Oh look. We've got the beginnings of a tinpot despot on our hands
Look, no deodorant
How interesting.
Joseph Muscat has started to remove the checks and balances which are there to serve as restraints on the party leader.
When he kicked Jason Micallef downstairs, I thought at first that he wanted the post of secretary-general to be filled by somebody with brains and political nous.
Now I realise that this is precisely what he was afraid of.
The two clowns he has for deputy leaders serve the same purpose of keeping those posts from being filled by clever people who might have a different opinion to his.
Over the next year or so, we shall see Muscat surround himself increasingly with ‘useful idiots’ (Marisa Micallef, Anglu Farrugia, Toni Abela) and with those who are intelligent and perceptive, but who will not challenge or question him because they depend on him for their political success (Marlene Mizzi, Louis Grech, Edward Scicluna).
Meanwhile, he will systematically weed out everyone else, until there is nobody left to say: “Look here, Joseph, I think you’re getting this wrong. And might I remind you that the party isn’t yours. You are the party’s.”
timesofmalta.com, this morning
PL abolishing post of General Secretary
The Labour Party is to abolish the post of party General Secretary after a unanimous decision by the executive.
The proposal was made by party leader Joseph Muscat and the decision is expected to be confirmed to the PL annual general conference later this month, when the relevant amendment to the party statute will be moved.
The post has since September been filled in a temporary capacity by PL President Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi after Jason Micallef resigned.
The party’s administration is under the direction of Chief Executive James Piscopo, the post having been created soon after Dr Muscat became party leader.
The PL said the party would create the minor post of secretary of the national executive, whose role would be similar to that of a company secretary.
The corporate management of the party would remain in the hands of the CEO while the political role previously held by the general secretary will be shared by the deputy leader party affairs (Toni Abela) and the party president.
Dr Abela is expected to oversee labour-run local councils while Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi will be responsible for the party’s local committees.
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Does he think he is going to re-invent the wheel? And who is he going to send abroad for meetings which need the presence of a party secretary-general? Will he send different persons according to the theme being discussed?
Your reasoning will be proved right eventually and it is something we should all worry about.
OMG! Labour is in disarray big time! Nothing new, anyway. Muscat has lost the plot and we should start worrying because this person stands a very good chance of being our prime minister in a few years’ time.
Spot on, Daphne…now we are able to put into perspective the PL’s choice not to have in its higher ranks Chris Cardona and Gavin Gulia…… what a pity!
Well, you said you liked doers, as opposed to talkers. Say what you like, but he sets his (personal) targets and achieves them: MEP, party leader, now party führer and soon youngest prime minister ever.
[Daphne – Yes, Tim, doers not talkers. Personal targets (‘Arani, ma – now I’m a success’) do not fall into that category where I’m concerned. Let’s put it this way: give me ‘I got Malta into Europe against the horrendous odds’ over ‘I want to be the youngest prime minister’ any day.]
He doesn’t give a purple damn about Labour’s principles (the theoretical ones at least, they never really had principles), its grassroots and much less about its policies but by golly when it comes to number one he certainly is an achiever.
The big question is whether he’ll triumph again in 2018. The Nats have turned the country around completely from the mess it was in after the last despot we had but didn’t quite have the balls to remove the rotten apples from the barrel and run a tight ship.
As a result the Drydocks saga was prolonged, the Mater Dei hospital turned into an money-eating monster, the many authorities, commissions and quangos (notably MEPA, and the ADT) are inefficient, cumbersome organisations that fail to deliver quality service (not to mention the perception of their providing jobs for the boys) and frankly there are many other shortcomings (public transport, filthy environment, low-paying jobs…) but despite this, Malta is paradise nowadays compared to what it was like in the 70s and 80s.
Some people don’t know and others choose to discount this. Our aspirations have gone up in most respects – we all want shiny new cars, Wiis, mobiles, computers, chic furniture, flat screen TVs etc nowadays when, in our time, we prayed for any kind of phone at all, and drove second-hand minis (or blue scooters) – but have they gone up as far as politics is concerned? Will mediocrity be tolerated? Will anything less than good government all around and economic success mean that the electorate will swing away from Labour in 2018? I think so and I hope it continues to happen regardless of who gets elected.
Someone should set the record straight re: JM’s aspirations of becoming Malta’s youngest Prime Minister (if he still has them). Sir Ugo Mifsud (born 12th September 1889) became Malta’s third Prime Minister in 1924 – at the age of 35. Even if JM were to become Prime Minister today he would have missed the bus by a year. If he does get elected before 2012 he might beat his childhood inspiration (Mintoff) who was first elected in 1955 at the tender age of 39.
There.
[Daphne – Thank you.]
Borg Olivier was 39 when he first made it in 1950.
