What you say, how you say it and who says it

When four years back PN backbenchers Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando spoke their mind in parliament and beyond, most of us did not question the importance of the issues they raised.

Most of what they said was justified. What was questioned was why they raised them and what was their game plan.

Today, both Debono and Pullicino Orlando have become rather muted. For good reason, mainly – and I think I am stating nothing new – because they are well integrated in the present system, with some very handsome perks.

Perks which they receive while continuing with their private work as lawyer and dentist respectively.

Now enter dentist and parliamentarian Marlene Farrugia, erstwhile Pullicino, who as we all know has made quite some noise. She is not now related to Jeffrey even though she is the mother of his children, but she does have so much in common with him.  

She is explosive and volatile and mouths some very interesting stuff, but like Jeffrey she has a chip on her shoulder. But she is not credible.

She has incremented her dose of criticism, as her husband did before her, since her partner Godfrey was moved from the health ministry, and since the day Muscat informed her of the impossibility of both of them being ministers.

Like Jeffrey in the years before, she is positioning herself to be a crusader for the environment. The green NGOs are repeating the same mistake they made when they dubbed Pullicino Orlando ‘Green politician’ of the year.

It all came tumbling down tumultuously when Pullicino Orlando was shown to have an interest in developing a sensitive area in pristine Mistra.

The rest is history.

Marlene is also no newcomer to development, she dabbles in property, and yet the greens have rushed to crown her as their heroine.

I would suggest some caution.

The Nationalists on the other hand are praying that she will join them to bolster their ranks.

But then the Nationalists are, like Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, in no position to make a stand.

Which is a great pity because today the high moral ground that was so important before March 9, 2013 is facing some seriously visible erosion because of the lack of resolve and a complete disregard for conflict of interest, political responsibility, procurement rules and evident corruption.

The boys of yesterday have been replaced by the boys of today. The Charles Magro of Montebello/Tonio Fenech fame. This so called shop steward is a fine example of how blue-eyed boys are rewarded for being lapdogs for Muscat.

It is also unacceptable to defend the sins of today by always mentioning the sins of yesterday. It does not even do, it makes absolutely no case, to do so once, let alone repeatedly.

Let me be very clear. The Nationalists deserved to lose the last election. They got what they deserved at the hands of the electorate and deserve to stay in opposition for longer than five years. They were corrupt and no matter how much Simon Busuttil tries, he knows he cannot convince anyone that they are any better than the Labourites.

But for its style of governance so far, the Labour party is on the route to losing its right to tell anyone what is right or wrong. They are in power because the Nationalists lost their way in government, and were booted out. In many people’s eyes the Nationalists’ redemption is far, far from due. 

The same predilection for arrogance and greed is gnawing at Labour, which is so strongly showing signs that it is a friends of friends affair. If the economy, which is performing so well, falters and people start feeling the pinch, Labour will quickly come to rue its cavalier attitude to principles.

Today’s MaltaToday edition shows two sides to the coin. The first is the way procurement rules have been thrown out of the window in the CHOGM arrangements and other preparations, and the second story refers to the other salaries that Nationalist MPs ‘earn’ from ‘working’ for nothing in institutions and agencies.

This reportage in particular raises the question how individuals such as PN deputy Kristy Debono or PN party whip David Agius even ride unabashed on the moral high horse. Don’t they feel any shame! 

Debono alone only did 1% of her supposed working time at the Malta Gaming Authority.

The other wonderful example is Nationalist MP and former Gonzi acolyte Robert Cutajar, the MP who sounds so convincing when he decries government incompetence. Cutajar, ‘miskin’, does teleworking from home with the directorate of animal welfare. How the hell one can telework on animal welfare leaves me speechless.

Now, wait before you think that the Labour MPs are not doing the same.

I am sure they are doing the same thing.

Which is why this country is screwed.

It is just incredible. People who are either facing criminal charges for tax evasion preach to others who evade tax, and those who face criminal charges for manslaughter stand up in parliament to condemn the Paceville clubbers’ incident.

We are a bunch of hypocrites.

We have a political class that is basically dishonourable on each side of the divide, with one or two small differences that can hardly be called differences. They aim for the same voting base and they dream of having two or three jobs subsidised by the Maltese taxpayer.

It is no wonder that Maltese and Gozitans do not find it morally difficult to try to avoid paying taxes and shaft the State. 

What I do not understand is why people defend their MPs’ behaviour so staunchly, when it is all rot.

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Which of course brings me to CHOGM. I walked to the library to see what MaltaToday had written about CHOGM ten years ago, when it was held in Malta as well. It seems to be a long time ago.

There was more interest in the Queen ten years ago and there was more happening.  

But the same bunch of dictators and odd men and women who represent the countries that make up the Commonwealth were taken to task.

More opinion writers were talking about CHOGM.

We were talking then of how Lou Bondi and Silvio Scerri (both were raging and intolerable Nationalists) were the recipients of CHOGM tenders.

There was Tony Blair, architect of the Iraq disaster and the controversial awarding of the OBE (Order of the British Empire) to Maltese personalities such as Bertu Mizzi.  

This time round, as far as I know, no Maltese have been awarded a title.

CHOGM will come to an end and the probability of it returning to Malta is remote.   We will hardly ever hear about the Commonwealth again, not so loudly at least. And for good reason, because no matter what we have been told, the Commonwealth remains an irrelevant organisation represented by 53 nations which have very little in common, except their colonial past. A talking shop of democratic countries and a regiment of banana republics and dictatorships.

There is nothing that bonds a Fijian to a Maltese. Or a Nigerian to a Maltese, or a Trinidadian or a Pakistani. It is all in our rich imagination that there is something that brings us together as citizens of the Commonwealth. Some countries would do best to not remember what happened to them under British rule.

The only thing that brings us together is that we were British subjects for a long time.  And though some of those who rejoice at CHOGM may have forgotten this, it was not all that rosy when we were under the British. Some may think so, but in reality when the dust settles and historians can be more objective and Maltese history gets a proper appraisal in Maltese schools, we may start appreciating what British rule was all about. 

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The Life Network, a posse of pro-life groups, are organising themselves to fight IVF and in their charge they intend to purposely confuse abortion with IVF. To drive their message home they will be presenting an individual who suffers from cerebral palsy (as a result of a failed abortion) to appear on Xarabank.

Xarabank I will admit is committed and well justified to pump up its audiences. Yet I cannot really imagine how one can discuss and debate such a delicate subject with someone (the person with cerebral palsy) who is not remotely connected with the IVF debate or subject.

Once again, it is incredible that these zealots are finding the comfort of public broadcasting and allowed to obscure and cloud the termination of a birth with the procreation of a newborn.

Perhaps one should ask why women who cannot have children by natural means do not stand up to be counted. I mean what do you expect these women to do and say.  “Hello, hello, I want to have a child, why are you so against the chance for me to have one.”

And the women who had the fortune not to have any complications with natural birth, should think twice before they embark on a dirty and hollow crusade against IVF.