I’m sorry, but I have a subsequent engagement
Joseph Muscat bil-kaxxa ta' Malta
The prime minister hosted a formal dinner at the Auberge de Castille last week to pay tribute to the president and bid him farewell. It was the leader of the opposition who was invited, in his formal constitutional role, and not the leader of the Labour Party – and yet Joseph Muscat dispatched Charles Mangion in his stead, pleading absence from the island.
I shouldn’t be surprised at this gross breach of etiquette. If a man doesn’t understand the significance of a referendum vote, then he’s not going to understand the significance of an invitation to the leader of the opposition, to a farewell dinner hosted by the prime minister for the president.
This is the man who thought he needn’t be present at the official ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, and who delegated Joe Debono Grech to do the honours with the prime minister, the speaker of the house and the president. Joseph Muscat clearly fails to understand that when his presence is requested at these events, it is as leader of the opposition – a constitutional role like that of the prime minister, the speaker of the house and the president – and not as leader of the Labour Party. Delegating a party backbencher because you can’t be bothered is out of the question.
An invitation to a farewell dinner hosted by the prime minister is something else besides. Invitations such as these, like all invitations to dinner even by and to ordinary mortals like you and me, are personal and not open. The invitation was not addressed to the Labour Party with the request that the party sends a representative to fill the party seat at the Auberge de Castille dinner-table. It was sent to Joseph Muscat, the leader of the opposition.
It would have been taken as read that somebody in that role knows enough about the formalities to grasp the fact that, should he fail to attend, it would be construed as very poor manners (the Maltese word would be ‘injoranza’) or a calculated insult.
Being away from the island is no excuse. If you are leader of the opposition and have had your presence requested by the prime minister at a formal farewell dinner for the president, you catch a flight back to Malta to be there and return to your overseas destination the next day, or you cancel or postpone your trip.
The man has no finesse.
It’s OK to dress like an angel, says Francis
Various members of parliament have said that it is time to revisit the law which bans us from dressing up as policemen, soldiers, sailors, priests and nuns in carnival parades. The law predates by a long stretch the advent of gay pride marches and gay club-nights, but the list of banned costumes appears to have had precisely that sort of fun in mind. All they need is a fireman and a cowboy.
While all the MPs interviewed by the newspapers said that they would like the law to be made less draconian, all but two drew the line at religion. One of them was Evarist Bartolo, who said that we should be free to poke fun at everything, including religion, and that he thinks Christ had a sense of humour. I didn’t quite get that. Maybe he was trying to say that it’s all right to laugh at Christianity because Jesus was a good sport and he’ll get the joke up there in heaven. By the same token, we’d better not josh Islam because Mohammed just won’t get it. As for the Scientologists, don’t even go there. They might send Tom Cruise and John Travolta to annihilate us.
The cheerful Francis Zammit Dimech valiantly tried to strike a balance. “I don’t think it should be illegal to dress up as an angel,” he said. That’s good news. Like a sanitary towel, you too can have wings next February.
The MPs’ comments read like a case of ‘freedom, but….’. We shouldn’t poke fun at religion, they said, failing to specify whether they meant the Catholic religion or all religions. They did say that the police shouldn’t go about arresting people and prosecuting them for dressing up as Jesus (in a bit of sheet and a pair of black socks, as far as I can discern from the photographs). Instead, they should ask them to go back home and change.
I wondered about this. Aren’t most MPs lawyers? Then surely they realise that the police can’t tell you to stop doing something unless there’s a law against it. So if the law calls for the arrest of people dressed as Suor Matilda, then the police are obliged to arrest them. And if the law does not call for the arrest of people dressed as Suor Matilda, then people dressed as Suor Matilda are free to roam the streets, squares and bars at leisure. If the police try to stop them, they can sue for harassment. With no law to back them up, the police have as much right to send you home to change out of your nun outfit as they do to tell you to go home, remove those hot-pants and put on something decent.
So we’ve got to retain the status quo or scrap it altogether. There can be no halfway house and no compromising – much as our fence-sitting MPs would like there to be.
Power to the People
The Labour Party must be hunting for fresh ways to get 17,000 people together for another photo-opportunity that may or may not blow up in its face. Here’s an idea. Russia’s opposition party recently organised a Day of People’s Anger – the folks at Maltastar should have it carefully explained to them that this is not the same thing as a Day of Angry People – which brought out the pro-government Young Russia Movement and lots of riot police.
There’s a snag, though. Joseph Muscat will have to promise them something, even if it’s on the never-never like that VAT registration refund business. I suggest a ‘People’s Anger’ voucher for €500 redeemable against the kaxxa ta’ Malta if he is elected prime minister in 2013. Then once he’s elected, he can ignore it, just as he ignored the referendum result, the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day, and the prime minister’s invitation to a formal farewell dinner for the president, and just as he plans to ignore the court’s eventual ruling on VAT and car registration tax.
They’re in our faces
The Labour leader was asked by a newspaper why he’s putting the focus on boat-people from Africa when there are so many Europeans, without EU passports, living and working in Malta illegally. His response was: “It’s the way that they come which bothers many people. It’s too in-your-face. Right now, the main crisis concerns the boat-people from Africa.”
Of course they’re in our faces. They’re black. They stand out. The other lot blend in – even though so many Maltese men pay some of them to be in their faces, literally.
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Good report on the subject by Mark Micallef of The Sunday Times, today:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090329/local/muscat-chooses-sicily-trip-over-presidents-farewell
“I might as well file for divorce if I don’t honour my commitments with my family in the little free time I have.”
Wouldn’t it be Michelle, who’d file for divorce?
[Daphne – And where would they file for divorce, anyway?]
“Since he was elected leader last June, Dr Muscat has missed six out of nine official functions. He attended the Sette Giugno ceremony, the Republic Day parade and the Gieh ir-Repubblika medal-giving ceremony. His list of absences includes ceremonies on September 8 and Independence Day. When faced with the list, he chose not to defend himself: “I need to get more used to protocol,” he said.”
“I need to get more used to protocol” – dear God.
Joseph Muscat was absent ‘for 7 out of 10 state activities since he was elected Opposition Leader’.
Get this: he didn’t go to the president’s farewell dinner, because he wanted to go on holiday with his family. Imma dan ma jisthiex?
Can we blame him? No, we can’t. He’s not a leader (he’s a follower, and let’s face it, hardly anybody respects him). He’s dumber than Bush and he doesn’t put Malta first. The Labour delegates Knew this yet they elected that puppet, because he was friendly with Dr. Sant.
Is this the earthquake he was talking about?
If he wants to put his family before his duty to this country then he shouldn’t be leader of the opposition. He should be working on a newspaper or something. Because this is just the tip of the ice-berg. God knows how many things he’s going to put off for his family. I can see it now: the president of the USA comes to Malta to spend the first hour waiting in the lobby, because J.Muscat is taking his daughter to the dentist.
Like I said in an earlier comment, the Labour Party has got its supporters to blame by enabling them to take dumb-ass decisions. Just look at the comments beneath that story, with people defending him, talking about family values. He fits the part of Peter Griffin.
http://southernwatch.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/peter-griffin-for-president.jpg
What a true leader did when faced with the choice between family and the call to duty (and it wasn’t a choice between going or not going with his wife to Sicily):
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090329/opinion/editorial
I guess he will not be making an advance booking for any trip on Freedom Day or its eve.
Hey Daphne,
“The other lot blend in – even though so many Maltese men pay them to be in their faces, literally.”
is a racist comment that i think is out of tune with the position you express on illegal immigration.
My 2c…..
[Daphne – I should have said ‘some of them’. I’ll amend it.]
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=716
[Daphne – He said that the ‘feasts’ (rather than the events which they commemorate) are all interlinked and that none of them could have taken place with the preceding ones. Which was the momentous national-day event that preceded Sette Giugno and made it possible – il-Vittoria, 350 years earlier?]
Maybe Chrysander Agius wrote his speech and got the calculations wrong :)
The man is aspiring to become prime minister in the near future. What will his commitment be then if he sticks to his same routine? In his few months at the helm of Labour he has demonstrated his lack of understanding of the role as Leader of the Opposition, case in point being in the ‘addressing the nation’ march and more recently with his attendance, or lack thereof, at official functions.
Mill-Orizzont illum:
“Dan waqt li l-Partit Laburista kattar l-attivitajiet tiegħu, fosthom bil-kapolavur “Ġensna”, li filwaqt li 30 sena ilu kienet f’forma ta’ ‘rock opera’, din id-darba saret, u għadha għaddejja, f’forma ta’ kunċert, bl-istess lirika ta’ 30 sena ilu.
Kull min attenda għaliha s’issa, seta’ faċilment jinnota l-importanza li ngħatat lil Jum l-Indipendenza u lill-eks-Prim Ministru Nazzjonalista n-Nutar George Borg Olivier, li taħt it-tmexxija tiegħu Malta ngħatat l-Indipendenza, fil-21 ta’ Settembru, 1964.
L-ewwel rappreżentazzjoni ta’ “Ġensna in concert” saret nhar il-Ġimgħa li għadda waqt ‘gala night’. Skont rapport ippubblikat fil-ħarġa tal-bieraħ tal-ġurnal Illum, għal din ir-rappreżentazzjoni kien mistieden il-President tar-Repubblika, Eddie Fenech Adami, li madankollu m’attendiex.
Skont l-istess ġurnal in-nuqqas ta’ attendenza kien dovut għall-fatt li għal nhar il-Ġimgħa, f’dak il-ħin, il-President kellu attività oħra. Skont l-iskeda uffiċjali ta’ appuntamenti li kellu l-President tar-Repubblika għal nhar il-Ġimgħa, ma jirriżultax li kellu appuntamenti fil-ħin tar-rappreżentazzjoni, dejjem jekk ma kellux xi ħaġa privata.
Jason Micallef, Segretarju Ġenerali tal-Partit Laburista, ikkonferma lil l-orizzont li kienet inħarġet stedina lill-President tar-Repubblika għar-rappreżentazzjoni tal-Ġimgħa.
Madankollu, osservaturi politiċi jikkunsidraw in-nuqqas ta’ attendenza min-naħa tal-President tar-Repubblika bħala stramba, aktar u aktar meta mbagħad attenda l-Avukat George Abela, li fi tmiem il-ġimgħa li qegħdin fiha jinħatar President tar-Repubblika.”
It’s quite simple really, if Joseph Muscat would rather eat a hamburger than attend an official dinner for an outgoing president, he should not have let himself become leader of the opposition.
By tne way, I’ve just been watching Bondi Pus.
As expected, the true nature of the leader of the opposition is finally being exposed. Those who had followed Dr. Muscat’s ‘Karriera’ know how limited his experience is not only with regard to politics but also with regard to how government works. Dr. Muscat is aspiring to become our next Prime Minister and yet he says he needs to get used to protocol – how can we seriously consider such a person for the top post in our country. Can you imagine Dr. Muscat, prime minister of Malta, going to Brussels for some important meeting and getting his protocol in a tangle?
While the Nationalist Party might not be perfect there is one thing which it does have and that is excellent leaders. The Times’ editorial could not have put it better in describing Eddie Fenech Adami as a great man who has made us proud and who was always on the right side when it mattered. Dr. Gonzi is also making this nation proud. The underlying difference is the way in which the party leaders look at Malta and its people. Dom Mintoff inculcated in the Labour Party a culture of ignorance, rudeness, lack of respect and a general levelling down of intellect to meet that of the so-called man in the street. The Nationalist Party and its leaders have always worked for a levelling up where the so-called man in the street is given the education, the tools and the resources to better himself and work his way up. This is the gulf that separates the two parties and unfortunately the new leader has no idea he is fitting within the same old mould.
It is clear that Dr. Muscat’s excuse was no excuse at all. He was in Sicily, for pete’s sake, not Jamaica. I’m sure that a decent Labourite with a decent speed-boat could have brought him down for the meal and taken him back in record time but he was probably scared to be mistaken for one of these “boat people”. But a flight is surely not impossible all the way from Sicily? Or is the MLP so broke it can’t even afford it? Conclusion: Dr. Muscat had no intention of being at this dinner and this to spite President Fenech Adami who I’m sure spent many sleepless nights thinking about it.
I expected that this type of pettiness would emerge. What I did not expect is that this would happen so soon and just after Dr. Gonzi offered the presidency to Dr. Abela. I had a feeling that no good would come of this appointment and that Dr. Gonzi was being too good in making such a move.
In Maltese there is a rather vulgar expression which describes this situation fully. It goes something like this: if you give an idiot a nice pair of trousers he will end up soiling them.
Daphne, I follow your articles regularly and although I do not always agree with you I think you make an excellent job of challenging ideas. Malta needs a vociferous person like you. Keep up the sterling work.
All others: great comments – some of you have a great sense of humour and razor-sharp wit. I really had a good laugh although when you think of it these are truly not so funny!
Let’s not be shy – the saying, which is most apt, is “min qatt ma libes qalziet hara fih”.