Wow! Let me see if I got this. So Joe Muscat choses Anglu and Toni because they are idiots (even though to be fair they were there before, but that is an insignificant detail to you) and then goes on to draw a list of those who are intelligent and perceptive but submissive. He then draws all this in a muscat-chart and were they intersect he extrapolates that marlene, louis and edward fit the bill. U hallina! So the bad ones are his fault (of course) and the good ones aren’t but only because they are submissive to their greed of power. As usual predictable writing.
Honestly, how can you be so frivilous and deal with such insignificant details yet miss the tragicomedy that this government is putting everyone through? How can’t you come back to your senses and realise that your creative writing was what instigated the Nationalist governments to listen to what good-willing people are complaining about?
[Daphne – Not being blind to what’s happening in the rest of Europe, with centuries-old businesses filing for bankruptcy and millions losing their jobs and their homes, unlike you I think we’re doing relatively well. Get out of your bubble. Every day I wake up and thank God that Alfred Sant didn’t win the last election. Imagine him running the country with all these pressures now – or that Muscat and his collection of twits. Be realistic.]
On a completely different line . . . The pijpil spijk again:
GiovDeMartino (23 hours, 9 minutes ago)
Jien ukoll, BHALA ARTIST U AWTUR, nikkundanna c-censura. Hekk baqa’ jonqos ukoll, irrid nidghi xi tnejn u jccensurawni. Inhalli xaghri twil jonqosni halli nkun veru awtur.
J Farrugia (5 hours, 29 minutes ago)
Look who’s talking. Please get this in your mind Mr. If the law of our country has been broken the AG’s duty is to prosecute those involved from top to bottom. That’s the law. Secondly would you for one, insult your mother with the vulgarity or obscenities (just for the sake of freedom of expression or of art) with that type of filth. I for one will take offence. and I also think that you too would take offence. We know that you dont believe in God. But I would also take offence if one were to make short shrift with the name of God even though in every corner in every street the name of the Lord and of his saints are constantly mentioned (to honour them?!?). That doesn’t give these two people a licence to be vulgar or obscene. Yes I want to see them pay for their vulgarity. And btw, their freedom of expression offends my freedom of expression. and the buck stops there.
Who is the more crass?
Buckle, the more crass person is you even if the moderator decides to censor this thread. I’ve said it before and I say it again. I want to see these two in prison for their vulgarity.
[Daphne – Oh great. So now we’re going to make vulgarity a criminal offence and grounds for imprisonment. Better station half the force on Republic Street any given morning, then.]
My reading of this was slightly different: Jason Micallef agrees to resign on the condition that Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi is not appointed secretary-general. Joseph Muscat agrees, abolishes the post and allocates a large share of the secretary-general’s duties to the party president…target reached and Jason out of the way.
Whatever the reading, the photo you published with this piece was uncannily prophetic!
Is it possible you have nothing to lambast our incompetent PM about? Just as tasters: the hilarious charade of not knowing from where the Fgura soot originates, and it takes years of studies and tax payers’ funds; utterly incompetent ADT full of blue-eyed boys; MEPA (for whom the PM is responsible) in complete disarry; PR disasters one after the other to ANNOUNCE (please note, not SOLVE) the energy hikes, etc, etc. But with your reasoning this is still bliss compared to the shameful 80s right? We will always need to put up with the Nationalist’s s**t because they were on the good side of the EU decision and they will be spared from your criticism and your everlasting gratitude even though they are shamefully incompetent today.
[Daphne – When you have a choice between two people, you choose the better one. Unfortunately, I have been cursed with that kind of plain thinking, so I’m unable to understand the complicated workings of voting for the less able so as to punish the more able. Nor do I let annoyances like those you describe stand in the way of my decision; they do not make me see Muscat as the better or more able man. And that’s quite aside from the fact that he doesn’t have a magic wand with which to solve the problems you describe. Quite frankly, if the Labour Party wants to pull off a publicity stunt, it should investigate the source of that soot itself. It doesn’t have to be in government to do it. If it hasn’t investigated, rest assured that it’s because it can’t see a way to get results. Either that, or it’s paying its PR consultant for nothing, if she hasn’t thought about this herself.]
Daphne, we are years away from an election, so why did you bring in the ‘voting for the less able to punish the more able’ nonsense? Are we supposed to consistently excuse today’s incompetence because tomorrow’s incompetence by a Labour government will be worse? You either really lost the plot or you are rallying public opinion for a forthcoming potential debacle.
Like you, I strongly believe that Labour are not an alternative yet but unlike you I will not tolerate incompetence because Labour’s was or will be worse.
