Three men, one choice

It is difficult to fault Green chief Michael Briguglio.  His TV appearance and his delivery and his replies have been spot on. His argumentation about pensions and taxes definitely needs to be endorsed.

He is right when he describes the two main political parties as being irresponsible in promising to cut tax for high wage earners and for not further reforming the pension system.

The two political parties refuse to acknowledge this problem because they are simply unwilling to lose any sleep over votes.

This approach has amazing disadvantages but it also illustrates the constraints which politicians in the mainstream face.

I find problems with Michael Briguglio in one particular aspect.

He has seemingly forgotten about the mediocre and corrupt governance that has taken over the administration of the country. 

In many of his political contribution he talks about the Green's commitment to champion the 'unpopular' issues which specifically concern minority groups.

They have also been a fighting force for environmental issues.

But Briguglio's lack of enthusiasm in confronting many of the 'political' issues which have overwhelmed people in the last 10 years, as well as his reluctance to take on the PN, have raised questions whether he is too close to the PN.

Briguglio does not realise that most of the disgruntled Nationalist who could possibly vote for AlternattivaDemokratika will do so only because they want to be sure that their vote will cause the greatest possible harm to the PN.

He should perhaps rewind to 1996 and see what happened then.

Briguglio may not realise that democracy and elections are not all about proposals. Indeed I have little belief or no belief at all that manifestos will influence people's way of voting.

It is the imagery and the gaffes and the strong element of retribution that gets people to switch.

It is a pity, but it is the truth.

Would I vote for the Greens? Oh, definitely, I gave birth to the Maltese Greens but I do not feel comfortable with the Greens this time round.

***

Which obviously takes me to my next potential but impossible choice: Lawrence Gonzi.

I guess everyone has realised that I may suffer from a psychological disorder but no, I am not a masochist.

Embracing Lawrence Gonzi would confirm that I have absolved the Prime Minister of all his mistakes and his politics of vendetta and apartheid that I have seen with my very eyes.

The last time I met him was for an interview in the Autumn of 2009.  Since that time it has been a cold war and there has been no contact.  I attribute this to his own character and that of his chief of staff Edgar Galea Curmi, a person perfectly unsuited to the role of personal assistant. 

If there was a pale shadow of Richard Cachia Caruana it is Edgar, a man who once told me that he would definitely prefer to take up his Spanish guitar than politics - if only he had listened to his gut feeling, I am sure his Prime Minister would be infinitely better off.

But here again, I must say that I spent most of my time blaming the Prime Minister's entourage for the mistakes and the inclusivity of an inward looking PN.

I really believe it is the Prime Minister who is to blame.

It is he who has decided to listen to angry Nationalists and do nothing.

That the PM should not like MaltaToday is understandable.  But liking a newspaper is one thing, tolerating the media is another thing altogether.

Every attempt to set up a line of communication with the Prime Minister's office has been an abysmal failure. Because never before in our political history has an independent media organisation questioned the Nationalist Party.

MaltaToday carried out this role in a very different way from The Times and Independent have carried this out.

In the first years of MaltaToday I remember Richard Cachia Caruana in his spin doctor mode.  He did it with vigour, style and focus.  When he left, he was replaced by an amateur. 

His name as we all know was Galea Curmi. But he knew f*** all about the media and he thought just because he was personal assistant to the Prime Minister editors should fall to their knees and take his word as gospel or follow his commands.

Deep in the PM's psyche is his belief that MaltaToday was a front for John Dalli. The distaste and dislike for John Dalli was simply an insurmountable mountain that could never go away.

Why? Because Gonzi believed Dalli was a threat to his leadership, even when it was not.

With this in mind there was of course the constant blogging and distasteful attacks from those who work in tandem with the Office of the Prime Minister.  The Queen of Bile herself and of course Lou Bondi: the journalist who has no place in State Broadcasting.

This was the worst form of spin doctoring with the primary tactic of attacking those around the 'guilty partner' and associating 'guilt' by association - I personally experienced the worst form of attack on my wife, my family and even my late wife.

The Prime Minister said on Friday that one should see the bigger picture. This is the picture. There is no other picture.  And I refuse to forget or forgive.

