Gosh, Joseph – that was savvy
The Nationalist Party’s outgoing secretary-general has let it slip, in an interview with The Sunday Times yesterday, that it was ‘Call Me Joseph’ Muscat who inadvertently sabotaged the Labour Party’s plan to unleash a surprise attack on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in the last week of the electoral campaign.
At the time, I was told that the Nationalist Party had got wind of this from a senior official of the Labour Party, but I never knew who that senior official was. I imagined it was somebody who had it in for Sant, and who was doing it deliberately. I am thrilled to discover that it was Joseph Muscat, and that it only happened because he couldn’t keep his big mouth shut, because this adds to my rapidly-growing collection of incidents that illustrate his poor judgement. Muscat didn’t go knocking on Joe Saliba’s door to tell him: “Hey, they’re going to attack Jeffrey.” No. Instead he did what all those World War II posters warned about: Careless Talk Costs Lives. Joseph Muscat shot his mouth off in company and helped his army lose the war. Let’s hear it from Joe Saliba:
“As a party, our work is also to understand Labour’s strategy….if possible we have to be two steps ahead. We analyse the speeches and actions of every Labour official. That made us realise Labour was going to start attacking Jeffrey….On a television programme, Muscat said that Labour would be releasing information to implicate a Nationalist Party candidate in corruption. A couple of days after that programme, in a private conversation, Muscat inadvertently continued giving hints to show that he was aware of Labour’s strategy, and we managed to identify the candidate they would be picking on.”
That’s the trouble with men who are too clever by half and too pleased with themselves. They want to show off and impress you with how well-connected they are and how in the know. So the man who captains this new winning team made up of Anglu L-Ispettur, Toni Otello and Jason Micallef sat there mouthing off about all the inside information to which he was privy, and Mata Hari (probably yet another man he was trying to impress) sat there flirting and egging him on and taking mental notes to report back to the Nationalist Party’s strategy group.
And then the Labour Party was screwed and Alfred Sant ended up taking shelter in the Crosscraft set at PBS studios while calling for the police to remove the offending object.
Yes, well – what do you expect of a man who mimes to the lyrics of the party anthem?
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If you believe this then you can believe anything, even that the world is flat or that you are genious!
If I were you I wouldn’t rush. Could it be that it was part of another strategy: he spoke carelessly deliberately hoping someone would pass on the message to the PN? (he would’t do it in a straighforward manner as in “Joe I have this bit of news for you”) As a result of this ‘careless’ talking labour would not benefit electorally from the issue; it would actually lose votes. Labour loses the election and in comes the anointed one.
LOOOOFL @ Daphne !…..did you seriously believe this??
@Michael Debono: I think you mean to imply “that you are a genius”. Learn to write correctly before posting please
@ tony borg. Tony boy, how’s that for a conspiracy theory!? Here’s one for you to sniff at – aliens have lanaded at Rinella – off you go!!
For a 43-year old with ‘the memory of an elephant’, ‘lots of life experience’, and who most certainly does not doubt her judgement, I’d say you’re also amazingly gullible.
Joe Saliba is still sec gen, and (in his words) the job of the sec gen is to garner votes, regardless of whether we’re in election mode or not. You know as well as I do that when it comes to vote-grabbing, there’s nothing better than subtly framing a political leader as having hurt his own party.
Which is what Joe Saliba is doing. Mind you, I don’t blame him – I’d have done the same. But let’s not for one second put people (or what they say) on pedestals. Especially politicians still in their official roles.
Poor Michael Debono, he ommitted an article. Missek tisthi Michael. You should know better.
Darren, please note that the expression “I think you mean to imply” is commonly referred to as pidgeon English.
By any chance, you don’t happen to be from my same village ey (Sliema you know)?
I can’t be sure if its true or not but, if i’m not mistaken, LG did contact the commissioner sometime before AS and co. paraded to the depo.
@At all you believers in the New Jesus Christ: it is definitely true. If you read my post carefully, you’ll see that I made it plain I knew exactly what was going on at the time. The one thing I wasn’t told was who in the Labour Party shot his mouth off. The news that the story was inadvertently leaked by a Labour official who was talking too much in the wrong company was already out a couple of months ago. Those of us who were not privy to the information took it for granted that it must have been Marlene Pullicino, trying to protect her ex husband. Then Marlene Pullicino made it plain that she had no idea that her party was planning to attack her ex husband.