[Daphne – I’m not excusing anything, Jean, and I don’t tolerate incompetence. I just have a good sense of perspective. I listen to people whine about their electricity bill on their way out to dinner, and I remember those friends in Britain who in sub-zero temperature and with ice forming on the inside of their windows are not turning the central heating on because they can’t afford to pay the bill. I think of all those people in the USA who have had their homes repossessed and who are sleeping in their cars. I think of that photograph some months ago of thousands of people queuing outside London Zoo for a functionary’s job, many of them wearing pin-stripe suits and quite obviously desperate refugees from the financial services sector. I remember what it was like in Toronto’s shopping district three days before Christmas a year ago: shops standing empty and with huge SALE signs in their windows, almost nobody on the sidewalks, shop assistants standing round wringing their hands….and tens of thousands out of work in the automotive industry. Soot? F**k it. You never know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it.]
Just tell all this to that sour Jesmond Mugliett. He’s still whining about having lost his ministerial seat. He wasn’t even capable of giving info about the salary of the National Orchestra director. He kept it a state secret. For arrogance he comes as number one.
Forgot to mention the 10,000 Maltese families that had their electricity cut of because they can’t afford it.
[Daphne – Oh don’t be ridiculous. The people who can’t afford electricity have it subsidised. And those who don’t pay their bills don’t pay them for other reasons.]
I see, so when the bankers get their jobs back and the Toronto stores start chiming again, what will happen to your perspective then?
[Daphne – When the bankers get their jobs back and the Toronto stores start chiming again, Malta will be back on its feet economically. Malta’s problems now are in large part due to the problems elsewhere. Funny how so many people seem to think it’s all about water and electricity bills. It isn’t. Tourism is doing really badly, conference and incentive travel business has collapsed and the problems are fed into the rest of our economy. You can’t solve those problems by waving a magic wand or changing the government. Put simply, our customers no longer have money to spend. When they have money to spend again, we’ll get going again. Until then, it’s a matter of keeping our heads above water.]
Will you find a new perspective to believe in – you can always compare Malta to those poor souls living in Africa I suppose or do your usual “Daphnejob” and harp on about life three decades ago.
[Daphne – No, because – apparently unlike you – I know that Malta isn’t economically autonomous, and that it is tied in economically with the first world and not with the third.]
I am sure you enjoyed the shitty public transport whilst in London and was amused by the pot-holed roads in Toronto. Re your story of thousands applying for a functionary’s job, try checking how many people apply and go speak to a minister each time there is an opening for a clerk with the government sector.
[Daphne – No comparison, Ronnie. It’s not because they’re desperate and need a job because their home is about to be repossessed or has been already. It’s because they want a job mal-gvern.]
Re your comment about the heating, many families in Malta do not own a heater or an air-conditioner let alone bother not to switch it on.
[Daphne – That’s because their priorities are different. They prefer to shiver in a home with a fabulous kitchen and bathroom than spend less on the fixtures and fittings and stay warm. I, on the other hand, prefer to spend money on heating and am not particularly interested in fitted kitchens. In fact, I have had my own home since I was 20 and have never had one. Nor do we have airconditioning, because I really hate it and will use it only when I have no choice, like in an office.]
Strange how you accept mediocrity as long as it is dished out by the PN.
[Daphne – I don’t accept mediocrity. I am merely realistic. I also happen to think that the changes in this small country fall only just short of a miracle, when you consider where we were not so long ago – and I don’t mean 1987, but much, much later than that.]
You never know what you’ve got until you’ve lost it. I agree with you, this country used to have a plan or a direction of sorts and now it has lost it.
[Daphne – It wasn’t lost, Ronnie. It was achieved: the European Union. No thanks to that ‘No to EU’ prat you want to see as prime minister. Put him in the stocks and pelt him, I say.]
The most amusing wastefulness I have witnessed in this glorious culture is the bored housewife with double kitchens – one for show and one for use. When someone told me that a large number of people fit an amazing looking kitchen only for show, just to have a piece to show off for people, I didn’t believe them, until I witnessed it myself on so many occasions.
Then of course they are scared of their living standard going down due to social services towards a few thousand immigrants.
Tough choice: fitted kitchen to show off to your friends and saving the lives of desolate people…
Jean, you judge people on micro issues (MEPA, ADT, Utility rates) rather than macro issues such as (EU and Eurozone). For the former you can always reconsider and improve on a daily basis, but if you mess up the latter you are in s**t to the ears for years, the place we would be if Sant or Muscat were prime minister.
You need good politicians but you also need electors who can make decisions on the right parameters.
“And that’s quite aside from the fact that he doesn’t have a magic wand …”
Aaaah, but there’s one particular person who must think he has a magic wand of some other kind with which to tickle her pink, judging by the way she slobbers about him in her “diary”.
He sweats because he doesn’t have a clue what to do if he backs into the PM’s job. More a tin pot head despot.
In the picture, see how Jason moves away from Joseph.
‘If the Labour Party wants to pull off a publicity stunt, it should investigate the source of that soot itself’. Why are you giving hints?
