A close encounter between a wig and a paraventu

Published: March 4, 2008 at 6:05pm

In a bid at salvaging what’s left of his credibility, Alfred Sant raced down to Police Headquarters accompanied by the glossy Jason, the Lion of Change and Charlie ‘DNA’ Mangion. They all looked whey-faced. Sant looked as though the worms in his cheese had eaten his toast.

They were there to meet the man that Sant so memorably described on television as a paraventu ghall-korruzzjoni. I wonder how that went. Let’s picture the scene. Sant walks in with his delegation of four for moral support – we all know he’s a coward – and the inscrutable police commissioner politely avoids the subject of paraventi. Sant doesn’t bring it up to apologise (he has no regrets). The police commissioner offers them a ‘kafe jew tnejn’ and they get down to business. The Lion of Change brings out his lucky santa tal-Madonna and kisses it. Jason fixes his hair and smiles at the handsome police officer by the door. DNA Mangion does a quick mental reckoning of how much the latest batch of flats will bring in.

The Police Commissioner tries hard not to sneak a look at his watch. Privately he might be thinking that if anyone knows about land deals, it’s DNA Mangion. He says nothing, of course.

Is a third-party application for construction on land owned by an MP a police matter? Of course it isn’t. It’s a matter for the MEPA auditor. The police only get involved where there are issues of criminality – fraud, bribery, the exchange of money for favours. The Police Commissioner must be very annoyed to see that the man who described him as a paraventu is the very one who is trying to use him as such. By rushing off to file a report with the police, Sant hopes to give us the impression that there is criminality involved. He knows that some people are gullible, and he knows that the police commissioner would never tell him over the telephone, ‘Look here, sir – there are no criminal aspects to this case. Take it elsewhere.’

I don’t like the fact that the prime minister referred the case to the police. He’s a lawyer, so he knows that there’s no criminal case involved. By reporting it to the police after he had already reported it to the MEPA auditor, he was just embroiling himself in Sant’s weasel game.

So the wig met the paraventu and got his photo-op outside Police HQ. I’ve just sat through the painful coverage on One News, which is making much of it so as to drown out the sound of mocking laughter and shouts of ‘U-turn ohra!’ and ‘Mela he’s not a paraventu now?’

From Police HQ, Sant and the other three legs of this particular table went to stand on the steps of the Auberge de Castille in a dress rehearsal for the Big Day. After all, it’s just a short drive from Floriana and oil is only $103 a barrel. The Super One reporter who accompanied this farcical delegation held a reverential microphone to Sant’s lips (‘tmissnix jekk joghgbok’) and asked him why he had done that morning’s brave deed.

‘It’s because we are honest and clean,’ he said, while DNA Mangion cast about frantically in his mind for any more rented flats or similar difficulties. The Lion of Change worried briefly about the fact that he hadn’t raised his hand when the boss asked a coffee-morning crowd amusingly whether any of them had a swimming-pool to take advantage of his halved surcharge. After all, he has a fairly nice one at home in L-Iklin, but he would have felt like a prat as the only one with his hand in the air in front of the TVM, Super One and NET cameras.




27 Comments Comment

  1. D Vella says:

    How about another misprint from Lejber !!

    I have received a letter from AS explaining il-Pjan ta’ Bidu Gdid. The letter starts off by explaining to my wife and myself that the MLP “ghandhom ghal qalbhom l-anzjani” !!!

    The problem is that we are a couple in our 30’s.

    I am sure that this was another computer error!!!

    Give us a break Dottor Sant, you cannot get one right.

  2. Leonard says:

    Not too surprised that Sant decided to shut up and walk out – after all, he was facing an angry dentist. The poor fellow must have thought, “Jekk ma nghalaqx halqi ser jaqlaghli snieni.”

    BTW, what are the odds being offered by the street bookies?

  3. Seb says:

    I didnt know fred became the mascot for crosscraft

  4. K Zammit says:

    Seb, he will not be very convincing selling kazzoli next to NANCY.

  5. ESSO says:

    There’s something called a ‘pudding basin’ haircut. Maybe that’s why he was in the kitchen.

  6. Corinne Vella says:

    I see Sant has reconfirmed his determination to have a golf course built. Where does this put the prospects of an MLP AD coalition?

  7. Seb says:

    no but I’m sure jason would be great for that job

  8. Helene Asciak says:

    Corinne, this leaves us with yet another unanswered question.
    I ponder, do all the voters who genuinely feel they are doing right by voting AD because they so desperately want a change, for better or for worse? Have they got all their facts right, if not they had better think again.

  9. Simon says:

    Apparently Sant did not turn up for a meeting with farmers’ association held this evening. Does he really think that these people, who silently give a valid contribution to our economy and well being, are intellectually inferior to him, or did he want to avoid a face to face encounter with Gonzi?

  10. Corinne Vella says:

    Victor, we’re still waiting for your answer about ‘partnership’ debris. Sant’s just made a song and dance about the separation of waste. Did the banners and flags go into the same bins as the Tshirts? And how did the MLP recycle the CDs and stickers?

  11. Freddie did it again! says:

    This evening Fredu repeated again the Feeport scandal.

    Mybe he didn’t know yet that Daphne has removed the carpet beneath his feet, and made public the name of the person involved in the corruption!… It-tifel tal-Lorry!!

