Comments on: MPs are answerable only to their constituents

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:49:52 +0000

Here’s the gap in the arguments, Patrick. On the one hand you have the Nationalist Party claiming a haemorrhage of votes in the last week of the campaign because of the JPO case. On the other hand you have the fact that JPO and Helena Dalli were the only two candidates – bar the two leaders and Labour’s two deputy leaders – to be elected on two districts at the first count. Taken together these two pieces of information suggest that (1) the whole of Malta except for the people in JPO’s two districts knew that JPO was telling whoppers (2) the people in JPO’s districts wanted to give him their number one despite knowing he was telling giant whoppers, or (3) the first piece of information is wrong, and people didn’t know he was telling giant whoppers, which means that he couldn’t have caused a vote haemorrhage. Now here’s my two-cents’ worth: people who cause their party to bleed votes do not get elected on the first count in two districts, with more votes than those of the party’s deputy leader.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:07:20 +0000

Daphne

You’re right; democratically and constitutionally it’s important for people to understand that an MP’s seat is his own for as long as he or his constituents wish it to be so.

But it certainly seems that he lied to his constitutents, and that many people trusted him and voted for him on the basis of that lie.

No-one can demand that he resigns. If this investigation does confirm that he lied – still less that he did more than that – then should simply do the right thing and go away.

By: david

david — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:51:00 +0000

I live in JPO’s constituency. I demand that JPO resign at least he shows he is a man acknowledging his mistakes. Daphne, might be right in all you said, may I remind you that if he lied he will have been elected on false pretences. That, in itself, is bad enough. In the UK and US if an MP lies he will be made to resign.

Gonzi showed that he wants discipline and seriousness by choosing the cabinet he chose. I think he cannot afford to tolerate any nonsense.

[Moderator – The US is not a good comparison because their system of checks and balances that leads to impeachment is very highly evolved. The US Senate only tries officials who have been accused of committing crimes against the state. If the Senate finds that the evidence weighs against the accused, he is convicted, and the House of Representatives will impeach him. As far as I know, the only form of lying that constitutes a crime against the state is perjury – lying under oath. This legal process is important. If trial by public opinion were enough to impeach an official, the executive could spin public opinion against officials that it does not like. Pressuring JPO to resign is a slippery slope that leads to the upsetting of the balance of power between the executive and the legislature.]

By: Tony Pace

Tony Pace — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:11:46 +0000

JPO should look in the mirror tomorrow morning and decide “am I a man or a mouse?”. The chances are that if he decides to come clean, tell the whole truth to the ones he has betrayed, and try to make amends, then he could actually stand a chance to start afresh.
In the meantime, I suppose some of us are saying that he is innocent until proven guilty.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:59:33 +0000

@ Bootroom – when you come across any political party/government in the world that is entirely without untarnished elements, please let me know. Human nature will always be what it is – it is not whether MPs turn out to have feet of clay that counts, but how the situation is dealt with. The Labour Party wasn’t tarnished by the myriad shortcomings of its individual MPs and ministers, but by the failure of party leaders to control them at once. So far, there is no evidence, still less proof, of corruption in the JPO case.

By: Bootroom

Bootroom — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:12:43 +0000

No damage done to the PN? Please Daphne there are limits even when doing one’s best not to let one’s party’s image be tarnished. JPO is a Nationalist and if the allegations prove to be true it would show that a Nationalist MP is corrupt. Gonzi may have tackled the case in the proper manner but it would still show that elements of his party are corrupt.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:59:38 +0000

@ Indannata – I beg to differ. No damage has been done to the PN. The only damage that has been done is to JPO, and ironically, to Sant himself. You need the distance of time to see things clearly.

By: Indannata

Indannata — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:29:30 +0000

Well Daphne,
You have to admit that Carlos has a point here.
That’s why I am an indannata!! I trusted JPO with my vote before the election because he told us he is not guilty and now everything is pointing in a different direction altogether.
I urge the Comm. of Police to speed up his investigation to end this asap. There has been enough damage done against the PN.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:12:30 +0000

Carlos, the point is that there is no way of finding out whether JPO’s constituents want him to carry on as their MP without doing what Sant did in 1998 in Mintoff’s regard (a snap election) or waiting until 2013. Anything other than that is presumptuous. Tough, but true. Whatever my own feelings about the case, I object on principle to having my MP removed without my being consulted, so that what I get instead is somebody I made a point of not voting for, like Michael Asciak of Opus Dei. Rather have JPO than that!

By: carlos bonavia

carlos bonavia — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:53:40 +0000

Daphne – JPO is also my Mp. Now legally speaking you might be right for all I know, but don’t you think that politically, JPo has a lot to answer for ? You might shout till you are blue in the face (sorry) but the honourable thing for JPO to do is to admit to his less-than-honourable actions
provided that he has not justifiable answers to all these accusations being levelled at him. If proven guilty, I will expect nothing less than my prime minister’s pressure for JPO’s resignation(from the party) and for JPO to gracefully exit the scene. His being ‘instrumental’ or not in securing victory for the PN is another argument but I would object very strongly to being represented in parliament by a ‘Tainted’ MP and no amount of Legalese will justify such a state of being.