“If you read my post carefully”… I must count the number of times you’ve said that. Though I’m quite convinced that you’re right in thinking we’re all stupid (with apologies to the people posting comments), I’d much rather believe we are actually reading your posts carefully, but we think they’ve got more holes than a wall in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
I wasn’t saying that Joe wasn’t right. But coming from a person who is consistently critical of authority, your blind faith in the veracity of Joe Saliba’s statement resonates a particularly parochial uncritical mentality – the same one you love trashing so much (but only when you see it fit to do so).
(‘New Jesus Christ?’ – Naqblu. He’s going to feel perfectly at home in parliament – I’ve heard there’s more divine big-headedness there than a papal conclave).
And of course Saliba is to be believed without subjecting his statement to any sort of scrutiny! The PN attack machine is at work again and in overtime drive. Question: why is this bit of “mis”information coming out now after the Labour leadership election? Wouldn’t it have helped George Abela had this been strategically leaked before the Labour leadership election and we all know how much the PN machine was supposedly pushing for George to be MLP leader in the country’s best interests. The tangled web gets even more tangled.
@Tony Borg – I see your point, but I don’t think so. He was the anointed one in any case. Had Labour won, he would have carried on living it up in Brussels with his wife and twins firmly ensconced back in Malta, then he would have slipped in as the successor. This came a little earlier than planned for him, which is why he is determined to be both an MEP and Labour leader for as long as he can get away with it.
@Tri: I use very precise language, so I can’t understand why you get confused. Perhaps you skim-read?
I don’t have blind faith in Joe Saliba; I just knew what was happening at the time. But unlike Muscat, I’m not going to shoot my mouth off about how and why.
And no, I am not consistently critical of authority. I am consistently critical of fools, twerps and charlatans.
@Uncle Fester – you have inadvertently answered your own question. The reason why the information didn’t come out earlier IS probably because it would have helped George Abela. The Nationalist Party didn’t want George Abela to be elected. It was Nationalist Party SUPPORTERS, like me, who did. The Nationalist Party would much rather have had Joseph Muscat than George Abela, for reasons that are obvious to any successful political campaigner (but the Labour Party hasn’t any of those).
OMG…Daphne actually believed this…come on! Joe Saliba would have said the same thing regardless of who was made leader and all he would have done is say the name of the new leader whoever it was.
Dear Daphne
I’m afraid your perception of precision is somewhat rather limited. Very often, you tend to miss very subtle but yet important points.
Upon reading very carefully what JS states in his interview, it appears that although JM may have given hints about the name of the personality that was about to be targeted by the MLP propaganda machine, JPO’s name was not specifically mentioned anywhere.
Now I wonder how the PN managed to identify who was about to be targeted with just a hint at their disposal. Surely, there must be something JS is not telling us. Alas, he gave himself away by ommission.
Did JS and his team compile a dossier on every PN Candidate with sensitive information that could have possibly led to a potential scandal? Probably the answer is yes. How could he otherwise have planned the chess game in such a masterful manner!
Prosit JS!
@Daphne. You’re probably right. That was Michael Falzon’s plan; he woudn’t have made such a fool of himself in the campaign had he not wanted labour to lose, so tht he becomes king. Well he had to make do with being a lion king.
@Malcolm Buttigieg – the trouble with you is that you believe it takes Machiavellian sorcery to win an election, because your favoured party has flopped so repeatedly. It doesn’t. It just takes brains and strategy. And the recognition that it’s not the Labour Party that’s a formidable opponent (it isn’t; it’s absolutely hopeless) but the army that votes for it thinking that there lies the answer to Malta’s salvation.
And yes, my language is very precise. Neither Joe Saliba nor I, here, said that Joseph Muscat leaked the name, but that he gave the game away through blabbing unwisely in the wrong company. Which figures.
@Daphne. And you are telling me that you are not part of an overall Nationalist party machine, that you have no link to Richard Cachia Caruana and the gang of political wonks and opinion makers down at Tal-Pieta? Come on Daphne the island is too small for that sort of game.
This is The Sunday Times report of what Joe Saliba said regarding the JPO case:
“Indirect hints given by Joseph Muscat during the election campaign enabled the Nationalist Party to deduce that the MLP was about to launch an attack on Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, PN general secretary Joe Saliba tells The Sunday Times in an interview published today.
