We live in strange times. I had always thought that the Mayans had died off leaving their rather party-pooping calendar to terrify us into thinking that the end of the world was nigh when now we have Mayans coming out of the woodwork telling us that the calendar is a load of codswallop!
Should Dalli emerge as the victim of a massive frame up, the sympathy votes he could get would be enormous- Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Frankly I am finding the development of the Dalli case rather too similar for comfort. John Dalli is known for his arbitrary decisions of which the selling of Mid-Med Bank to HSBC was in my opinion the worst. Not only did he sell a thriving bank to HSBC for a relative song but also sold the staff of the bank into slavery in an environment where divide and rule was the order of day.
I recently asked why it was that when Barclays became Mid-Med in 1975 the staff got terminal benefits but when Mid-Med became HSBC the staff got not a measly cent and the reply was that it was part of the deal and the only way that HSBC would go for the deal which, in my opinion again, was selling off the family silver.
Dalli has always been a bit of a maverick and one which politically had to be kicked upstairs to avoid being too much of an impediment to GonziPN. So off to Brussels and a cushy job went our Johnny. Instead we have the shenanigans, contradictions and inconsistencies of Franco Debono, Jesmond Mugliett and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to amuse us while the pro-Dalli press with the persistence of Turkish sappers undermined the GonziPN to the extent that I sometimes feel that the Prime Minister will soon end up as baited and tormented as the poor Duchess of Malfi.
The election campaign has been going on for so long that to be honest we are utterly bored of it already; the irony being that the election has not been declared.
It is like waging war without war being declared except that the tactics are relatively harmless with the main protagonists, the two leaders, being photoshopped into the three wise monkey positions that usually are translated as ‘speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil’.
The epitome of twittiness in my opinion and an insult to the voter in the street if anyone seriously thinks that this puerile mentality is going to impress anyone except perhaps the lowest common denominator who if truth be told would vote for Guy the Gorilla in exchange for a toffee! But I digress. Dalligate as it is being called is becoming more complicated every day with news of more lobbyists, resignations and allegations being added to the cauldron with the assiduity of the three witches in the Scottish play.
Indeed the latest eye of newt was that a statistic was made public about how many EU connected ministers and functionaries have been caught at the till by OLAF and now many billions it involved.
The statistics are staggering, making Silvio Zammit’s €60 million claim sound like a bagatelle; Monopoly money almost!
In today’s’ world wherein smoking has become the refuge of the desperate and the vice of the recalcitrant, the tobacco industry has reached a nadir and like a rat in a corner it will use the most vicious means to extricate itself.
Because of Dalli’s track record and pervious involvement in shady dealing which forced him to resign despite his having got off as pure as driven snow, the industry knows that the maxim that one gives a dog a bad name to afterwards hang him, holds water. Therefore I do believe that Dalli has been framed and if not framed, he was entrapped. There is very big money at stake and therefore this is why all this has happened; I haven’t the slightest doubt that this is the case.
On a local level it appears to have neutralised the political effectiveness of Dalli in the next election. Or so it appears. Should Dalli emerge as the victim of a massive frame up, the sympathy votes he could get would be enormous.
This adds another dimension to an election that many are viewing as having a foregone conclusion and again proves the saying that a week is a long time in politics.
Now that my former classmate Tonio Borg has been sent to Brussels to take Dalli’s place the post of Deputy Prime Minister will be up for grabs unless like Buttiglione, Borg is sent scuttling back to Malta as being unsuitable due to his archaically conservative beliefs. What upholding gay marriage has to do with foodstuffs is anybody’s guess but there it is.
After, in a venting of spleen, AD brought the skeletons out of Borg’s cupboard and spilled the beans about his ill-advised homophobic outbursts in parliament, the Left at Berlaymont is baying for his blood while in Malta the PL is supporting him fully in a gentlemanly show of national solidarity. I would not like to be in Borg’s place when he is ‘grilled’ in more senses than one!
So, unless Borg’s opinions about gay marriage are deemed not to affect the production of genetically modified food, we have to have a cabinet reshuffle at a most crucial juncture with a Budget and an election around the corner and in the middle of an undeclared war.
I would rather have a just and equitable administration by trained professionals than to be faced with disconcerting equivocations and contradictions like that of the now Independent protagonist of Mistragate last week who joined forces with Labour MP Noel Farrugia calling for the rehabilitation of valleys like Wied il-Qlejja and Chadwick Lakes.
If you believe that you may as well believe in the Tooth Fairy!