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Why Minister Austin Gatt refused to be interviewed side by side with Marlene Mizzi in MaltaToday last Sunday says more about Austin Gatt than Marlene Mizzi. You might interpret this as Austin Gatt shying away from MaltaToday.
On the other hand, Austin’s antics have to be interpreted as an attempt to control the press. It is he who decides when and where he talks to the press.
Last Friday, Austin’s boys said that they would not favour an interview, because the less said the better – understood in such a sensitive time for privatisation. It sounded so real, that I did not scream bollocks at the top of my voice.
This could be the case were it not for the undeniable truth that Gatt’s boys, captained by upstart Claudio Grech, have masterminded a control-of-the-media campaign that goes beyond the normal nature of spinning the news.
Their aim, or rather Claudio’s goal with the blessing of Dr Gonzi himself, was to lay waste Marlene.
Gatt’s right-hand man Claudio Grech is one of his most effective rottweilers. The other week after I asked Austin Gatt for an interview, his emissary asked me to come over to the ministry for a chat with is-sur Claudio, a polite way of saying, “I have some spin for you.”
My immediate reaction to that was to say that I am busy and if it was the minister who wanted a word I would have gladly left my air-conditioned newsroom and rush to the ministry which government rents for just Lm800 a year.
I must have spoken six words in my whole life with is-sur Claudio. They must have been “Hawn, hu, hee, okay, Bongu and Orrajt.”
This Claudio Grech thinks he is a reincarnation of Richard Cachia Caruana.
Austin Gatt thinks he can find all the answers in this Claudio. The mere fact that Austin’s boys issue most press releases not through the Department of Information but on the ministry’s letterhead is proof of their defiant way of working, but what the hell, who cares?
Gonzi is the last one who cares. He seems unperturbed that Austin Gatt is like an elephant on the rampage.
This is were I start to get all iffy about Gonzi. Here is a man who has no qualms about battering Marlene, but who gets the flak? Austin. Indeed one continues to hear people describe Gonzi as “a real nice guy, ta!” Even Marlene had kind words for him. If only she knew.
Perhaps the best description of Gonzi was uttered by one of the PN’s foremost thinkers cum priest: “He thinks and acts like a Jesuit.”
At the end of day I did not visit Claudio Grech’s room at Malta’s most forward thinking ministry that pays just Lm800 a year rent for an entire palazzo, but other journalists did take up Claudio’s bait and as expected the spin appeared in The Times and The Independent some moons later.
In Brussels all the spin is spun by RCC – here in his absence we have Claudio.
Dr Gatt could not give a hoot about what I say or do not say, and as he eats his hobz biz-zejt and drips cheap soya oil all over his colleagues at cabinet meetings on a Monday, he knows that he is still to be taken seriously.
But out there in the constituency and with the public, his actions are viewed with contempt. He has failed to appreciate that many of his appointees have today decided to call it a day because they cannot fathom his minions and his manners. Privately they despise the arrogance of his boys.
Claudio is no boy. His family, once fervent Guido de Marco canvassers, are proud of their man In 2001, Austin Gatt retained him in his secretariat even though he faced court procedures for falsifying an ID card.
But Austin is doing just what Eddie used to do. When people complained about RCC, the former PM would look the other way and stand by Richard. Austin believes that the only way forward is to disenfranchise Labour-leaning appointees and reinstall Nationalist die-hards.
His vision for the future of the country’s management is a Belfast vision. Catholics on one side, and Protestants on the other. With such a pitiable opposition, Austin and his rottweilers think they should advocate the pure race policy, that is placing only Nationalists in all key positions.
Which brings me to the latest initiative by Gonzi et al who were busy this week presenting new ideas and confusing land reclamation with new golf course proposals.
It was a badly managed, foolish press conference and the only man having anything sensible to say was George Pullicino.
Anyone who argues that Dr Gonzi is badly advised should be informed that Dr Gonzi has no advisors. He is his own man.
The Prime Minister apparently is approached by a contractor or contractors who suggest that they would like to dump tonnes of rubble in the sea. What follows is that Gonzi spends some more tax payers money and gets a Danish firm Carlbro to draw a map where new Malta can be built.
