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We have been asked to greet the Commonwealth leaders. But let’s face it, and I pick this word up from a BBC report, the Commonwealth is still seen to be an ineffectual gathering of world leaders, despots and dictators.
The events have served as a possibility to upgrade a select few of our roads, learn more about protocol, and on the positive side train our security services and on the downside keep our newsrooms busy for the wrong reason.
It was also an opportunity to see the Queen and masticate on canapés and clink glasses to royalty and old time friendships.
Not for Victor Scerri, the president of the Nationalist Party council, who bravely called for an apology for having some Nationalists labelled ‘neo-fascists’ during the war and interned by the Brits in Uganda. Scerri’s faux pas was very similar to Tony Zarb’s dim-witted declaration of war, but then again, no PBS programme was available to spin Scerri’s apology request.
When you take a calm look at the Commonwealth it was really and truly an opportunity for 52 leaders to take a holiday in the central Mediterranean, and one country to overspend.
But beyond the resolutions, the smiles and the photo opportunities, it was beyond doubt not as important as the Prime Minister pictured it out to be.
Any reference to potential investment from Commonwealth countries is grossly exaggerated. And in a year’s time, let us revisit to see who has invested in Malta as result of CHOGM.
CHOGM in Malta was one of those pipe dreams come true by Eddie Fenech Adami, who in South Africa some years ago suggested that Malta would be an ideal place to bring everyone together. Then, Dr Fenech Adami, had spent just Lm60,000 for the trip.
The next CHOGM is planned for Uganda. Indeed the whole CHOGM meeting has wasted most of its time discussing it next meeting venue. It reminds me of one Christmas lunch where all the guests spent all their time arguing what they would eat next Christmas.
Well, in two years’ time, the home to Scerri’s Nationalist heroes will see the next CHOGM. Never mind that the opposition is treated far worse than the Nationalist were ever considered by a Mintoffian regime which had Bertu Mizzi as prime industrialist and confidante.
The Ugandans will surely repeat a Mugliett and surface the roads and pot pretty plants along the kerb and clean the side walks. Needless to say, away from the route chosen to drive the mad oligarchs and demagogues. Ugandan roads will be very comparable to Maltese roads.
Undoubtedly in Kampala, Uganda’s counterpart to Louis Galea will marshal all the children to throw a tantrum for the Queen, or will it be the King? And the woman minister for the island of Buggala in Lake Victoria will also be the chosen one to accompany the ageing Queen.
The whole event will be supported with dancers and music, and we should not be too surprised if the Ugandans select an events organiser by the name of Bondo Luwkoko, who by the way also stands in as state TV apologist. By the way – Bondo Luwkoko is a guitarist dying to play solo with his ‘instrument’ before royalty.
And needless to say, the lucky Ugandan will have utilised his Ugandan state-paid TV programme to promote his own event. What starts off as a national joke will become a global embarrassment!
Nevertheless, I cannot help ending a kind observation of the Commonwealth, a gathering of some of the poorest nations on this planet, with one anecdote.
The blackboard at the Labour Party club in Valletta which greeted the Queen with the Monty Python message: “Come again every month.”
The reality of our politics is best understood by two timely attractions. The first is the decision to award Bertu Mizzi the OBE. The award of the Officer of the British Empire has been authorised and recognised by both the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic. Here was a man who was denigrated by Gonzi’s predecessor and who was the man who would congregate around il-perit and laugh at his vulgar jokes. Bertu was the man who would accompany Dom on his foreign delegations. Bertu was the man who would never, even in the darkest moments of Maltese politics, utter one word or question failing democracy.
It even led Fenech Adami to call for him to climb down from Air Malta’s chairmanship. Later he would embrace Bertu Mizzi. Who hasn’t? Pragmatism is all about being forgetful. Not to be pragmatic is about being stupid.
If we needed proof of the political ‘trasformismo’ that exists in Malta, the decision to inform Her Majesty that there was a man by the name of Bertu Mizzi to be granted the OBE is the ultimate proof of how poor certain people’s judgement is.
Here is a man who owns a newspaper, hotels, hectares of land, tonnes of concrete apartments, runs the largest import and export companies, and is involved in every nook and cranny of Maltese business. To question him is like questioning the existence of God.
This newspaper is not owned by Bertu Mizzi, hence the dissimilarity in this newspaper. If Eddie’s judgement is poor, Bertu Mizzi’s pocket surely isn’t. As the President he authorises the recognition of the OBE on advice of the Prime Minister. What Gonzi had to remind President Fenech Adami about, is that millionaire Bertu Mizzi rents a property in St Julian’s, a home with unobstructed sea views, for which the rent is less than his chauffeur’s salary of a few weeks.
Dr Gonzi, who has conveniently forgotten all about the nasty words Eddie had for Bertu Mizzi, also failed to mention that the same Mizzi has his Valletta offices rented to him for a pittance and when he needs to maintain the place it his landlords who have to carry out all the necessary repairs and costs.
If there was a case for means testing then surely, this would be a fine occasion to start.
Well, good luck Bertie – with your OBE I am sure you have deserved every bit of the award. WE are all happy. Thank God, heroes and icons are those who never get awarded during their lifetime. Thank God for that.
This newspaper which is six years old this week and growing stronger, carries a story about a former politician.
He was the target of numerous stories in 2000 in the Nationalist press and The Times, but when we decided to investigate him we were libeled and he won. We have appealed, but the facts are fossilized in stone and no one will change that.
The case of Louis Buhagiar has resurfaced with the damning accusation by Dr Frank Portelli that his financial declaration for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 should read more like half a million. Lm500,000: did you hear that? A doyen of Maltese socialism earning that money and not declaring it.
We do not only believe Dr Portelli’s words – we have evidence that supports this claim. Now half a million works out like the wage of 100 workers on an annual wage of Lm5,000. Let me be very clear on this, I have nothing against people earning money, but does my opinion really matter?
Louis Buhagiar is not the only person who earns pots of money as good old Bertie would say, which beckons me to ask the other question: how in the seven heavens does someone stand on a Labour ticket, evoking the need to rid ourselves of poverty, embark on social harmony and all the usual chatter uttered by champagne socialists, with all that medical cash reeling in?
Louis Buhagiar is not alone in his antics but he is in good company. There are a number of parliamentarians who would love to give the impression that they are cash-strapped, poor little fellows with such a reduced budget they can hardly eat out at BUBA’s restaurant in Floriana. Which by the way is value for money.
In reality, many, and I could mention them, are involved in property sales, businesses and other deals which do not appear in their declarations. Politics seems to be an afterthought, like a peacock feather in foreplay.
Then they emerge out of the blues in a mass meeting facing a daunting sea of red flags, wave to voluptuous girls in tight pants as tight as my bank account, jumping up and down on piggyback to the silly chants of Freddie Zammit. As Frank Portelli says in his interview, people have lost faith in politicians.
Should we be so damn surprised? It is only the fact that many of them seem to militate in politics not because of ideological reasons but for the taste of power, status and the possibility of being called, Onorevoli!
Tony Zarb’s declaration of war and his suggestion that the Government needs toppling must have led Alfred Sant to drink more than one Fernet Branca. How can Zarb do this to him?
Must have been the comment from many of Sant’s aides. But it does stop here. Beaver whispered in my ears on Friday that Sant was furious that the union had decided to organise a protest bang in the middle of CHOGM without his consent.
If that is true, it goes to prove that at least the kitchen cabinet at Mile End are fully aware that anything that can help the PN press should be silenced. And that is what Zarb did. No-one in his right senses can believe that Tony will topple the government. Let’s face it, he cannot even harm a pussycat let alone ‘the government’.
In short, Tony’s protest was not a very good idea and more so because he does not come out with very concrete proposals other than replacing Lawrence with Alfred. Or am I missing the plot, is Tony expecting to become PM himself?
sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt
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