Again Daphne, you have to find something that Joseph Muscat has done or not done to fill in your pages. You are not surprised at his gross breach of etiquette – etiquette by whose rules – Queensberry, yours or someone else’s. That you would presume to tell us the rules according to DCG is the height of snobbery. This was an invitation by a Nationalist PM to farewell a Nationalist President albeit held in the official offices of the Prime Minister – so at the taxpayers expense. Maybe Joseph Muscat did not want to attend a party organised by a Nationalist to celebrate the departure of another Nationalist. He may have felt that he did not want to be a fish out of water surrounded by diehard Nationalists. You think this is a significant invitation – of course you do – its significant for Nationalists and you feel insulted as most Nationalists would be at the snub. You sound like a frustrated school teacher aghast at the insolence of one your students who has disobeyed an order. Well, bad luck Daphne. Maybe his decision in failing to attend was a calculated insult on a purely political level. If you cannot stand the heat – get out of the kitchen. When will you ever grow up – Injoranza indeed – how naïve!! Your pages continue to be full of vitriol and anger and never contribute in any meaningful way to the political debate. This is a very bitter and very twisted approach to journalism and political commentary. Imagine what is to come from your poisoned pen when eventually there is change of Government. I can hardly wait.
[Daphne – You know, Raphael, I’m beginning to think that it’s true what’s said about minuscule men, and how absolute lack of height warps their psychology. But maybe you’re just not particularly bright. Have fun in Melbourne with all the other Maltin tal-Awstralja, or wherever you are now. I guess you’re never going to understand the ritual, legal and constitutional difference between the prime minister and his political party, the president and his former political party, and the leader of the opposition (non-elected, I must add) and his political party. That’s why you feel at home in Australia, and like a fish out of water in Europe. Shame that all the bitterness you feel towards the Nationalist Party, which leads to admiration by default for whichever jackass the Labour chooses to lead it, is useless to that jackass. Or does Air Malta lay on cheap flights for emigrants to the other side of the world, every five years?]
I understand it only too well Daphne. Although maybe my height and lack of intelligence may have restricted me somewhat in getting the message across. There is no legal or constitutional requirement for the (unelected or elected) leader of the Opposition to attend an official farewell for an outgoing President. It’s all about convention. [Daphne – It would also be convention, and not a legal or constitutional requirement, for you to attend your wife’s funeral should any woman ever consent to marry you. But you would still have to go, and God help you if you didn’t. Interpretations of your character would be correct.]
If I am wrong on this one – please enlighten me and provide me with the source and not just your opinion. [Daphne – I have provided you with an example that a person of your level of intelligence and chippiness might be able to grasp. I am beginning to understand why Dom Mintoff spoke in parables. Clearly, people like you cannot understand abstract notions.]
I will only accept your opinion on such a matter if in fact you were constitutional lawyer – which you are not. [Daphne – What does the Constitution have to do with it? Anybody would think you came from the sort of social background Muscat does. I really have no patience for your sort of person who plays the inverted snobbery trick. For a start, it’s way outdated: it died with Jimi Hendrix.]
The subtle difference between governments and political parties who run the governments is a problem across many democracies and many grey areas still exist in many democracies on this very issue. Incumbent governments know this only too well and use it to the full extent possible in all democracies. Also, the fact that the Maltese constitution allows a leader of a political party to hold that office whether he or she has been elected or not is not the office holders fault – but a flaw within the constitution. [Daphne – I hate to remind you of this, all Nationalist prime ministers were elected by direct suffrage. Or don’t you know how the electoral system works? On the other hand, there was one Labour prime minister who wasn’t – Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici – and there is now one leader of the opposition who wasn’t elected either, Joseph Muscat. The Labour Party really has a big chip about the fact that its leader is unelected.]
This would create a huge disadvantage to most leaders of the opposition in most democracies but has not had had the same effect in Malta and reflects the still immature nature of the Maltese electorate. Contrary to your other comment I feel no bitterness towards the Nationalist Party at all – in fact I doubt if I could get myself to vote Labour if I had the opportunity. It is highly likely that I would probably vote green. [Daphne – Jesus, what a surprise. You know what I call AD, don’t you? The halfway shelter for tal-pepe people who really just want to vote Labour but can’t bring themselves to be associated with such unbelievably naff people, whom they consider their social inferiors.]
What you and your ilk will never understand is the right and acceptance to give and receive criticism from within and without – hence your insulting and totally unintelligible riposte. And Cikki – please enlighten me on the rules – there are no rules in this context – just conventions which change and evolve over time – Your inability to change and or evolve over time is also reflected in your response.
[Daphne – Stick to Australian culture and mores, Raphael. Do yourself a favour.]
@ Raphael Dingli
They are not ‘the rules according to DCG’, but according to every civilised country in the world, so don’t show your ignorance.