Prime Ministerial hot air

A two-week vacation has, as expected, left me unenthusiastic about returning to the rock. There is nothing more pleasant than reading a French political mag with Sarkozy’s face on the front with the title: Is this man dangerous? with some fresh Breton cider to down the read. Imagine placing a similar title for Gonzi or Muscat in MaltaToday!

I have to say that I was shocked by the banality of the Labour party to allow Charlon Gouder - a PL journalist - to interview Gonzi at the Independence celebrations and allow the Delimara corruption allegations to get pigeonholed so easily.

Gonzi has skillfully given the impression that their is no scandal. If Gonzi has a God, I sure hope we do not share the same one. I for one would not want to embrace the same God. Gonzi knows that at Delimara, there is good reason to be concerned.

I was thrilled to hear a pretentious and self-righteous Prime Minister denying that there was such a thing as any wrongdoing at Delimara. But I was sad listening to him scream hysterically at Gouder, and asking him to run over to the Commissioner John Rizzo and give him all the details about corruption into the power station scandal.

Well, Mr Prime Minister, I have written it and I will write it again: there is corruption at Delimara, your government officials know it, and have done very well hiding it.

The PN of course are well prepared for the flak, so to avoid debate they bring along the lackeys from newspapers like The Independent. And if they wish to kick allegations out of the political radar, they invite Charlon Gouder. Needless to say, they never invite journalists from Mediatoday.

The Prime Minister may NOW wish to ask the Police Commissioner to call for me. I would be more than willing to explain to the poor Police Commissioner what all these serious allegations are all about.

At the Granaries, the same Gonzi who was castigating Gouder for talking only about corruption, was proposing for the umpteenth time the Whistleblowers’ Act. He was not talking about the reduced spending power in Maltese hands, or the crass mismanagement in his government. No, he was wasting our time by promising yet again that he was about to introduce a Whistleblowers’ Act to fight corruption.

If only I could spill the beans on all those who have tried to be whistleblowers on the Prime Minister’s sycophants, but ended up being ignored or worse still, accused of being villains themselves.

The last time we heard about this Whistleblowers’ Act was when Frank Portelli was promised by the PM that he would introduce this Act. Portelli had then made some very serious allegation which were never proven, and will in my mind never be proved. Perhaps we should start listing all the promises Gonzi has made and when he made them.

My final note goes to the visual display at the Granaries, depicting Guido de Marco with the enduring image of his head injury incurred when Labour supporters interrupted Independence celebrations in the late 70s.

That was 34 years ago!

Yes, 34 years ago. Has anyone cared to tell the Prime Minister and his very unimpressive secretary-general that countries with far more historical earthquakes involving civil war, genocide, torture and gulags have opted to move on, after 34 years? South Africa, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union, Spain, Greece, Argentina and countless others have moved on.

How long are we going to reminisce over the cuts and bruises of yesteryear? If they want to make Guido an icon for the young generation of Christian Democrats that is not the way to do it. For how long are we going to try and absolve the mistakes of 2010 by reminding us of the excesses of over three decades ago?

More so when it is Gonzi who reminds us of these things. Before 1987, he was nowhere to be seen, a non-entity in politics and someone who never ever lifted a finger to fight the Mintoffian mob. Someone who was President of the Azzjoni Kattolika and who only got into politics on Richard Cachia Caruana’s insistence.

Once again, I am reminded of Gonzi’s famous promise when he was elected leader after allowing others such as Tonio Fenech to wage a dirty campaign against his rival John Dalli. “I promise a new way of doing politics,” he said as Pierre Portelli and Gordon Pisani stared at him in awe. New way of doing politics, my foot!