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Pawlu Muscat: Man of the year
Pawlu
Muscat - Labour and union activist, Bormla mayor and self confessed
liar - is the man of the year.
Until a year ago very few journalists had set eyes on Pawlu Muscat.
They should have. He was one of the main promoters of the actions
carried out at the MIA in the summer of 1999. But only veteran
journalists had memorised his name as a result of a significant
event that took place in March 1992, when Alfred Sant replaced
Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici as leader of the Labour Party, instead
of the charismatic and experienced Lino Spiteri.
Pawlu Muscat is a close friend of Marie Louis Coleiro, a former
Labour Party Secretary General and stalwart Mintoffian.
His name had surfaced years later when Dr Sant led Labour into
victory in 1996. Pawlu Muscat was at the time noted by whispering
Labour insiders as knowing something about fraud in the MLP leadership
election.
But when asked about this in May 1998, Lino Spiteri, just fresh
from his resignation from his post as finance minister, refused
to go any further on the matter.
But two years later, with attacks on his persona by individuals
such as MLP President in the making, Manwel Cuschieri, in full
swing, Mr Spiteri opted to spill the beans.
Dr Sant was now back in opposition, and when Mr Spiteri decided
to speak, it transpired that he had been told that Mr Pawlu Muscat
had admitted that he had falsified votes in the Sant/Spiteri election.
The revelation shook journalists from their early summer stupor
into high battle alert. Mr Pawlu Muscat was now no longer a Mintoffian
aficionado and had replaced the disgraced MLP Joe Carbonaro as
Bormla mayor. Mr Muscat was loved and considered to be firmly
placed within the Labour camp.
For two weeks accusations were bandied around and two characters
nearly got themselves entangled in the crossfire, Marie Louise
Coleiro, a Pawlu Muscat colleague, and Anglu Farrugia, his legal
defence.
But what the Nationalist press was expecting to be the 2000 time
bomb, that Lino Spiteri and the former deputy leader Dr George
Abela move into the leadership vacuum, did not happen. The two
high profile europhile Labourite leaders refused to budge and,
recognising this mood, the Labour inner core moved in for the
kill.
A vigilance and disciplinary board was formed with three Alfred
Sant acolytes as members and, as they procrastinated for over
four weeks, they listened and transcribed the latest volte face
from Pawlu Muscat. In the meantime, Alfred Sant loyalists organised
a late summer mass meeting - rallying widespread militant support
and turned the tables on the so-called "high treason"
conspirators.
All dreams of a putsch against Alfred Sant fizzled into thin air
and more still, those who had dared to question his policies turned
to being utterly faithful, unquestioning disciples.
When Pawlu Muscat’s version of events was made public it
transpired, according to Mr Muscat, that he had made up the story
to hit back at Mr Spiteri for an incident that occurred when Mr
Spiteri was finance minister in the 1986 Labour administration.
However, he also added that he was very unhappy with Dr Sant’s
austerity measures when he was elected PM, but then was later
very convinced of Dr Sant’s "socialist" credentials.
Continued from page 1
Mr Muscat’s version was laughed off by all serious observers
but, in his amazing U-turn, he had succeeded in pleasing the Labour
party and ensuring that any talk of Dr Sant’s illegitimacy
was a case for a political historian.
Nevertheless, the Vigilance and Disciplinary Board suspended Mr
Muscat from the party and called on him to resign from his post
as mayor in the name of party.
But the move was thwarted by the strong MLP Bormla constituency
that still believes in Mr Muscat’s qualities as mayor and
in Mr Muscat’s refusal to stand down.
Mr Muscat has also said that he hopes to make it up to the party
by being ‘good.’
And with that, Mr Paul Muscat will be best remembered for leading
Malta’s politics-addicted press into a cul de sac.
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