Hypocrisy exposed
The Prime Minister is on record as saying that Franco Debono, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett will have to face “consequences”, the latter two for the way they voted on the Richard Cachia Caruana motion, and the former presumably for forcing a ministerial resignation.
Life has a way of exposing hypocrisy...
- Victor Laiviera, Naxxar
Just over a year ago when, during the vote on divorce in Parliament, Labour MP Adrian Vassallo voted against, Labour Leader Joseph Muscat said there would be “consequences”.
The PN media and its allies accused the PL of all sort of heinous things, not least among them of being intolerant of dissent.
Life has a way of exposing hypocrisy, but it is not often that it does it with such satisfying swiftness and thoroughness.
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Carmel camilleri
Jun 27th 2012, 16:58
Has Adrian Vassallo voted with the Government or abstained.?Just for expressing himself against the party line on divorce Adrian was given the cold shoulder and i am sure he will not be elected if the party accepts him for the next election. So just imagine if he went further and behaved as the three Nats MPs . Victor as an exponent of your party you should have known what Adrian said on the media about the democratic credentials of your party.
Francis Sammut
Jun 26th 2012, 16:32
They didn't have a free vote, but vote they must.. They had a free vote, but vote they must. Pray, tell, why vote at all, then?
Mr leo attard
Jun 26th 2012, 15:12
why are governments so afraid of making the voting system anonymous in parliament. only an idiot would deny that standing up in front of your boss and colleagues is going to put pressure and one will not vote as he / she thinks fit --- anonymous voting is the only way to remedy this
Kenneth Cassar
Jun 27th 2012, 09:03
Since we elect members of parliament, we have every right to know how they vote.
Edward Mallia
Jun 26th 2012, 14:01
Constant bitching by the blind partisans of both major parties is now passing all bounds of common decency. There are also large and not well considered assumptions involved. Let's take Adrian Vassallo first: whatever Dr. Muscat said, the constant repetition of the mantra that as "the people" voted for divorce then Adrian Vassallo was in duty bound to vote likewise seems to me fake. The people elected a person to represent them, not be be their zombie in parliament. He may agree with their views on a specific issue and he may not. But he is not there to take orders; how could he possibly fulfill a zombie brief, for example when faced with a deluge of requests for cushy jobs. On the "plus"? side, Adrian Vassallo did have the sense to brazen it [his divorce vote] out; Dr Gonzi suffered a self-inflicted "hernia" -- by voting against "the people's" wishes while trying to curry votes from the same "people" by assuring them he had taken care to ensure that the "yes" vote had a majority.
On the PN side, there was I believe a "party whip" on the two anti-person motions. By normal party rules -- not being a member of a party I am not passing judgement on their "democratic" value or otherwise - the abstainers and the yes men must incur sanction -- a forked tongue sort of word that. They have no great cause to complain. If they feel very strongly about it, they can always quit and re-join the general public.
On the other hand the great "sin" of Adrian Vassallo, that he hardly attended any parliamentary sessions -- 90% absenteeism -- does not seem to have raised any hackles among either "people" or party leaders.
Victor Laiviera
Jun 26th 2012, 20:43
@ Edward Mallia
I disagree very strongly with the first part of your comment.
Parliament was not obliged to refer the divorce question to a referendum. It had every legal and constitutional right to pass the relative legislation itself. Had they done so then yes, every MP would have been free to vote according to his or her own conscience.
They declined (some would say shirked) this responsibility and, instead, asked the people to express their choice in a referendum. The people replied with a clear and emphatic “yes”. Once that happened, the MPs (who had already cast their vote, presumably according to conscience) no longer had the option of listening to their conscience, but were obliged to follow the clear wishes of the people and vote the bill through Parliament.
The popular aphorism goes “lead, follow or get out of the way”. Our MPs declined to lead, so only the latter two options were available to them.
Mary Ann Borg
Jul 1st 2012, 13:13
Laviera, you keep forgetting that the divorce referendum's result was 52.67% in favour and the rest against or abstained. The Paliamentary vote was 44 in favour which is 63.7% of MPs voted in favour. Now if you want to have any modicum of respect towards the people's intelligence, it just goes to show that Parliament actually voted more in favour of the divorce referendum than the people itself during the referendum. In case you choose to, yet again, close your eyes to sheer facts and numbers, Parliament was not syncronized with the wishes of the people and clearly showed that there were more MPs in favour of divorce (with which I fully agreed) than the actual Maltese population that was asked to cast its vote on the matter.
Remember, that the divorce issue was neither in Lejber's electoral manifesto nor in the PN's programme but so strictly speaking, it needn't have had to be discussed. But discussed it was and went as far as democratically possible by way of a referendum. Now compare all this with what Lejber and JPOS did and said last week in their hunt for RCC's head. Lejber and JPOS whined that PfP was not in PN's electoral programme so it was illegal to act on such matter. And yet it was precisely Lejber and JPOS that used the precise inversion of their own 'reasoning', because it suited them this time.
rita Farrugia
Jun 26th 2012, 10:17
Very simple Mr. Laiviera, Franco, Jeffrey and Jesmond did not have a free vote on the opposition's motions . On the Divorce Bill the Labour MP's were supposed to have a free vote and so Adrian Vassallo was free to vote as he wished. That's logical and not hypocricy Mr, Laiviera.
Antoine Vella
Jun 26th 2012, 10:08
Victor, you are right, life has a way of exposing hypocrisy, including yours.
The two situations are totally different because In the case of the divorce issue there was a supposedly free vote so Adrian Vassallo was not breaking any rules when he voted against divorce. In spite of having claimed that the Opposition had a free vote, Muscat still condemned Vassallo - this is what the media picked up.
In the present case there was no free vote so Pullicino Orlando and Mugliett definitely broke the rules and it is to be expected that this serious infringement should carry political consequences.
So, your attempt to misinform and mislead the public is pathetically transparent.
Deo Catania
Jun 26th 2012, 11:47
Rita and Antoine, your crying won't change facts or truth. Just sit there, keep calm and watch gonzipn loose.
Eddy Privitera
Jun 26th 2012, 11:48
Antoine: You are wrong ! Dr. muscat NEVER " condemned" Dr. Adrian Vassallo. What he said was that there would be consequences. Wasn't it obvious that even after the people had voted 'yes' in the divorce referendum,
a deputy who still votes 'No' in parliament would face negative consequences with the electorate ??
Dr. Muscat NEVER implied any condemnation as has happened in the case of the 3 GonziPN dissidents !
Michael Seychell
Jun 26th 2012, 15:50
@ Deo Catania - Your statement to Rita and Antoine, "Your crying won't change facts or truth" applies to you as well since albeit your name is Deo, you are not God but a simple human like the rest of us, and we all tend sometimes to twist facts and truth to our advantage , as Victor and Eddie did in this case.
Michael Seychell Tal-Pieta
Eddy Privitera
Jun 27th 2012, 09:21
Michael- Please explain what truth have I twisted ??? Did the PL condemn Dr. Adrian Vassallo ? NO ! So what truth did I twist ??
Please choose the reason of your report below: