Truly insufferable
Franco Debono tells us that he wished to pass on a message from his constituents when he left parliament in a huff. He doesn’t tell us what that message is.
Nor does he tell us whether his constituents are the sort of persons whose preferred method of communication is to sulk, stamp their feet and storm out in protest before a parliamentary vote, to return only after some heavy persuasion.
Perhaps he realises now just how badly he behaved, how he embarrassed his political colleagues, how he played right into the hands of his political adversaries who are salivating on the Opposition benches, and how he made himself look like a temperamental and egocentric person of doubtful integrity.
Let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t want to have to cooperate with Franco Debono if our plane goes down on some remote mountain-top and we survive.
Is he going to blame the media now? I certainly hope not. He appears to have done something to try and make amends, in an interview with The Sunday Times today, if yesterday’s promotional story was anything to go by.
Perhaps what we are seeing now is a pattern setting in: first a shameful scene and then a sort of apologia pro vita sua in the form of a newspaper interview. It has happened twice already, in fewer than as many months.
One pattern that is certainly clear is that of politicians who appear to believe that it is all about them: what they want, what they didn’t get, what they believe they are entitled to, and how best they can blackmail the prime minister or use leverage on him to cause the maximum amount of trouble if their needs are not met.
The jaw-dropper is that they fail to understand how they come across to the rest of us: as half-men. They think it is all about their honour, when what many people really want to say to them is “For God’s sake, act like a man.”
They make me cringe.
There is something distinctly unmasculine about the way these politicians carp, whine and sulk, and it’s quite astonishing that they think the opposite is true: that they are safeguarding their male honour. Perhaps they think it is possible to maintain their dignity by behaving in some of the most undignified ways possible.
It is patently obvious that they egg each other on, that they withdraw into a cabal to kvetch and bitch and complain and bolster each other.
They are not so much a kitchen cabinet as a kitchen coven, though with their self-described ‘father confessor’ removed from the equation and comfortably ensconced in an EU Commissioner’s chair in Brussels, they are going to have to sniff around for a successor to listen to their moaning for the next three years.
Then, thankfully, we shall have the opportunity of depriving them of the parliamentary seat for which they have demonstrated themselves to be most unfit.
Where they are most lacking in dignity (and commonsense) is in their apparent willingness to delight their political enemies and give them pleasure.
Let’s put it this way: if I were an MP on the government benches and I were really and truly annoyed because ‘Lawrence’ didn’t give me what I want, or ‘Lawrence’ had sent a text message to let me know that I wasn’t about to get my Christmas stocking, then over my dead body would the Opposition ever find out.
On the contrary, I would be at great pains to let the Opposition know that I think the sun shines out of the seat of the prime minister’s pants, because thinking straight, I know that the people to whom I should be giving a really hard time are those sitting opposite me in parliament, and not those sitting near me.
And if I want to work things out, then I’ll find some way of working them out that doesn’t involve playing into the Opposition’s hands or giving the newspapers a story to crow about.
There are some people who say that ‘Lawrence’ should demonstrate better leadership by keeping these individuals under control, but there is only so much you can do with those who are in possession of the single seat that makes for the government’s majority and who are determined to grab as much as they can for themselves before the ship goes down in 2013.
But I’m beginning to think that it’s been a long while since the MPs in question did any straight thinking. If they think we voted for them, rather than for a Nationalist government with Lawrence Gonzi as prime minister, they need a short, sharp prod in the backside to remind them fast.
They appear to believe that those who voted for Lawrence Gonzi to become prime minister are on their side as they throw themselves around in fits of temper and do their level best to distract him from the business of running the country rather than pandering to their silly whims.
How wrong they are. The only ones giving them any encouragement are those who voted against this government or who didn’t vote at all. In short, they are ignoring the express wishes of their constituents so as to serve the interests of those who didn’t vote for them. Boy, that’s smart.
They are truly insufferable.
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
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Now little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
I see the same root cause as the one that brought about the Noel Arrigo debacle, namely poor screening before selection. Popular GPs and legal practitioners know they will probably get elected whether they contest with the PN or the PL, and both parties know this; but should one party grab the man just to prevent its rival from getting him? Events since the last general election have shown that the PN’s candidate selection process needs to be bolstered with at least one competent psychologist on the screening panel.
[Daphne – I thoroughly agree. Screening was tougher in the past. The Nationalist Party rejected Sandro Schembri Adami, the Labour Party snapped him up, and we know how that ended up.]
Half the time I don’t know what you’re talking about because I’m not sufficiently clued-in on the complex machinations of Maltese political history, but one thing I’m convinced of is that when a lawyer runs for political office, you can be sure that justice and representation of the “common” people’s interests, and all those idealistic democratic principles which should dictate policy-making, are ditched as fast as a lift full of farting vegetarians.
Lawyers know how to milk the system, and it’s only logical, since politics is really just a big fat cow with bulging udders waiting to be tweaked by sharp-shooting arcade-gamers.
Let’s get real…within the arena of western enlightened democracy, the opposite sides of the political spectrum are being crunched down into a centralised morass of self-aggrandisement which is morally no better than any “third-world” dictatorship. Yet oh, we trumpet that we’re way more civilised than those ignorant natives running around in gauche clothing. How pseudo that moral high-ground claim is.
All this paranoid fear of Labour uncouth violence wreaking havoc versus Nationalist uppercrust decorum reaping great rewards for all and sundry…uh huh? At the end of the day, is the screwing more palatable when it’s delivered with a silk glove?
[Daphne – Does Noel Arrigo sell those too?]
And a royal screwing is what we are currently getting. But we love it, don’t we, we nation of masochists. Colonised, victimised, exploited..oh, we can so easily identify (and scorn) the perpetrators when they’re foreigners/colonisers. But homegrown perpetrators? We’re stumped.
As they say, a rose is a rose whatever you call it. Same goes for a screw. Or does it? Guess it depends on the money, and who of the “common folk” are making the biggest take on the prostituting of democracy. They surely won’t respond because they’re too busy laughing their way to the bank.
Seaside
” . . . . we trumpet that we’re way more civilised than those ignorant natives running around in gauche clothing.”
You’ve been listening to Norman Lowell again haven’t you?
You’re on the usual Labour mission of trying to soften Mintoff’s excesses by balancing them with so-called PN abuses but to say that today’s situation is the same as that of the seventies and eighties requires a prodigious imagination. Or a colossal cheek.
For your information I’m not stumped at all when I have to identify a homegrown perpetrator of political and social injustices. Let me give you a hint: his name starts with Min- and ends with -toff.
My, my, Seaside. Such big words and long, long sentences. Do you have a message?
I think that the whole electoral process needs to be looked into. One thing which we need to ask is whether it’s fair that one man can hold the government of the day to ransom or even bring it down if it has a one-seat majority. Truly this question had to be asked in 1998, when a democratic government with an 8,000 majority of votes was brought down by an unstable man.
Clearly these unstable or egocentric individuals will jump at an opportunity like this. It is so humiliating seeing the prime minister going with his wife to Franco Debono’s home (did we need to stoop so low ?) – and another thing, does Mrs Gonzi have nothing else to do except accompanying the prime minister anywhere and everywhere?
[Daphne – It’s called stooping to conquer.]
“They appear to believe that those who voted for Lawrence Gonzi to become prime minister are on their side as they throw themselves around in fits of temper and do their level best to distract him from the business of running the country rather than pandering to their silly whims.”
This is indeed the case. I voted for the Nationalists in the last general election and I surely did NOT do so for people like Franco Debono but only to have Gonzi as prime minister. Had Gonzi been out of the picture, I would not have thought twice about not voting. But he’s the man we need now and Franco Debono is the baby we could have done easily without.
Besides, I cannot understand the cheek of people who at only 35 (I’m 32), and with not even one term behind them, expect to be treated like God-knows-what. What do you expect at 35 in a party of political mammoths when all you did for your party was contest the election?
[Daphne – Yes, but somebody like Franco Debono would look over at the Opposition benches and see a boy from his class at school leading the Labour Party, and he probably thinks, iss hej. He doesn’t understand that in the Labour Party standards are much lower and voters’ tolerance threshold for serious shortcomings is much higher where the Labour Party is concerned.]
With all due respect, Louis Galea has shown much more political maturity over the years and God forbid that Debono be given some sort of power at the expense of more deserving others.
I live in Franco Debono’s constituency. I know for sure, as of now, for whom I will not vote this coming election.
Happy Christmas to everybody! Let’s hope we find a stockingful of mature politicians hanging from wherever!
At the risk of sounding a little uncharitable, could it not be that the gentleman is slightly lacking up top?
The 70s were in the past, right? So what about that member of parliament who crossed the floor and got a gorgeous piece of land ‘taht ir-rih tal-Gharix’.
Screening a person for what exactly?
I would rather have Franco Debono than, say, a member of Opus Dei.
[Daphne – Wasn’t the member of Opus Dei voted out of parliament, and didn’t he sulk about he wasn’t given anything, in a letter to The Times last week?]
Why? Do you seriously think there are no other members of Opus Dei sitting on the PN’s benches in Parliament? Ha!
[Daphne – I would say that the Labour Party is not immune to religious fundamentalism. After all, it is right wing and ultra-conservative, like so very many of its supporters. Even those who live – ahem – different lives, like Marlene Pullicino, feel obliged to claim on television that they are inspired by the Madonna and that they think divorce is evil. Go figure.]
I never said that the LP is immune to this sort of thing. Actually, that Marlene Pullicino truly makes me sick. The word ‘hypocrite’ doesn’t quite begin to describe her, as most hypocrites would at least try to give the impression that they’re living by their beliefs, whereas she doesn’t even try to do that. If Labour really wants to deliver on its ‘progressive’ agenda, it will have to deal with people like her and Adrian Vassallo sooner or later, or else find itself in another crisis if ever it finds itself in government and tries to implement any of the social reforms it’s hinting at.
Having said that, the fact that some PN MPs openly declare they’re Opus Dei members really scares me, and I still think that people like Marlene Pullicino are at the fringe of the Labour Party, whereas in the PN these sort of people are welcomed with open arms and egged on.
Dear Daphne and especially C.Attard, I wish you and your families a truly Merry Christmas…may you find peace and serenity now and always…I love you folks…pity I sicken you so much…..but thanks for thinking me worth a mention now and then ……
[Daphne – You don’t sicken me at all, Marlene. I actually really admire your go-getting attitude and your shrewd approach to business. I think you’re amazing in that regard, and I also think that in different circumstances we might even have been friends. But I really have difficulty with Malta’s widespread hypocrisy problem and the apparent failure of many to understand that it is hypocrisy. You can’t call yourself a practising Catholic or go on television to say you are inspired by the Madonna when you live in double adultery, which means a permanent state of mortal sin. That’s not how I see it, and it’s not my judgement. It’s the judgement of the religion you espouse. Also, you campaign against divorce because Catholicism does not allow it. Well, Catholicism does not allow adultery either, but that hasn’t stopped you leaving your husband to set up home with another woman’s husband. Again, that’s your business and my take on these matters is ‘to each his own and never presume to know the secrets of another person’s marriage’. But in your position I would not go about speaking against divorce legislation or calling myself a Catholic, because I know it would invite ridicule and perhaps even contempt. It’s a bit like Noel Arrigo and his three confessors.]
Radical constitutional reform is needed here, so that a small bunch – 21 at most – of well paid MPs are elected to parliament. The PM selects his cabinet from any Maltese citizen in the world, thereby increasing the mathematical chances of having some half decent ministers, and we all live happily ever after.
It is not the stand of a young MP who refuses to be a YES MAN which makes me cringe, but the silence of his fellow Nationalist back benchers who have tons of things to say and nevertheless did nothing to show public solidarity with their young colleague during this past week.
[Daphne – Perhaps they realised that he looked like a prick, and they didn’t want to look like pricks, too. Should I use even plainer language?]
In a normal democracy, even the most pro-government of journalists would not be trying to crush dissent, like you are doing in your article, but praying for more. Dissent is not treason, unless your dictionary was printed in Moscow in 1950.
Happy Christmas.
[Daphne – I can tell the difference between dissent on a matter of principle and dissent on a matter of self-seeking endeavour. Also, I raised three children and I know what a temper tantrum looks like.]
A grown-up does not show dissent by playing hide-and-seek.
Abel, I cannot understand what Franco Debono is complaining about. Dissenters give clear messages. He’s surely not doing what Mintoff did to Sant, at least Mintoff was self-made and his words carried a lot of weight. He’s not doing what Paul Carachi did because of some Lorry Sant who does not want to help fellow MPs. And he’s not leaving the party like Wenzu Mintoff did on matters of principle.
This nonentity is simply threatening his PM with his parliamentary vote to grab whatever he can lay his hands on while ‘his’ party is still in power. He does not deserve support from his fellow MPs.
Abel, we vote for our MPs to support the programme of our party. Not voting against the government is not called supporting, we vote for stability, not for prima donnas.
Some said that he had lots of people (especially from Marsaxlokk) against the new power station, because of the fuel to be used.
Ma ttihomx tort.
‘Also, I raised three children’. you could have done without,obviously the sentence,not the boys.
Qisek ghamilt xi haga li fid-dinja ma ghamila hadd.
[Daphne – Not really, ‘Zuzu’. Franco Debono hasn’t raised any children, which is one of the reasons why he behaves like one. Or maybe it’s the other way round.]
Ghadu mal-mamiiiii
This column argues that “if [the disgruntled MPs] think we voted for them, rather than for a Nationalist government with Lawrence Gonzi as prime minister, they need a short, sharp prod backside to remind them.”
A column in early 2008 argued that “even if they are elected on a party ticket… MPs owe their primary loyalty to their constituents and not to their party or party leader.”
Both conceptions of the role of elected parliamentarians are plausible and defensible. But the co-exist rather awkwardly.
[Daphne – Not really, John. The early 2008 column you quote is one I wrote in respect of Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and calls for his resignation made by people who didn’t vote for him. My point then is still my point now: that MPs are answerable only to their constituents, but they should remember at all times that their constituents voted for Party X and for X to become prime minister, and this should inform their behaviour at all times. As Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s constituent, and somebody who voted for him, I was in a position to tell him point blank that I voted for 1. Lawrence Gonzi to become prime minister and 2. the Nationalist Party. Because I couldn’t do this without voting for MP candidates, I had to choose MP candidates, according to my order of preference. But I didn’t vote for the MP candidates as such. They could have been whirling dervishes for all I cared: what I wanted was Gonzi as prime minister and to make sure that Sant didn’t get there instead. I cherish the democratic process which makes the MP’s seat his or her own and not the party’s, which means that MPs are directly answerable to their constituents: we put them there and we remove them. I find it sad and even slightly amusing to hear calls for MPs’ resignations from people who didn’t vote for them, and even from those who suggest that the party leader should demand a resignation. It shows that they don’t understand the workings of our democracy: the party leader can demand resignation only from the party, or he can withdraw the whip, but that would mean the party loses the seat. The Nationalist Party’s last three leaders have been lawyers, which means that they would never even consider asking an MP to resign his seat, but quite frankly, I can just imagine Joseph Muscat bluffing and blustering about asking one of his MPs to resign his seat if X or Y happens – just for show – because the Labour Party has never been any great respecter of the law or even of democracy. As for Franco Debono, it should be patently obvious to him that those who voted for him do not wish him to make the prime minister’s life difficult. After all, they chose the prime minister before they chose him. First we decide which party to vote for, and then we decide on the candidates.]
@Daphne – You find it sad and even slightly amusing to hear calls for MPs’ resignations from people who didn’t vote for them, and even from those who suggest that the party leader should demand a resignation. Are you seriously suggesting that the masses (and their representatives in the free press) who may have not voted for a proven corrupt MP from any side of the political fence have no right to call for that MP’s resignation from the Parliament. It seems then that given the protection of the party any rogue MP holds that party to ransom irrespective of the honour and integrity lost to the party.
My view is that political integrity and honour is more important than the maintenance of power at any cost. I am not debating the rights or wrong of Mr Debono – just hypothetise that a back bench PN MP (in the current context with a one seat majority) spoke out about a proven corrupt process involving a senior Minister – would you then not be shouting from the the top of those bastions for that senior Minister’s resignation from the parliament even if that meant the party losing power. Now that’s integrity – although it seems to be as rare as hens teeth in the Maltese political context.
