The choice is theirs

For the very first time the PN councillors have denied leadership to a candidate the public wanted as their leader, this may well translate into 10 years in opposition

I have often been accused of timing stories to undermine an event.

Most of the time, I publish a story because a story should be published, not shelved.

But there are some exceptions.

So here are two particular stories which I chose not to publish before the PN contestation, because I thought they might favour one candidate.

That may sound insincere but here are the stories I shelved.

The first news story has to do with Simon Busuttil. In January of this year, Tonio Fenech following a cabinet decision compensated a Maltese company that represents Shell International. It gave them €5 million tax free.

There was a court process and an odd decision from the Malta Resources Authority. Simon Busuttil was their legal representative, even though he was a Europarliamentarian and later a hand-picked deputy leader by the Gonzi-Saliba clan.

My questions are very simple: Is it true that Simon Busuttil was awarded a commission (not a kickback), which by normal standards would turn into a sizeable fee? And if so, what was the sum?

Second question: Did Simon Busuttil encourage or catalyse the payment, which was made, coincidentally, just after the oil scandal?

Three: With whom did Simon Busuttil discuss the Shell compensation?

Four: Did he discuss the matter directly with Tonio Fenech?

There is nothing criminal in all this, but the timing of the compensation is diabolical, and even the amount awarded to this Maltese company is questionable

The second story is more serious. It has to with the story that PN councillors who voted in the 2004 election for Gonzi and Dalli were filmed by micro-cameras in the polling booth. The footage was used to identify those who had not voted for Gonzi, and they were patiently excused from their duties as councillors over the next three years.

The footage was later found on the hard disc of one PN functionary at Stamperija.

You say more information is needed? Well, just try me.

So you see, I did everything not to disrupt the election for the next leader of the Nationalist Party.

Now I also have to say that I have not been nice to Lawrence Gonzi since 2004. I do not feel I owe him any apologies. I have no regrets, and it is a pity that I did not manage to convince more people earlier what he stood for.

He will be remembered as someone who took the Nationalist Party to its most dishonourable defeat ever, surrounding himself with the most repulsive functionaries and levying a politics of procrastination.

Not only did he dismantle the PN financial structures and turn it the party bankrupt.

He made up for his bad politics with his expert ability as a communicator.

His politics was especially vindictive and his party became exclusive, repelling all those who threatened his base. All his decisions were driven by his desire to stay on.

He even repelled those who crossed the Rubicon but had once, before his time, embraced the Nationalists - yours truly being one of them.

And he boasted of doing politics in a new way but pandered to mediocrity and nepotism.

I am not sorry to see Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi go, just in the same way I was not sorry seeing former Labour Prime Ministers or leaders Alfred Sant go and, before him, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

I trust that if Simon Busuttil is to be leader (even though I believed that Mario de Marco would have been a much better leader) he will definitely improve the lot of the Nationalist Party - but not enough to dismantle the Labour Party's political advantage.

Because any change brings change.

***

The news that Jason Micallef was appointed chairman led to re-enactments of the Exorcist.  People were vomiting their guts out, eyes rolled back, skin turned white, and instead of human voices we were greeted with gutteral croaking.

That, I'm afraid, is what happens when you mention Jason Micallef.

It is perhaps the epitome of prejudice: given its irrationality, if you do not like something there is no way you'll start to like it.

The reaction reveals our intolerant nature and our political bias.

It also proves beyond a doubt that the political class is rather uninterested in what people think. And as was the case with the Claudette Abela Baldacchino decision, the administration (that is, Joseph Muscat) was more interested in addressing the micro-problems within the party than with the public. That means keeping Claudette and Jason happy.

A nine-seat, 36,000-vote majority gives one the comfort to be arrogant, stupid and irreverent at times.

***

Conflict of interest is something you define and then ignore. It seems that no one gives a hoot about apparent conflict of interest when someone is still acting or holds a crucial post, let alone when he or she departs.

For example, if someone has said he's left politics and is now a private citizen, do you still measure him with a conflict of interest yardstick?

Maybe.

The two main campaign managers for the PN campaign in the last election, Joe Saliba and Austin Gatt, abandoned their party but only after they captained their boat (the PN) into the rocks and down to the bottom of the sea.

So Austin Gatt has been appointed chairman of the Hili Group of Companies.  So far, so good.  We know the Hili Group is active in the bunkering of oil and that Hili bought Philip Toledo, which represents IBM and Smart Meters. The meters (a costly flop) were introduced by Austin Gatt when he was minister.

Any further comment would be superfluous.

***

As I put the two newspapers to bed, the voting for the next PN leader had come to a close.  Simon Busuttil acquired 50% of the vote.  Congratulations are appropriate.  But this is probably the very first time the Nationalist councillors have decided to ignore public opinion and go for someone who will not win them the next election.  The PN are condemned to 10 years in opposition. Of this I am sure.

Simon Busuttil does not have it to be leader of a Nationalist party.

The reason that the councillors chose him and not Mario de Marco is because they were all Gonzi acolytes, most of them did not even get elected in their committees but were simply plonked there by the Gonzi team.

If the PN had any self-respect they would have first reviewed the committees and then elected the leader.

Yesterday the Labour party had good reason to celebrate.  The person they feared most was beaten by Busuttil.

What a pity!