Guże Stagno’s book What Happens in Brussels Stays in Brussels hit the book stores last week. It’s not really giving the plot away to say that this pop novel describes what goes on when a group of Maltese visit Brussels on a ‘familiarisation’ tour to Brussels. These are trips funded by the EU that are meant to give people an idea of what the European institutions are about – but which often end up as a shopping trip to Rue Neuve and excuse to load up on Belgian chocolate.
In this case, the trip is hosted by the fictional Labour MEP Charlo Pulis whose meteoric rise to a seat in the European Parliament is identical to that of Joseph Muscat’s. It starts off as a journalist in the Super One newsroom fulminating against the dictatorship of then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and his obsession to yoke us to the EU and then makes a U-turn and lives it up as an MEP in the same forum.
Stagno charts the trip of a group of Labour supporters from the meeting at Labour headquarters (where they are enjoined to wear a ‘sjut’ to enter the European Parliament) to their three-star hotel in Brussels to their €10 discounted meal in a cliché Italian eatery to their compulsory lecture at the European Parliament.
Along the way, they meet the great Pulis himself (cue much clapping and applause by the Labour faithful) and Malta’s Sean Connery, Louis Grech, makes a cameo appearance.
When the Maltese contingent is given a lecture about the European institutions and groupings by the unhappily named Pentii Litmanen (transformed into Mr Panty by the group) they completely disregard his explanations about the PPE and ESP and grill him mercilessly about what the EU is doing to help Malta cope with illegal immigration.
The Maltese wend their way through the Belgian capital, booing at that symbol of Nationalist excess Dar Malta, comparing the tenacity of Labour MEPs to the subservience of the Nationalist MEPs and confirming their prejudices about the EU, foreigners and their country.
The book makes for easy reading and lots of laugh-out-loud moments. Stagno has no pretensions about it being the great Maltese novel. But despite this being a ‘lite’ novel it does contain some accurate observations of the Maltese and their mindset.
For example, at one point journalist Gustav Azzopardi muses on Labour’s change of heart about the whole EU membership business. From being militantly anti-EU, it now targets MEP seats and explains it away as a pragmatic choice. The reality is that for most Labour and Nationalist party supporters, their perception of whether something is praiseworthy or not, depends solely on their party’s stand on the matter.
Their support of a measure depends on whether their party approves of it or not. All other information or evidence is irrelevant for these supporters – if their party nods, then they’re all for it. If their party gives the thumbs-down they oppose the measure. This was the case with Labour supporters’ newly-feigned enthusiasm for all things EU.
I’m not convinced this conversion was due to a careful re-assessment of the situation – more likely it was simply based on the party’s say so. When the party position changed, the supporters had to follow suit.
It’s depressing to think this is how people will continue to form their decisions, but this kind of blind party obedience is still the dominant mindset of most people. We’ve just seen an example of this over the past few days. The internet and Nationalist press are abuzz with reports about Shiv Nair and his relationship with the Labour Government. Nair formed part of a delegation that accompanied Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi to Qatar and is said to have made some introductions there.
He is also in the process of being appointed a consultant to the government with a pay cheque of €6,000 per year – an appointment which does not seem to have been finalised. It results that Nair has been permanently blacklisted by the World Bank for engaging in corrupt practices as defined by the bank’s consultants’ guidelines – and as a result, ineligible to be awarded World Bank-financed contracts.
The Opposition is demanding an explanation as to how a blacklisted person can be appointed a consultant. Muscat is being lamabasted for not doing his homework and carrying out the necessary checks. The PN is working itself up into a frenzy at the thought of corrupt consultants advising the government and its supporters are nodding their heads sagely with an “I-told-you-so” look.
They’re right. The Government should tread cautiously when appointing consultants or advisors. The thing is, this zeal for due diligence checks is quite a recent phenomenon for the PN. In 2008, Enemalta appointed Lahmeyer International (LI) as an ‘independent consulting firm’ to assess bids for the Delimara power station extension. The winning bid was that of BWSC.
The Auditor General, Anthony Mifsud, deems the choice of LI as ‘independent consultant’ in the adjudicating process to be “questionable” for various reasons, including its blacklisting by the World Bank and its previous business relationship with BWSC. Labour had gone to town about this appointment of a blacklisted consultant.
PN exponents who are now agitating about the rot at the heart of the Government, didn’t say a word on that cock-up, they didn’t upload a blog post on how appalling it was to have blacklisted consultants giving advice. The cases are nearly identical, yet the reactions of the PN and PL are completely different depending on whether they were involved.
This leads me to ask whether either party is really alarmed at the prospect of corrupt consultants, or if this is only the case if it is the other party appointing them.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt