The revelation that two former Nationalist Cabinet members had stacks of money hidden away in secret Swiss accounts that go back to the Golden Years of Labour was a slap in the face for any Nationalist, who took part in the struggle for freedom in those terrible 1980s.
For years on end, Nationalist supporters, anonymous faces who only wanted decency and rule of law in this country, filled town and village squares each time their party called them out into the streets.
Those thousands of anonymous Nationalists, conscientious objectors to Labour abuse and violence, looked up with admiration at the likes of Michael Falzon and Ninu Zammit for standing in the frontline. They thought they shared their values and put their trust in them.
When the PN finally toppled the Labour regime in 1987, those anonymous Nationalists just melted away and returned to their normal lives, having all along only wanted a tranquil life and freedom.
Evidently it wasn’t the same for some of those who were given power in trust. Falzon’s and Zammit’s secret bank accounts have left many of us who remember those years with a sour taste of betrayal.
Falzon, Zammit and anyone else whose name may emerge from those leaked lists of tax evaders will not be remembered for any of their achievements in public office, but for their political dishonesty. That is the price that they must pay for betraying public trust.
Power comes at a price, and some handle it better than others. It is not unusual to watch a politician’s ego inflate the moment they receive a public office, forgetting that they are appointed to serve and not rule, that they are simply a tool for the public good. Former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi was the perfect epitome of political service. Clearly, he was a rare breed and paid a heavy price.
Gozitan politician Justyne Caruana is exactly the nightmare politician you do not want to have in office. When still an MP, she got all tangled up in the controversial use of an AFM helicopter that whisked her from Gozo to the airport in order to be in time to attend a conference in Marseille on a matter of ‘national interest’.
The terrible defence she put up, including arguments that she is scared of heights and helicopters, did not stop the Prime Minister from appointing her as parliamentary secretary.
She started off her new job with a bang, closing down the kitchen at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly. Caruana wants to give the impression that she means business and is trying to emulate that other blundering Labour go-getter, Joe Mizzi, whose big talk has gotten him nowhere.
But things got worse with Caruana when she got caught up in a second tangle, over day care centres, with Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin. Rather than meeting the union to iron out the differences, she called a meeting for the employees involved.
It was not a nice affair. The employees were asked to leave their mobiles outside the meeting hall and according to the UĦM and one brave eyewitness, she threatened the workers with “finding the police commissioner outside their door”. One wonders if Police Commissioner Michael Cassar likes to have his name bandied around in this way, like he was the political arm of a fascist dictatorship.
In one of her colourful asides, Caruana also told the day care workers to eat back the vomit they had spewed. So eloquent and wonderfully Labour, isn’t she? Lorry Sant and Danny Cremona would have been so proud of her had they still been around.
What adds poignancy to all this is a recent court judgment that said that Caruana should never have been elected and that she got her seat in Parliament thanks to a fluke at the last general election.
“The votes are all there,” she said when asked to react to the court judgment. We all hope they won’t be the next time.
Muscat on Sunday threw in a three-cent drop in the cost of fuel as a sugar coater for the Café Premier scandal. That’s how dumb he considers his supporters to be
There is then another brand of politician, the one obsessed with image and ego, and who is not as crude and abrasive as Caruana. Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has taken columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia to court after she said he was having an affair with his public relations officer. He made a big fuss in court telling us all is well with his wife, who lives continents away. Well, good for him, we all wish him and his family well, but could he spare us the dramatics?
Had Mizzi had a true PRO and not a former Labour media lackey, he would have handled this much more cleverly. He could have invited his wife to come to Malta, taken her for a stroll in San Anton Gardens and called in the press to watch them kiss right under the ‘willow’ tree where newly-weds usually take their kitsch photos.
That would have been a humane and sympathetic reply to the blogger and much better than this vindictive Labour spite.
It may dent his ego to say this, but Mizzi should know that he would never be remembered for winning a libel case against a blogger or for having a successful marriage, despite his colleague Helena Dalli’s efforts to undermine the traditional concept of family.
He will be remembered for the biggest swindle in recent political history: the power station he was meant to build and put into operation this very month. He has not done that and that is his legacy.
Labour has moved away from its violent methods of old. Now its violence comes in the form of spin and secrecy to the point of paranoia. The UĦM general secretary honourably turned down a meeting at the Home Affairs Ministry after he was told to leave his mobile phone outside.
This immensely offensive policy on mobiles is not new as it has already been applied by Foreign Minister George Vella and former interior minister Manuel Mallia.
The inspiration seems to come from the Office of the Prime Minister since, according to one media, Joseph Muscat used to ask people to leave their mobiles with his secretary when they came to meet him at the Labour headquarters when still in opposition. Backroom deals were always his speciality, we all know that by now. His precaution against being recorded during these backroom affairs will probably ensure that we will never find out what went on between Labour and the operators of Café Premier in Valletta before the last election.
All we know is that the Labour government, soon after coming into office, paid €4.2 million to buy back what belonged to it already from a company that owed the State money.
According to the PN, all this had the rubberstamp of Muscat, and yet he is still there, like nothing has happened.
He is still prime minister when any other self-respecting politician would have been down on his knees by now, begging to keep his job. Instead, Muscat on Sunday threw in a three-cent drop in the cost of fuel as a sugar coater for the Café Premier scandal.
That’s how dumb he considers his supporters to be. Freebees are becoming an indicator of his insecurity.
All this should be an eye-opener for PN leader Simon Busuttil. Those anonymous Nationalists, who want fair play, rule of law and, above all, political morality, do not want to see the likes of Falzon and Zammit ever again in PN ranks.
Anonymous Nationalists, who believe in political values and who will one day come out in droves to sweep the PN into government, want the PN to clean up its act and ensure that there would never again be the likes of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando or Franco Debono in its ranks either.
Anonymous Nationalists, that Maltese conservative base that wants decency in public life, expects the PN to vet its candidates scrupulously. Only then would a future Nationalist government avoid the degenerate state of government that this country is now stuck with.
A frequent claim by Labour apologists is that the PN thinks it has divine right to govern. No it does not.
It has a moral duty to govern because the alternative is too terrible to bear.