Let’s get this straight. The Nationalist Opposition is weak and lacklustre. The shadow Cabinet still features GonziPN fixtures who still raise people’s hackles. For example, George Pullicino – now shadow minister for kindergartens – takes us back to the 2006 rationalisation exercise and Mepa’s transmogrification to the construction rubber-stamping entity it is today.
Tonio Fenech reminds us of flights with businessmen. Giovanna Debono is no longer a Nationalist MP but she was a PN minister and what went on under her watch will be attributed to the previous administration. And yes, I have no doubt that there were plenty of jobs for the boys and girls and backroom deals made with the construction and other lobbies. The PN administration presided over the Enemalta mess, which will forever remain a blot on its record. More to the point, this happened only two short years ago – not long enough to fade from voters’ collective memory.
Why then is the PN being seen as slightly less of a non-hoper light? It’s not because it has come out with any change of policy or made a definite commitment to anything decent. The PN’s boost is entirely due to Labour. The slew of scandals is never-ending. And they continue rolling out far beyond the teething phase. Labour has (and still does) screamed blue murder because Giovanna Debono’s husband was employed within her ministry.
So how does it account for the engagement of Sai Mizzi? Willie Mangion’s contract has benefitted the nation somewhat – as the contract that gave rise to a thousand jokes, but was it really necessary to extend it further? And Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando served as a Gonzi irritant but was it wise to retain him as MCST executive chairman when he is still pulling teeth at his dentistry practice and cannot conceivably hold two full-time jobs at the same time?
What exactly is Ronnie Pellegrini’s role at the ministerial secretariat? How much is he being paid? What qualifications and experience does the baby-faced 18-year-old Karl Cutajar have to be appointed director, secretary, legal representative and judicial representative of the newly formed government security company Fort Security Services?
At this point the Labour government’s favouritism, patronage and plundering is obscuring its positives
Why is a police chief chosen to head an enforcement agency when he is a business partner with a contractor whose activities he should be overviewing? Why is the Prime Minister so obviously indebted to the construction lobby? When will it end?
At this point the Labour government’s favouritism, patronage and plundering is obscuring its positives. This is Labour omnishambles. The Prime Minister should take stock, otherwise things may very well veer beyond his control.
• Twenty three years ago, over 500 kilogrammes of explosives blew up the highway at Capace in Sicily. Five people died in that hellish Mafia-engineered attack. Judge Giovanni Falcone was one of them. His life work consisted in bringing murderous, thieving, corrupt extortionist criminals to justice. His wife – also a magistrate – was also killed. She was carried from the horrific wreckage still alive only to die a few tortured hours later. The mangled bodies of the three police bodyguards – catapulted into an olive grove close by – were unrecognisable. Five people slain for carrying out their civic duty with honour and dignity.
A couple of years ago Palermo footballer Fabrizio Miccoli was under investigation for alleged Mafia association and attempted extortion. Recordings of his conversation with the son of a Mafia boss had him calling the slain Giovanni Falcone “fango” (“mud” or “filth”).
Several tearful apologies later and our mis-speaking football star is signed up with a Maltese football club, where he is welcomed by all and hugged to the bosom of the minister no less.
I don’t know what to make of this. Maybe it’s a sign of the redemptive power of the Maltese football scene. You know – where we attract disgraced football stars like convicted rapist Ched Evans or even footballers who are chummy with sons of mafia bosses. It could become another unique selling point. Maybe we’ll soon be seeing Sepp Blatter being appointed to a government commission about ethics with a little halo hovering above his bald head, as he tells us how he has turned over a new leaf once he landed in our tolerant country.
Or maybe most people don’t care what players do in their past lives as long as they find the back of the net. In any case, perhaps these cases are evidence of a kind of poetic justice. Chasing a ball around our potato-patch fields in front of a couple of hundreds of Maltese supporters instead of the manicured stadiums with ‘curve’ heaving with thousands of fans, is a fitting end, I would say. Very ‘Dalle stelle alle stalle’. As it should be. Respect only to those who deserve it.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt