“Ritchie is a sinister backstabber manipulating (sic) people’s lives behind the scenes.” The reference is to Malta’s former permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana. The quote is taken from the March 23 blog post of Franco Debono. This is the man who, that same day, Labour announced would be coordinating a convention to review our Constitution.
In the past months the former Nationalist MP has lampooned Eddie Fenech Adami, a former President just in case anyone has forgotten, even going so far (in recent days) as to make the ridiculous insinuation that blame could be attributed to Malta’s greatest statesman for the Tal-Barrani incidents. This is the man Labour has appointed to coordinate a convention to review our Constitution.
Dr Debono has also persistently attacked Joseph Calleja over the tenor’s father being a victim of depression. A lower act than this is difficult to fathom. Yet this is the man Labour has appointed to coordinate a convention to review our Constitution.
The list could go on, and on. No doubt Lawrence Gonzi would be capable of adding many, many lines to it if he had to include the grotesque messages he was subjected to by the former Nationalist MP over a period of years. The former Prime Minister’s mistake was that he did not call time on these antics much sooner.
But those episodes are now inglorious history, and it is precisely the kind of inglorious history which the Labour Party, in its very positive campaign, had promised to put behind us. Instead it has just shoved the proverbial two fingers into Nationalist supporters’ faces. Is this what Malta taghna lkoll was really about?
Some will argue this move can be seen from no other viewpoint than to rub salt into the PN’s gaping wounds. But another perception has emerged: that it’s Labour’s way of saying thank you in the wake of his rebellious actions. It was only to be expected that Dr Debono would receive some kind of reward after he was held shoulder-high by Labour supporters on election results’ day outside a PL club, but not even the most generous benefactor should have permitted that to include anything connected with the Constitution – which has everything to do with consensus and nothing to do with divisive politics.
It is a shame that news of this appointment has overshadowed the announcement that Giovanni Bonello – an eminent figure whom this newspaper had already proposed for such a role – is to head a justice reform commission being set up by the Government. But as Labour should have learnt from experience of the PN Administration, sound decisions on important issues are invariably overshadowed by a mishandling of other affairs.
Giving Dr Debono a role related to a review of the Constitution is mishandling of the highest order.
A review of the Constitution is necessary at certain junctures, and the time is ripe to revisit certain areas – not least the neutrality clause which has long been outdated. But to be enduring this process has to be above party politics, which is impossible given the divisive element Labour has introduced.
The Nationalist Party would therefore be acting in the nation’s interest if it says to Labour that this is an appointment with which it will not put up. It should object in the strongest terms, and would be morally justified if it decided to play no part in such a convention until Labour remedies the tragic mistake it has just made.