Dr Muscat never actually mentioned Dr Pullicino Orlando, but comments he made at different activities were enough for the PN to send Dr Pullicino Orlando to Dr Sant’s activities as the attack was about to be launched“.
This is, however, what Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando stated the day before this Saliba interview was published:
“In the final days of February, I was informed by sources within the Malta Labour Party who were appalled by the negative campaigning which typified Dr. Alfred Sant’s approach to the 2008 Elections, that I was to be the focus of a concerted attack in the last week before the General Elections. I was also told that this attack was going to be planned and based around a project which was planned for a piece of land I own in Mistra which was rented out to third parties.“
While JPO clearly indicates he had internal sources WITHIN the MLP, who provided him with SPECIFIC AND PRECISE details, Joe Saliba claims that the PN simply made intelligent guesswork, as it where, which led it to identify JPO as Sant’s possible “victim”, and so the party decided “to send JPO to Dr Sant’s activities”.
Who are we expected to believe? So is that how the Nationalist Party (not the “independent” columnists) plan to undermine Joseph Muscat? But telling outward lies? Or was JPO lying? Yet again? Which is it? I would be grateful for any sensible explanation.
..oh…and thanks Daphne for finally “coming out” as a Nationalist supporter. You have in the past not really accepted being labelled as such.
I agree with Dap here. JM was like Karmeno Zero before him the Successur Iddizinjat ….tiftakruha din? And yes, My info was the same. JM shot his mouth off not because he secretly wanted JPO and the PN to know where the attack is coming from, but to show off his “connections” and his “political Savvy” and his ” inner circle/ part of the exclusive club ” status. I know, I made the same mistake once, and it cost me dear. One lives and lerans. But this shooting off the mouth shows an appalling lack of judgement by JM, and Joe Saliba was savvy enough to contain the damage, with the result that the MLP lost….. I daresay the conclusion is obvious. JM lost the MLP an electin that they could have won, with the right TIMED strategy. They Lost. and now he is Lijder and the blame has ben put squarely on AS and Pepsodent Smiley’s doorstep. JM, like Pilate. washed his hands of it. And got off scot free. Maybe this story should have come out earlier and the Delegati made privy to it, but then Gorg Abela would have been elected, and we would have a fight on our hands. I am an irredentist…..I said it before. A thousand Gorg Abela leading the MLP will not make me vote for it. So i agree. Vote Joseph, get PN next election. Joe Saliba, we have a lot to thank you for !
It was obvious, to anyone who followed the election campaign in some detail, that the MLP were planning to spring this one from two weeks before. The only thing that was not in the public domain was the name….
You see Daphne, you presume that I think that Malta’s salvation lies with the Labour Party. You couldn’t be so wrong. Although I do harbour leftist principles, it is my view that in its present state, the Malta Labour Party does not even remotely meet my expectations of what a left Party should be and I consider that as a great pity – just like many others who share the same views. Actually, the PN is closer to principles genearlly associated with the left than the present MLP.
I concur that it takes a lot of brains and stategy (of the Machiavellian type too) to win an election, and the PN has plenty of that among its ranks, JS probably being one of its brigthest assets.
Indeed, until the Malta Labour Party manages in some way or another to attract people with characteristics and talents similar to Joe Saliba’s, its’ years in opposition are bound to increase linearly. In the election defeat report, it is evident that a bunch of short sighted idiots were leading its campaign. Strategy was practically nonexistant.
Undoubtedly, JM has a mammoth task ahead. Maybe Angelo Farrugia may wish to lend him the elephant – it may not be a mammoth, but it helps.
I absuolutely believe that DCG is correct in her assessment. The new Labour leader is still a child in the political game and he yearns for recognition by showing off he knows things most others are not supposed to know.
Tal-Bord tal Vigilanza ser jinvesigawha din jew?
Apart from that when he was a journalist he was the instrument AS used most to leak things to the PN to destabilise his underlings who were getting too serious for his liking.
..just as ‘hopeless’ as your so called ‘journalism’ :)
It is not a question of believing JS because, after all, JM’s ‘helping hand’ to the PN electoral campaign can easily be checked.
His ‘contribution’ included going on television to publicly alert the PN that “Labour would be releasing information to implicate a Nationalist Party candidate in corruption”.
This was already too much information and if JM was willing to give it out in public, it is reasonable to assume that he’d be even more ‘helpful’ and open in private.