Why protesting over what happened at Għargħur is a joke

The protest by the Nationalist Party over the situation that developed at the Għargħur council after falling into the hands of Labour is one of the lamest I have ever seen. Those who advised PN Leader Bernard Grech to take to the streets and bemoan the demise of democracy have got it all wrong.

If in Parliament, one fine morning, a posse of PL parliamentarians crossed the floor and declared that they would be aligning themselves with the PN, it follows, as a general rule of parliamentary democracy that the PL would effectively have lost power. And this despite the PL having obtained a majority of votes in the election. That is democracy for you. You can describe it as unfair and unlucky, but those are the rules.

In Għargħur, the PN lost its majority because a PN councillor resigned from the party. The decision to choose Francesca Attard was the PN’s prerogative and I am sure that the due diligence protocol to choose her was far from rigorous. It appears, Attard was not in the good books of many residents and the PN. So, it was only a matter of time before she took the step that led to PN Mayor Helen Gauci being unseated.

Bernard Grech was somehow advised that the Għargħur episode would create a public outcry and galvanise voters. It probably did upset many PN diehards, even though they know that this is how representative democracy functions.

Grech compared Għargħur to the 1981 political events, which saw the PN miss on its chance to govern even though it had more first count votes. The truth is that these comparisons are odious, and very outdated. The reference to 1981 is 44 years old; Bernard Grech was just 10 years old. Most of the people who matter could not give a toss about 1981. It was another era; another age.

I feel sorry for the PN but someone needs to tell them that this war will get them nowhere.

If a local council somewhere else on the island experiences a transfer of power from the PL to the PN because of defections or resignations, I am sure the PN would hang on to this newly awarded gift. They would pretend not to hear while praying to the Lord for this stroke of luck.

The long and short of it is that the Għargħur local council battle is a waste of time and everyone else could not be bothered. The PN needs to wage war on things that matter, but you cannot fight a war if instead of a general, your army is being led by a lacklustre corporal.

Rent seeker par excellence

Mark Camilleri

As the Nationalists were trying to bolster party spirits with the Għargħur protest, Labour Party WhatsApp chats were bustling with livid and negative comments on the government decision to award €25,000 to Mark Camilleri—the ‘Spanish’ blogger with a panache for vitriol.

Ironically, many of the WhatsApp messages I saw were hitting out at Minister Owen Bonnici since the Arts Council that awarded the contract falls under his purview. But the decision to award Camilleri the contract with an upfront payment of €10,000 was not coming from Bonnici; it was coming from someone far higher.

This appeasement did not please the Labour grass roots, who see Mark Camilleri as a person who intrinsically hates the party and its functionaries. Camilleri had tried to acquire a similar contract from the government in May last year. Then MaltaToday had got wind of government’s intention to hand Camilleri the contract and ran with the story. The decision was dropped at the last minute. The orders to drop the contract came from Castille; the same place that issued the order to give Camilleri a contract.

Insiders told me that Bonnici is saddened and vehemently denying that it was his decision to issue a contract to Mark Camilleri. Insiders insist, Bonnici was ordered to do so.

The whole debacle has led one or two people close to the highest figures in Labour to instigate Neville Gafa, the self-styled no holds barred Labour propagandist, to shoot volleys of abuse at Owen Bonnici and blame him for this. Indeed, they also leaked the contract to Gafa, including the proposal Camilleri made to justify the contract.

I have never seen such anger in Labour’s rank and file over a direct order awarded to someone who has dished out the most brutal commentary to describe Labour exponents, especially Robert Abela himself.

Mark Camilleri has spent the last three years calling on people to fund his operation, which he conducts from Spain, with a €100,000 donation. At one point I reported him to the police for blackmail and soon after Justice Edwina Grima ordered the police to arrest and prosecute him. The police did fuck all and my hunch is that they were told to leave Camilleri alone.

worst of all, and most worrying to me, is the attempt to frame this contract as a decision taken unilaterally by Owen Bonnici and Albert Marshall

Since those days his erratic behaviour has lost him the trust of many, including those who saw in him a bastion of anti-Labourism.

Camilleri has big financial problems, compounded by illusions of grandeur.

But worst of all, and most worrying to me, is the attempt to frame this contract as a decision taken unilaterally by Owen Bonnici and Albert Marshall.

Everyone knows it is not the case. Over the years, the concerted effort against the mainstream media for being the recipient of State funds has fuelled and catalysed people like Mark Camilleri and others, who see themselves as ‘crusaders of the truth’.

But there is a massive difference from having structured and transparent support for media houses, who employ professional journalists and media workers, to giving handouts to a person who does not reside in Malta, has no professional set up, and revels in bile and odium. Camilleri is simply a rent seeker living in paradise—the phrase he coined and so affectionately attributed to others.