The date of the general election is obscure. It depends on Lawrence Gonzi who, no doubt according to the strategy mapped out with Austin Gatt and Richard Cachia Caruana, is sending mixed signals.
Paul Borg Olivier is the most affable of chaps and a Nationalist of proud lineage. Still, as general secretary he hasn’t quite cut it- Lino Spiteri
These say that the election will be held close to the end of the government’s term, sometime in next spring. They also suggest it might be earlier. That message is enclosed in the Prime Minister’s assertion that the Finance Minister will present the Budget for 2013.
That would be absurd in technical terms – the government has no certainty of implementing the approved proposals. It would also be hazardous for Gonzi. The three rebel MPs might be more docile in the coming months. But they know it’s their final countdown and might not miss an opportunity to leave their mark more indelibly for the history books.
Also there is one MP’s claim that he will not vote Yes where it concerns Gatt. Whether that stance would actually be maintained is another matter. But the Prime Minister cannot take chances of further grave embarrassment. So, take your pick. My money still says that it will be an October or November election. Whenever the date some features of the election are already emerging.
They suggest very strongly that we shall be living in the past if the PN’s strategy has its way.
We have already had a long round of scaremongering about Labour’s past. Gonzi put his imprint on it with the personal singling out of Karmenu Vella because, at 62, he is a Labour veteran and served seven years as a minister. That was the least of it.
I bet Labour were almost tempted to play the game and rake up the Nationalist’s past, right up to the time of Terinu and his false oath against Gerald Strickland constructed, as Victor Aquilina’s meticulous research has reminded us, in the heart of the PN grandees of the time.
I’m glad they did not. An opposition party has to guard its flanks and consider an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But its best course is to cover the government’s record and to look ahead with proposals of its own. It cannot live in the past, though it must not forget it for the lessons it records.
Another Nationalist effort to live in the past is being made by the party’s general secretary, Paul Borg Olivier.
He is the most affable of chaps and a Nationalist of proud lineage. Still, as general secretary he hasn’t quite cut it, certainly not as much as his illustrious predecessors. So much so that Gonzi has effectively placed Gatt in charge of the election campaign, assisted by Cachia Caruana and possibly Joe Saliba. They will deal with the real stuff while Borg Olivier coordinates e-mails, Facebook and such like. Plus a bit more.
He has been tasked with hounding Labour leader Joseph Muscat with a strident allegation that he effectively though inadvertently tipped off the PN about Alfred Sant’s impending attack on one of their candidates on the eve of the 2008 general election. He makes it clear he is referring to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s Mistra affair. Never mind that there is confusion in the spin. Borg Olivier says Muscat’s alleged spin took place on a TV broadcast.
Simon Busuttil seeks to claim credit saying Muscat had as much as told him of the impending Sant attack in Brussels. So much for camaraderie. There was a time when I spoke to PN heavies in mutual understanding that both sides could be frank with each other. There was honour among thieves and politicians too. It seems it is no longer the case.
Beats me what the Nationalists hope to gain by the allegation, especially stressed by Borg Olivier who has been guilty of a human slip or two. Not that Muscat admits any slip. But there it goes. Alienate the people with tales of past summer nights.
Air Malta came into it too, with an exchange between Cachia Caruana, an Air Malta director up to the time Labour won office in 1996, and Karmenu Vella, who became minister with responsibility for the airline, along with tourism where his name is still mentioned with praise akin to reverence.
Cachia Caruana, master spinner that he is, tried to cast doubts on the Labour government’s part in the RJ debacle by implicating it with an allegation that the purchase contract was somehow doctored such that it became less favourable to Malta because trip cost guarantees were left out. Aside from Vella’s reply, on Thursday The Times carried a point by point comment by Frans Camilleri who was part of the Air Malta management at the time.
Mr Camilleri tore Cachia Caruana’s thesis to shreds. The latter will no doubt come back to regurgitate his version. It cannot wash.
I too can vouch that the Labour government had nothing to do with the RJ purchase. I became Minister of Finance when Labour got in and Vella asked me to assist him in the early days he was coming to grips with his Air Malta portfolio. I accepted, not least since finance was directly involved as final payment for the RJs still had to be made.
Word got out that the Labour government felt it had inherited a mess at Air Malta and should not pay for it. The rumour did not have far to go.
The British High Commissioner came to see me. He told me that the RJ’s purchase was a done deal and if the government did not effect payment the British government would blast Malta’s creditworthiness and the government’s young reputation to oblivion. There was no alternative but to settle the final accounts.
If we are to live in the past, let us do so honestly. The honest summary was given by Camilleri. He reminded people that the RJ purchase – made and sealed by the Air Malta Board of Directors against Camilleri’s own expert advice – cost the company some €68 million in impairment losses (the realised market value of the aircraft versus their purchase cost) apart from more millions in operational losses.
The Azzurra project, also approved by the outgoing directors, cost Air Malta around another €96 million. Actually the past does have a lot to tell which cannot be easily spun away.