    Can someone please inform that person that he should not mention the case again, especially now that we know the person comes from his own ‘kitchen’??

  12. Catherine says:

    I feel it is a good thing we are members in the European Union. That is because one of the perks enables us to ’emigrate’ to any other member State to live and work as citizens. And that certainly gives us a wide choice should A.S. be elected Prime Minister this weekend.

  13. Simon says:

    By the way, this fantastic video has shot up from 240 viewers, 3 hours ago, to 4,000 + viewers

    http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=EsK_1yuFRsI

  14. Charles Camenzuli says:

    just came along : http://www.youtube.com/user/one1news

    worthwatching with Charlon Gouder , Miriam Dalli and Maria Muscat and their ventures off Super1 newsdesk…..

  15. Seb says:

    We all know that one can assimilate fred with a cheap Christmas cracker…there is no argument about that. My real fear are those people who back him up and I am not referring to the massa of people who will wave their lovely red flags at anything…even as in this case a man wearing road kill, but rather those men and women who are trying to get elected under his banner. What type of person with any inkling of intelligence would even consider having ties with such a man? Let alone let him represent them!……When you read this please keep in mind I am not referring to jason and mikey falzon, for they just fall under a category of their own.

  16. Seb says:

    Don’t know if anyone posted this but it’s brilliant.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFO0PloqYI&feature=related

  17. Dalli says:

    SEE THIS VIDEO YOU WILL NEED IT.
    It will calm you down and by the way put the speakers full on:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4dSYDsYc1k&feature=related

  18. Somewhat unrelated, but we just set up a new YouTube channel to show the Campus Debate 2008 in full, unedited and raw, to show what really happened during the most talked about event of this electoral campaign. Check out the videos at:

    http://www.youtube.com/CampusDebate2008

  19. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

    “A man wearing road kill” on his head – nice one, Seb.

  20. Simon says:

    Christian Peregin

    thanks for the posting of th edebate. Finally I watched the whole debate. Please note that #7 and #8 should be renumbered as #6 and #7 respectively.

  21. Banquo's Ghost says:

    Well, they say that politics is a dirty game, so it comes as no surprise that mudslinging is one of the levels in the game. If only politicians had to learn that:
    1. L-ispizjar milli jkollu jaghtik (so, one can only give others what one has); and
    2. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
    Enough said.

  22. As low as it go! says:

    I wonder how much low can politics in Malta dive!

    Actually I’m amazed by the mediocrity of this ‘dirty’ campaign which is currently ruling.

    I cannot understand how Dr Alfred Sant yesterday (on the PBS press conference) repeated yet again the claim of corruption from the PN side on the Freeport scandal, when we just heard that the culprit do not hail from the ‘other’ side but from his own ‘kitchen’!

    Is it possible that no one cared to inform Dr Alfred Sant to shut up about this MLP frame up?

    Or was it just another mud slinging exercise, independently of its veracity?

    However in this case, it is TRUE ALL RIGHT! … With a slight difference though. The culprit who was involved in the Freeport scandal is actually one who sings the song of the Lions – ‘Viva l-Lejber, Viva l-Lebjer, HEJ, HEJ’.

    HEJ INDEED ;)

  23. AWAITING ANSWER says:

    My dearest Victor,

    Did you ask about the person involved in the Freeport scandal?

    I think you had all the time to ask by now.

    I’m still awaiting your reply.

    Thank you

  24. Philip says:

    I just wonder if the Mangion/Vella flats were rented out to the Freeport- still a government entity at the time – through the services of an established Estate Agency or through the Hbieb tal- Hbieb Network

  25. Vanni says:

    May be old hat to most, but just in case anybody missed it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V00bR4MUZ4o

    PS: @ Daphne, give them hell :)

  26. Lorna says:

    Have you noticed that on Monday, whilst the BA was objecting to Dr. JPO being present during the press conference because he was a candidate for the PN, there was another person who WAS (and IS) a candidate? The guy representing Azzjoni Nazzjonali (whose name I can’t recall) is a candidate for AN. Yet, nobody objected to him being present on the basis of his being a candidate.

    The BA should hang its head in shame. What will it do when Sant becomes Prime Minister? If it yields to him now that Sant is Leader of the Opposition, will it yield to him as PM and object to certain people ever being present to his press conferences?

    Indeed, a trip down memory lane should jog the memory of those people who have not collected their votes or who are voting for AD, AN or Labour and who in 1987 voted Nationalists for democracy and freedom.

    Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

    Democracy is at stake – not just the economy, our education system and all the goodies we so myopically take for granted. Democracy is threatened.

  27. david muscat says:

    Hello Daphne,
    May I suggest to you to enter MEPA website and through the map-server search Wied il-Ghasel area limits of Mosta. Application no: 05109/00
    http://mapserver.mepa.org.mt/malta_geoinfo/SQLresult.htm

    Here you will find interesting information about Dr Anglu Farrugia’s father (George) who fooled MEPA into giving him recognition for a blatant development outside development area in Wied il-Ghasel.

    I also know that the land where this abusive intrustion into Wied il-Ghasel is Governmental property taken over in the good old Socialist era. Where is ALfred Sant to cry foul?!

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