Carlbro know as much about our sea and shoreline as my great grandmother could have ever known about techno music. They obviously have never heard about the Habitats Directive and the unfeasibility of dumping rubble on rich Posidonia beds and sensitive marine habitats.
If no one wants to say it, than I will. These consultants from their comfortable offices in the UK did not even come up with the cost of this project. The cost, dear Lawrence, is horrendous.
Presumably Dr Gonzi is in dire need of a grandiose project. Something to be remembered for. Between you and me he is probably saying to himself, “I have to do something for the history books.”
Just imagine in thirty years time. Looking out of Bahar ic-Cahaq and pointing to your grandchild named after Malta’s greatest and most sincere journalist. “Peppi, look that rock out there is called Gonzi, and the one which is falling apart that one is called Galea Curmi.”
We all remember our politicians for something.
Borg Olivier stood for Independent Malta and tomorrow never comes. Dom Mintoff for the social welfare system and violence and corruption. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici for leading the workers to the Curia for a cultural visit. Eddie Fenech Adami for economic revival, the EU and the deficit. Alfred Sant for the big hole and the Bugibba promenade.
And Gonzi, well, if we left it to all the propaganda carefully packaged before his leadership election by Pierre Portelli, it should be his amazing ability to take decisions such as making Malta a wee bit bigger with this silly idea of deforming Malta and building new islands.
The alternative to Gonzi is I am afraid, Labour. Yet many people are not seeing the difference. They want to see the difference. Dr Alfred Sant has now re-launched a revamped economic vision for Malta. It is not only a watered-down version, it lacks vision.
The Labour party is so dead set about winning the election, it is only motivated by arguments which are voter-friendly. The new economic vision deletes all the harsh bits and only leaves the sound bites and lip service. Ask Alfred Sant a serious question about issues and the answers are either evasive or non-answers.
I have this uncanny feeling that once Labour gets itself elected they will look around and then ask themselves, “okay what are we supposed to do?”
It will be a field for MaltaToday. Can you imagine? How all the blue-eyed boys and girls will have to forego their gravy trains and return to run of the mill jobs like other normal folk? Can you imagine Gino Cauchi as Minister of Agriculture and Edward Zammit Lewis as Minister of Fisheries?
The other day as I sipped a coffee at Cordina’s in front of the il-kazin Malti, that ‘lawyer’s only club’, I observed the lawyers walking in an out. There was no Toni Abela walking in and out. At least the scruffily dressed but brilliant Dr Abela has consistently sipped his coffee from the old haunts next to the court. But other Labourites, younger and more stylishly dressed, and looking more Nationalists than the Nationalists walked in and out of il-kazin Malti. Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Joe Farrugia, Edward Zammit Lewis and others. Next time I will grab my binos with me to zoom on them.
Clearly, Labour is gearing up to move into government. And I have this amusing feeling that there are too many Claudio look-a-alikes waiting to move into the hot seat. I could be wrong but I doubt it.
In the Labour party general conference, Gino Cauchi the former Head of News from Super One and now a sort of sales executive with the station, said that the MaltaToday report that he would no longer be head of news at Super One was false and was full of ulterior motives.
In the end our story turned out to be true. The former PBS journalist even went as far to accuse me of being a ‘forcina ghan-Nazzjonalisti’ – a sort of lever for the PN. Go tell Gonzi or Joe Saliba that, and they will probably die of laughter.
In private we never liked each other. I always found Gino too chummy-chummy with Where’s Everybody Joe and he would always go around with a smirk on his face telling journalists “Who is behind Saviour? Who is behind Saviour?” The only thing behind Saviour is nothing other than my unpredictable irreverence and … some wind of course.
“This is not journalism,” exclaimed Gino to an auditorium of Labour delegates. Gino knows everything about journalism, he was once upon a time the most reliable, honest, objective, and accurate Head of News of any news TV station in the whole wide world. Gino said that he left on his own accord because he wanted to stand as a candidate. This is of course contrary to what senior officials in the Labour party have told MaltaToday.
saviourbalzan@newsworksltd.com
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