oct 24th 2008, 16:01
There is nothing wrong with Berta's comments. Why should she not refer to Joseph Muscat's misleading comments and evasive answers? Was Joseph Muscat not opposed to Malta's entry into the EU and then had the gall to stand for election and put his time in the European Parliament? Dr. Muscat unsuccessfully tries to compare himself favourably with Mr. Blair. In your dreams Dr. Muscat. One can imagine you somewhere down the line trying to compare yourself favourably with Winston Churchill or Mahatma Ghandi.
l Galea
Oct 24th 2008, 15:30
Gerard Cassar
Good comments.
The same situation was repeated when EFA surrendered Malta to the eu.
Gerard Cassar
Oct 24th 2008, 15:12
Ms Bertha Sullivan go to the Parliament archives find references to Malta Independence. Find references to a blunt declaration by your Minister of Education DR. Paris. : He was speaking on behalf of the P.N. He stated, as shown in the debates: “Independence for Malta is an utopia.”
What are you and the P.N., mostly proud of? Independence to Malta!
That is admitted. We saw the Floriana ceremony. Dr. Borg Olivier waving the Independence constitution book. What not every body saw is the protesters headed by Mr.Dom Mintoff personally protesting not against independence but against the treaty that was hidden under the desk on that faithful day. The treaty that was a surrender treaty, just like that of a defeated country. Yes it is confirmed that the P.N. did not believe in Independence, because the same pen used to sign the treaty was used to sign the surrender so called “Mutual (sic) defence agreement".Giving back Malta to be occupied by Britain.
P.Schembri
Oct 24th 2008, 13:12
Still clutching at straws by the looks of it. They don't know what they are going to criticise Labour for, so they look back in the history books. What a laughable situation.
Kurt Falzon
Oct 24th 2008, 13:05
I cannot understand why you are raising the EU controversy again? Haven't we had enough of this issue now?
l Galea
Oct 24th 2008, 12:53
Berta,
what has a speech made in 2005 got to do with what Blair had said more than 30 years before?
P.Schembri
Oct 24th 2008, 11:41
How right you are the comparisons are odious. Under the labour government, even during an oil crisis, we didn't even suffer the huge tariffs we're going through, and you Ms. Sullivan all you have to talk about is something, that although it is documented, you still try to renege everything to your liking.
Joe Vella
Oct 24th 2008, 10:16
Now Berta, you couldn't be refering to our Joseph, the new Messiah.