Bearing a child isn’t a recipe for good governance, or at least decisions. Angela Merkel springs to mind. Then there is Osama, he raised a couple of dozens children of his own and most of them curse him.
[Daphne – That’s right, but I think in Franco Debono’s case, his not having children (a process that involves being prepared to shoulder serious responsibilities and think of somebody other than yourself, and committing yourself to a another person, their mother), still living with his mother and throwing temper tantrums because he doesn’t get what he wants are all connected, in that they are the result of the same personality traits.]
Read this letter in today’s Times?
Why not co-opt Joe Borg to Parliament?
Carmel Vella, St Paul’s Bay
Oh dear, the government, or rather the Prime Minister, is passing through a storm over stories published by the journalists who happen to have an inside ear to what goes on at the Prime Minister’s office and L-Istamperija – tales to test the public reaction to what could happen in the coming days.
Unfortunately this is bringing unrest in the PN’s camp, with journalists proposing possible candidates to take over John Dalli’s seat in Parliament and a possible Cabinet reshuffle. All this has brought undue reactions even from the parliamentary group.
But why is the Prime Minister allowing such a stir to be caused? All he has to do is to have EU Commissioner Joe Borg co-opted to Parliament – he deserves it most. He worked so hard and successfully for Malta’s EU membership, especially when one considers the limited time he had to get Malta to catch up with the other candidate countries.
His performance as an EU commissioner has been recognised by all the other member countries because Malta does have high-calibre politicians. His experience as an EU commissioner has given him the wealth that Malta needs in the future.
Come on Prime Minister, be a sport and offer Dr Borg a seat in Parliament and a portfolio. Other Prime Ministers have done so – the UK’s Peter Mandelson or Italy’s Franco Frattini are just two examples.
If Dr Borg does not accept the offer then Malta would be the one to lose out.
Reminds me of those placards in St. Peter’s Square: “Santo Subito”.
Franco should just leave and next time contest the election with the LP. He belongs there.
Well, the PM and his government are up in the clouds and are not with us the great unwashed down here in reality. Somebody has to get them down from there and their arrogance.
[Daphne – Arrogance is a 35-year-old Super One reporter and brief MEP who thinks he can run the country – because he doesn’t understand what running the country entails and thinks it’s one step up from running Maltastar.com.]
I voted PN but never again…I am not saying I will vote Labour though we really need a new broom. I am VERY prepared not to forget these times when the election approaches and more spin starts. I will not forget the corruptions and how the blue-eyed boys are living it up while we are sinking.
[Daphne – Those who are sinking are sinking because of a little something called an international recession, Silvio. Apparently, the situation worldwide has just passed you by. As for the blue-eyed boys who are living it up (and I’d like to know who they are) please explain to me how preventing them from living it up will improve your own life, as opposed to just making you feel better about yourself and giving you fewer reasons for envy. There will always be people who have good lives: the rich, like the poor, will be with us always. Instead of envying others, try making a proper life for yourself. It’s possible without having blue eyes, you know. Brains and effort are what’s required.]
In a football team when a ‘sensible’ player is in disagreement with the manager or feels you should play more that he is, will discuss his disagreement in the changing room or the manager’s office…surely he won’t score an own goal in a league fixture! But that’s what a ‘sensible’ player does….a spoiled, big headed player will opt for the own goal and expects to be man of the match! Usually then….he’s transferred….even for free!
It’s not REALLY about tantrums but about blackmail, you know. The MP is trying to bully the PM into scrounging every electoral advantage he can – and from what’s being reported, he’s succeeding.
The real problem is that the PM is choosing to go down the Neville Chamberlain route, rather than making one unequivocal statement that would set the MPs quaking in their boots. He has more influence on the electorate than all three put together, but he needs to use it or these jokers are going to keep huffing and puffing until the house of cards falls down.
Kieku Franco Debono hareg ghall-elezzjoni wahdu, jigifieri minghajr partit, kien igib 6 voti. Please, Franco, grow up.