Beppe’s folly, Cardona’s madness

The day after Beppe Fenech Adami launched into a tirade against Chris Cardona, the leader of Opposition was being hosted at our office in San Gwann. It was a good meeting. It gave me the opportunity to express my views on a free press versus the political class.

I did not miss the chance to express my concern that the PN was now basing its marketing drive on the whims of a bile blogger.  

“If you go to the election basing your campaign on people like this, you will not find any support.”

Simon Busuttil confirmed that the decision to quote the bile blogger was taken after internal consultation.

I have no doubt that the umbilical cord between the two has not, in fact, been severed after all. On the contrary, I’m certain that if anything, the bond between them is stronger than ever. 

Beppe Fenech Adami standing in as the virginal deputy leader has every right to quote whoever he likes. And I have every right to measure Beppe’s appreciation for gossip and fact. 

Simon Busuttil has no intention of distancing himself from the association. That is fine by me.  More so because I have actually been taken to court for having suggested this very association.  

Fenech Adami questioned the fact that Cardona had a flat in Portomaso. A relevant question, more so because Fenech Adami linked it to Cardona’s so-called friendship with Silvan Fenech. The insinuation being that Silvan Fenech was a shareholder of the Tumas Group and was involved with Electrogas.

However, what was known to Beppe Fenech Adami – but something he conveniently failed to point out – was the fact that Silvan Fenech was no longer a shareholder in Electrogas.

Indeed, Fenech Adami makes it a point not to underline the fact that Electrogas is a joint company between Tumas and Gasan.   

Chris Cardona made matters worse by presenting a rental agreement which stipulates that rent would be paid at the end of the lease, and not beforehand.  An agreement which left everyone gasping for air and questioning the veracity of the document.

And it did not stop here. Fenech Adami followed the investigative trail of the bile blogger and suggested in no uncertain terms that Chris Cardona would hang around a bar in Valletta. Fenech Adami described the bar as ‘shady.’

‘Shady’ is of course a word denoting all forms of dark behaviour, and worse still, the use of drugs… but it also inspires us to imagine complex and colourful orgy scenes… 

If you want to destroy the reputation of an establishment and render it bankrupt ask for the services of Beppe Fenech Adami and the bile blogger from hell. The latter, by the way, continues to be bankrolled by the shareholders at the Independent.

There is not a shred of evidence that the bar in Valletta is ‘shady’… or, at least, any shadier than any other bar on the island. But Fenech Adami, in his wisdom – which he has perfected over the past few months to make him look and sound like a terse and very angry man – now feels that he can rubbish anyone, most especially when the source is the bile blogger.

Chris Cardona on the other hand, fails to understand that his lifestyle is not something that he can take for granted… even if it is, in fact, no different to that of the Nationalist lawyers and businessmen who drink at the same bar.

Being a politician is not easy.

The Labour Party is of course feeling very vulnerable: it cannot quite keep up with the assault from the PN opposition. Many of this criticism is simply caused by intentional negligence, or insider trading.

It has clearly underestimated the stamina of the Nationalist Opposition. And it hits back by referring to instances when the PN made plenty of mistakes.  

But it does not work that way. The Labour Party cannot justify its mistakes by referring to the sins of others.

On the other hand, the PN and some its leading peers should come clean over their duplicity and business interests – and better still, their decision to pick and choose whom to mention and not mention.

I refer specifically to all the people who have been fronting press conferences. They should all declare whether they have business interests with competitors and even with the people they sometimes criticise. 

It’s bad enough that many Labour MPs have been appointed on boards, but then you also have a large chunk of their Opposition counterparts deeply involved in business, and who have varied interests.

Many Nationalist MPs are involved in companies who have an axe to grind or are directly involved in tendering for government tenders. In one case, a Nationalist MP owns a company involved in public procurement and then pontificates over government procedures. Does it mean that the Labour government should be left to its own devices? No!

But it also requires that the people who are casting the stones have the integrity and credentials to speak out.

It does not stop with MPs. A highly paid official at Transport Malta is involved in a private company with a Nationalist MP and no one, it seems, cares or sees anything wrong in this.

Conflict of interest is, I’m afraid, a cancer that has affected both sides of the house.

Back to the Fenech Adami and Cardona charade. There are lessons to be learnt from both sides of the great divide. On one side, Fenech Adami should review his style and dependence on bile gossip, lies and hate speech and Cardona should perhaps realise that standards are not realised by presenting rental agreements or insisting that there is nothing wrong in socialising in bars.

In the long run, the general public expects more from our political class.

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Today’s front-page story shows to what extent the Maltese police have landed themselves in a pickle.

The story is far more serious when one realises that former Inspector Daniel Zammit was the son of acting commissioner Ray Zammit and that Ray Zammit retains official posts within the police academy and elsewhere.  

Concern over Daniel Zammit’s rapport with shady individuals was raised very early on in the police and appears to have been ignored. Incredibly enough, he was transferred back to the police arm focused on gaming, following the intervention of individuals in the Home Affairs Ministry.

It is a serious observation.

If it does not lead to yet another investigation, then surely it should raise the question that the police badly need an executive internal audit team to investigate errant police officers.