News • 19 January 2003

Sitting on the fence

Friday and I was asked to represent Moviment IVA in a Toni Abela Robin Hood show held at the Labour HQ in Hamrun. As I entered the ‘cold’ building, I have to admit that it felt very much like the Coliseum, but Toni Abela appeared far more anxious as he tried to emulate Peppi Azzopardi.

I simply sat back and relaxed.

Sitting next to me was Godfrey Grima, casually dressed.

"What are you up to?" he asked me.

Journalism, I said.

I don’t expect everyone to know that I am the editor of MaltaToday but from a self-acclaimed international reporter I would have expected a little bit more, though I have overheard him pass disparaging comments about MaltaToday in the past.

As the discussion proceeded, my concerns and anxiety shifted away from the crowd with their plebeian stares to Godfrey Grima himself.

"I did not even know that the parliamentary debate had started," he said.

Godfrey Grima had just been chosen by the BA to produce a programme on the European Union. The programme, I have heard, is not bad at all.

As the discussion rolled on, Godfrey Grima could not come to terms that we were so hot on the issues.

"You are politicians, I am a reporter," he exclaimed as we presented our arguments.

When the Labour audience applauded, Godfrey asked why the applause.

He had obviously not realised that Wenzu Mintoff had delivered a derogatory comment about the Nationalist party.

Alfred Sant and George Vella joined us after some screaming from Birguma resident Joe Zrinzo about how bad Europe is.

Toni Abela made it a point to insist that we must make a difference between the European Union and Europe.

George Vella, replying to a Toni Abela question, said that stability did not always bring prosperity and economic prosperity also existed where there was no stability.

Godfrey Grima nodded in agreement and I looked on in disbelief.

I thought of Yugoslavia, Israel and the Middle East, Sierra Leone and other hot spots and wondered why their economies never lifted off the ground.

Gaetano Tanti, reminded our audience of the benefits new EU members such as Portugal and Greece were reaping; and that foreign direct investment had improved considerably since their entry into Europe.

Again Godfrey shook his head in disagreement saying that it was not true what was being said.

It did not stop here. GWU's Manuel Micallef, described as the handsome man on the panel by Toni Abela, sadly stated that it was not rights that mattered for the workers but ‘jobs.’ To that silly comment there was only applause.

"This is silly," Godfrey Grima, you are politicians, I am a reporter. He said that once too often.

Throughout the programme, I tried to make small talk with Godfrey; his position was above it all and non-committal.

When he was asked to make a final last comment, it was not about the referendum, the election or whether it paid us to stay out but it was about listening to each other and understanding each other.

When my turn came, I produced my last salvo for the evening. Toni was so kind, to introduce me as a co-founder of the Greens.

I told the audience, that they have always been relayed the message that with Malta in Europe, STMicroelectonics would pack its bags and leave.

"Well yesterday, a senior manager at STMicroelectronics had the gall to say in black and white that not entering the EU Malta would deprive the manufacturing industry in Malta of economic growth."

That did not go down too well, with some burly fellow from the crowd and even more so with Alfred Sant.

Sant's closing remarks castigated me for quoting the ST official to win over the no lobby, and he underlined, for the umpteenth time, that Malta’s case was unique and had to be considered as such.