It is a picture which impacted on my daily work and life, the hatefulness and the hatred that trickled out from the Office of the Prime Minister which was simply impossible to digest. And I know it hit others in waves and waves.

In my office I was faced with leaks and allegations on corruption, nepotism, favouritism and spin.  When I finally stumbled on the story of the decade, I was derided by those who publicly applauded me.

I saw the Nationalist Party evolve into a mini-replica of the pre-1987 Labour Party.

I saw dissidents in the PN destroyed and attacked and vilified, all with the benevolence and gratitude of those who worked in the Office of the Prime Minister.

When a contractor named Charles Magro did the right thing and asked to talk to Edgar Galea Curmi about Tonio Fenech's renovation works at his new home, the solution to this problem was to turn Charles Magro into a monster and an enemy of the state.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has never done anything remotely wrong, according to the Prime Minister. Indeed he has been protected by the PM inspite of the overwhelming evidence presented to him in the last five years.

When he boarded a private jet with Joe Gasan and George Fenech, the two millionaires who wanted to purchase the Jerma Palace Hotel: a hotel that belonged to the beleaguered Montebello brothers, the canvassers of Tonio Fenech who were renovating Fenech's new home.

Whistleblowers are not safe in this country. Magro was vilified, so he came to MaltaToday and he was further denigrated.

But it was another incident that definitely changed my mind and convinced me that electorally supporting Lawrence Gonzi was morally wrong. This is the revelation that I am talking about for the first time today in this column.

I am not talking of the corruption that is pervasive in every sector, and is sanctioned by the culture of political omerta'.

It is a fact that my cellular phone was and still is unlawfully tapped by police officers from the cyber crime unit; and that information has been passed on to political activists in the Nationalist Party.

But what is worse is that politicians and PN dissidents were unlawfully tapped before 2007 and after; and that information was passed on to individuals with connections in the Nationalist Party.

This was carried out without the knowledge of the Commissioner of Police.

And let me make this very clear, the cyber crime unit is completely separate from the Security Service run by Godfrey Scicluna. 

I was given and shown evidence of this by people who were directly involved in this espionage and later realised the implications.  They also talked about how they worked closely with the Nationalist Party.

Before 2007, when I said I would not vote and ended up giving my first count vote to the PN, had I known that opposition MP's were being tapped I would not have voted.

With a whistleblower's act in place, people will talk.

But today there is another reality apart from the ideological and self-conceited form of administration.

The Mintoffian legacy of blue-eyed boys, ignoring meritocracy and believing people of different political beliefs are children of a lesser God, and of continuing to believe that someone has a God given right to govern forever... all this is not only wrong but fundamentally tyrannical.

In these last 25 years of a PN government, there have been the high points. They were exemplified by the end of thuggery, the birth of pluralism, the end of autarky and the rooting of a secular society. 

But as this was evolving, the roots of arrogance and self-importance were laid down, as was a belief that alternatives are intrinsically wrong.

***

With which, of course, I turn all my attention to the alternative political force that comes in the form of Joseph Muscat.

I can find many faults with Muscat. But I cannot accuse him of being something he is not.

He appears at times more Nationalist than the Nationalist, more populist than the PN and more reconciliatory than the PN was in 1987.

Which of course raises many questions about whether he will really deliver on his commitment of a 'Malta for all.'

Gonzi promised a new way of doing politics, and did not deliver. Will Muscat deliver?

Most especially when he has apparently promised to various segments of Maltese society, ranging from hunters to developers, a very considerate understanding to their irresponsible requests.

But many people will vote for Muscat because they do not fear the 39 year-old economist. They do not find him depressing or mediocre. But they are probably more angry and dismissive of Gonzi and his band of ministers.

If Muscat is elected he will face an electorate with high expectations. And more importantly: will he rise to the occasion and will he uphold the standards previously ignored by political pundits?

The political landscape will have to change. The ethical standards have been changed forever.

It is in this light that I see change.

Not voting for Briguglio or Gonzi, does not mean that I will vote for Muscat. My role, however, is not to vote for politicians but to question their actions, to debate their decisions, and to uncover their hypocrisy and their misjudgements.

That, whether you like it or not, will be MaltaToday's editorial stance after 9 March.