The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House continues to debate Labour’s motion which censures and calls for the removal of Malta’s Permanent Representative to the European Union for bypassing Parliament.
The Labour Party has been after Richard Cachia Caruana’s head for as long as I can remember. In Labour’s eyes, he is guilty of helping and contributing to the Nationalist Party’s series of electoral successes that effectively lengthened Labour’s sojourn on the opposition benches.
Malta rejoined Partnership for Peace before the 2008 parliamentary session had opened. Also, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has confirmed that Mr Cachia Caruana followed government instructions to the letter. Nevertheless, Labour continues to uphold the charge that Mr Cachia Caruana bypassed Parliament and unilaterally manoeuvred Malta accession to PfP.
The charge is based upon Wikileak’s disclosure of a US State Department cable dispatched in early 2008. Come to think of it, should a party touted as Malta’s government in waiting rely on such a flimsy source? The government maintains that Labour is barking up the wrong tree and, moreover, has misconstrued and misinterpreted the message.
As the discussion evolves readers of The Times and I get to know more. It is, however, very revealing that Labour, whose current poster campaign portrays Dr Gonzi clinging desperately to the seat of power, has resorted to this manoeuvre when one of their MPs disclosed only recently that Labour’s sole aim is an unquenchable and unrestrained thirst for power!
Rolling back the years, Malta joined PfP in 1995. At that time, Cabinet had the assurance of its legal advisers that joining PfP was not in breach of the neutrality provisions enshrined in the Constitution and, therefore, proceeded to accept Nato’s invitation.
Subsequently, the issue was referred to Parliament, which, after a three-day debate and much letting off of steam, endorsed the measure.
In its 1996 electoral manifesto, Labour undertook to withdraw from PfP and on its return to power in October that year went ahead and did so without deigning any reference to the House. Even if Labour’s current argument holds a drop of water, the charge of bypassing Parliament smacks of hypocrisy and is, to say the least, bizarre.
Unlike the procedure relating to bilateral and multilateral treaties, joining or withdrawing from PfP depends entirely on Cabinet and does not require parliamentary approval.
The main focus of the 1998-2003 Nationalist government was accession to the European Union. Although, by then, PfP had shed any residual doubt regarding its alleged bellicose nature (Labour had apparently reached the same conclusion), it was not felt opportune to raise a potentially contentious issue and create a diversion.
I am not privy to what has transpired since then and am as keen as the next man to learn and listen to the evidence of the principal actors and supporting cast (both local and foreign) involved in what, to my mind, has become a useless whodunit.
This was not the only Wikileak missive that mentioned Malta. One of the most shocking refers to Labour being in the pay of Muammar Gaddafi.
My contemporaries will remember the Libyan leader’s frequent peregrinations to Malta, his boisterous visits to PL clubs, participation in other party political activities and the seemingly incomprehensible sway which Col Gaddafi’s Libya held over successive Labour governments.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat was fast out of the blocks and, as soon as the Gaddafi funding issue was made, he declared publicly that Labour did not receive funds from Libyan sources under his watch, adding that he was unaware of what had happened in the past.
It is not surprising that Col Gaddafi should turn off the tap following the new Labour leader’s volte face on EU membership.
Several weeks later, MP Leo Brincat, the party’s former international secretary for more than a decade, followed suit and denied any knowledge of Libyan funding.
However, Dr Muscat’s immediate predecessors – Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant, himself a former party president – former Foreign Minister Alex Sceberras Trigona, currently Labour’s international secretary, former general secretary Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, now an MP who sits on Labour’s front bench, have all remained absolutely mum.
Not a whimper from Labour’s former treasurer, Joseph Sammut, an accountant who reputedly had looked after Col Gaddafi and his family’s assets in Malta.
Nor have the members of Dr Mifsud Bonnici and Dr Sant’s Cabinets, currently the leading lights of the Labour opposition, deigned to deny knowledge of Col Gaddafi’s munificence to their party’s coffers and appear blithely unconcerned that their silence can be interpreted that they carry a share of this damaging baggage.
This newspaper’s readers are not oblivious that these former ministers and the whole Labour parliamentary group had supported and approved the Foreign Interference Act, which made it a crime for political parties/politicians to solicit support and receive donations from foreign sources.
Labour apologists in this newspaper and other sectors of the press harp ad nauseam on the bear hug accorded by Col Gaddafi when welcoming Dr Gonzi on his last visit to Libya.
Should Dr Gonzi have held back and declined the Libyan leader’s traditional welcome? Irrespective of whether the Nationalist Party was in government or in opposition it has always behaved correctly in its dealings with one of our closest neighbours.
Unlike Labour, the PN did not seek to establish a special party-to-party relationship. Hence, when push came to shove and decisions had to be taken, the Nationalist government placed itself immediately and firmly in the anti-dictator camp.
Not so Labour, which prevaricated ambivalently for weeks if not months and refused to endorse the Libyan people’s uprising against tyranny.
Now for the rub.
Some weeks ago, the Labour leader paid a visit to the Libyan capital, which remains in part shrouded in mystery. It was not Dr Muscat’s first visit to Tripoli.
In a letter sent on May 9, 2008 (coincidentally after the time Mr Cachia Caruana is alleged to have bypassed Parliament), former Labour minister Noel Farrugia informed a “Dr Salem Sagri” that he (Mr Farrugia) was authorised by all the Labour leadership contestants and Labour’s parliamentary group to request him (Dr Sagri) to make the necessary arrangements for a “first introductory meeting” between Labour’s new leader and “the Glorious Leader of the Great Libyan Jamahirija in order to enhance our special relationship”.
Mr Farrugia added that “Contestant Joseph Muscat has agreed that if he should be elected leader I will be the MLP spokesperson for all Africa with responsibility to create relations with African leaders. Of course, this would give me the opportunity to make a very special relationship with the Great Libyan Jamahirijah. An absolute first priority will be a meeting with the Great Leader of Libyan Revolution Colonel Muhammar El Gaddafi”.
Need I say more?
Dr Refalo is a former Nationalist Cabinet minister.