The Labour Party media has reacted to Konrad Mizzi’s Panama company controversy by dropping broad hints about Nationalist Party MPs holding accounts or assets hidden in similarly dodgy jurisdictions.
It’s not too difficult to figure out who’s the former PN Cabinet minister who is rumoured to have assets parked in some offshore haven. And there are enough ‘Nudge, nudge, wink, wink’ comments for us to reach our own conclusions about who is getting cosy with someone other than his official spouse.
We can also suss out who are the PN MPs squirrelling money away from the State and basically getting up to no good. Which is all very well, if we really need to be reminded that corruption and familiarity with funny tax schemes are not limited to one party or other.
Both major parties keep juicy information about their opponents under wraps, only to reveal it when it will cause the most harm
However, these revelations – made at this point in time, when the Labour Party is under siege – point to one thing. It seems very likely that these ‘scandals’ were known for a long time, but only brought up now as a form of retaliation against the PN onslaught.
I’ve observed this across the board – both major parties keeping juicy information about their opponents under wraps, only to reveal it at the moment when it will cause the most harm. It’s as if both the PN and PL amass an arsenal of information to use as ammunition only when the going gets tough. This is fine as a strategy for winning the spin wars but not very reassuring for ordinary citizens, who come away with the idea that political wrongdoing is only aired when and if a political opponent chooses to use it as a weapon and not as part of the normal scheme of things.
• So a few days ago, the PN and the Labour Party exchanged video messages. The PN came up with a clip where visibly uncomfortable Labour MPs were quizzed about what they thought about Konrad Mizzi’s trust and Panama company set-up. Viewers could see that the MPs wished they could be anywhere else other than right there – having to explain why a minister of a socialist party had chosen to set up a financial vehicle in such a notorious jurisdiction.
How was that going to pan out with those Labour voters who have regular jobs, regular earnings and no realistic (and honest) prospects of ever making the kind of money that would warrant any kind of presence in a Panamanian tax haven? The Labour media hit back with footage showing a young reporter chasing the Leader of the Opposition and challenging him to repeat his allegations outside the House, where he would not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
Maybe the madly partisan supporters of the PN enjoyed the discomfiture of the Labour MPs, and likewise, Labour supporters thought a point had been made and Simon Busuttil was chickening out of answering questions.
For the rest of us, this tit for tat was a profoundly depressing spectacle which mirrors the Maltese political scene where matters of immense importance – such as the integrity of our political representatives – are trivialised and turned into the material for the perpetual slanging match between the Labour and the Nationalist Party.
• There are politicians and then there are Teflon politicians – those who dodge the bullets and come up smelling of roses through every political quagmire. Tony Blair was the original Teflon Tony. Swept into power with an incredible landslide victory, greeted with massive goodwill and ushering in a new Cool Britannia era – it seemed that – like the Labour theme song – things could only get better. He vowed to do away with Tory sleaze. Those who were deemed to be bureaucratic or over-powerful civil servants were solved by putting political appointees in command.
His honeymoon period came to an abrupt end, some months into his premiership, when it was revealed that the Labour Party had received a £1m donation from Bernie Ecclestone in return for favourable legislation. Still – the electorate loved him. But at one point after repeated funding scandals and mounting evidence that spin had been used to deceive the British electorate at every conceivable opportunity, the Teflon wore off Tony Blair.
He left office with a reputation as a consummate politician but also of a deceiver on a grand scale. His party was left in tatters and hasn’t recovered to this day. Some pretty tough lessons to be learnt from there.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt