Updated | Xarabank debate sees Pullicino Orlando flying into fits of rage

What should have been a televised discussion on the Sheehan shooting incident deteriorated into an exchange of barbs and snide remarks

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (centre) had posed as a journalist during a televised political debate in 2008
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (centre) had posed as a journalist during a televised political debate in 2008

Former Nationalist rebel MP Jeffery Pullicino Orlando was among a panel on Xarabank to discuss the dismissal of home affairs minister Manuel Mallia following the shooting incident involving his driver Paul Sheehan.

But what should have been a civilised televised debate ended up in pandemonium, with everyone shouting over each other and Pullicino Orlando flying into fits of rage.

Pullicino Orlando was chosen by the Labour Party as an opinion maker to accompany its deputy leader, Toni Abela, to the programme. AD chairperson Arnold Cassola chose MaltaToday journalist James Debono while Net TV presenter Frank Psaila accompanied deputy PN leader Beppe Fenech Adami.

This was not Pullicino Orlando’s first appearance on the popular TV programme, however this time Pullicino Orlando was chosen by Labour to fight its corner alongside Abela.

The majority of the programme saw Pullicino Orlando repeatedly confronting Fenech Adami and Psaila – whom on their behalf did not shy away from telling the former PN diehard that “Labour could keep him”.

At one point, Pullicino Orlando provoked the two by asking them whether the PN was now missing him. Psaila was quick to retort that they did not even want him “as a knocker on the door of Dar Centrali”.

An exasperated Peppi Azzopardi clearly lost control over his panel when he was forced to turn off their microphones.

The discussion saw Toni Abela admitting that both parties had a lot to learn from the report of the shooting inquiry, but still could not hold back from telling the PN that the judges’ advice on accountability “mainly referred to them”.

“We are just flagging a dead horse,” Abela said on Mallia’s resignation, accusing the Nationalist Opposition of having “contaminated” the inquiry.

On his part, Debono said it had been wrong of the Opposition to initially release doctored transcript of a telephone conversation between former police chief Ray Zammit and OPM spokesman Kurt Farrugia. At this point, Fenech Adami insisted that the PN media “released what it had” and that it was only on Sunday that it received actual recordings.

Pullicino Orlando, who repeatedly defended former minister Manuel Mallia and Zammit, turned the guns onto former minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici. According to a 2012 inquiry, Mifsud Bonnici had stopped the head of the detention services from taking disciplinary steps against officers involved in the death of a migrant.

But this comparison prompted Debono to remind him that Pullicino Orlando had been on the forefront calling for the pushbacks of migrants. While saying that previous administrations had a lot to answer for their detention policy, Debono said it was obscene that the inquiry was published just to get back at the Opposition.

Fenech Adami came out in full defence of Mifsud Bonnici: “I was there marching in solidarity after the death of the migrant…based on that report we reviewed our national policy.”

The discussion also addressed the leaked police recordings with Debono and Abela agreeing that such leakages helped the media uncover the true. They however argued that it was a source of concern that these ended up in the hands of political media.

Expressing his disagreement, Pullicino Orlando turned to the journalist asking whether “he would now feel safe calling the police to report a case of domestic violence”.

While Pullicino Orlando, Fenech Adami and Psaila continued with their bickering, Arnold Cassola said the Prime Minister had been right in publishing the Kamara inquiry “but it’s now also time to publish the other two”. Cassola was referring to two inquiries ordered by former police chief Peter Paul Zammit in 2013.

Abela also suggested whether inquiries should be heard in the public.

Despite never working as a journalist or in the media, Pullicino Orlando’s appearance on Xarabank undoubtedly revived memories of his infamous previous foray in the world of journalism when the former MP gate-crashed a televised political programme addressed by former Labour leader Alfred Sant.

In 2008, the Broadcasting Authority had to postpone the recording of the programme after Pullicino Orlando turned up unexpectedly with a temporary press pass. In the run up to the 2008 election, the former MP was accused of corruption by Sant. The allegations surrounded an application for an open-air disco at Mistra, on land belonging to Pullicino Orlando.