Is our future PM wearing his shirt outside his trousers? And look at Swiss Toni’s Guevara fist.
No, he’s just got a long body …
Re soot …Dr Gonzi should not have given the reply he did (that there are wasn’t enough soot to send for testing). Clearly some idiot somewhere in the civil service prepared that reply. Dr Gonzi should have summoned whoever was responsible and given him a good dressing down, and named him and shamed him in parliament. Nor do I agree with prima donna Jesmond Mugliett walking out of parliament.
[Daphne – Did you know that he applied for and got scholarship funding to help him ‘further his education’? He was there lining up with all the 20-year-olds for his bursary certificate a couple of months ago – each one of which was handed over personally by the prime minister. At his age and in his position – unbelievable. As for the soot, this is how The Times quoted the prime minister: “The sampling was continuing and tests had been sent to several laboratories abroad. The volume of dust changed over particular periods, making the establishment of the cause more difficult as other dust was collected.” Not quite the same thing as there not being enough soot to send for testing.]
Stop shooting at Joseph Muscat and face the truth.Sometimes knowledge is uncomfortable, but it is the sign of a civilised society that we do not sweep it under the carpet. There are limits to your razzle dazzle about GonziPN; pluck courage and accept the truth.We can rise above partisan politics and choose to have a society that celebrates the truth even when it hurts! An intelligent person can look at the present economic and financial statistics and wonders how we can change them. Only a fool ignores them.
Muscat Patrick
And after wondering how to change them, the “intelligent person” will presumably find the solution in Joseph Muscat.
All fine and dandy, but you cannot write essays on your ballot sheet. Only a fool votes for an incompetent buffoon.
Surrounding himself by people “who will not challenge or question him” and weeding out the rest….
What a flippin copycat !
Re soot …. Daphne , even the reply as quoted in The Times is very deficient. This should have been challenged by the PM himself. As PM I would have wanted to see the actual replies from these laboratories, and tabled them in parliament. This should have been requested by the PL. Frankly, with today’s analyses, I feel there is a cover-up somewhere, as not being able to ascertain the source after all these years …. possibly to cover up for Enemalta.
[Daphne – I don’t know about that, David. When I worked in Ta’ Xbiex up to a year ago, black soot on the terrace was part and parcel of everyday life. When the floor indoors was washed, the water came out black. Dust the furniture – black. I always imagined it was the St Luke’s chimney, but quite frankly, I didn’t give it much thought. I asked one or two of the neighbours but they had been living with it so long that they hardly noticed it. I think the root cause of the government agency’s inability to find out where it’s coming from may be because it isn’t being approached like an investigation, but as an analysis. I don’t know whether this has been done already, because as you said there hasn’t been sufficient information, but I wouldn’t have started by analysing the soot. I would have started by drawing up a short-list of entities with the capacity to emit soot, map them out, monitor wind direction and soot falls, etc. However, I find it really strange that with an opposition party and a couple of media organisations with more than sufficient resources to get onto this, everyone is sitting around waiting for the government to investigate. It would be a real coup for the opposition or for a newspaper.]
Well I prefer no one then a Paul Borg Olivier.
[Daphne – Lucky for you there’s nobody called Borg Olivier in the Labour Party, then.]
Mamma mia! Do I HAVE to vote for the Nationalists again, to try and keep such a man and party from ruling over us? You are so good, Daphne, at confusing us and worrying us.
May I ask you please ….if a Dr.Abela, Louis Grech or Marlene Mizzi were the LP leader, would you support the LP?
[Daphne – I will never support the Labour Party. Everything about it is alien to me. Of course, there is a difference between not supporting a party and not minding whether it’s in government. I wouldn’t have minded a Labour government with George Abela at the helm, even if I wouldn’t have voted for it. But he would have had to rid the party of pieces of crap like Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela, and that would take a generation.]
@ Daphne … and probably proceeding to merge the Government to the Curia. The last thing the Labour party or Malta needed was George Abela.
Manuel Cuschieri wanted to put his name forward and that is why Joseph Muscat removed the post of secretary-general.
Spot the difference
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/orange-moonies3.jpg
When PN backbenchers sulk and whinge, it’s pathetic and egocentric. But within the PL it would be heroic – according to Daphne, of course.
[Daphne – I never think that sulking and whinging are heroic.]
A. Vella.
So at least you do agree that there is a problem! Good, that’s a reality check!
The plot continues: no PL administrative posts to be contested.
Talking about censorship, Daphne – did you know your blog is now blocked on Malta government computers? Now I have to strain my eyes to check out your blog on my tiny Blackberry screen.
[Daphne – If it is, then that isn’t censorship. Employers are within their rights to do whatever they can to prevent employees doing X when they’re paid to do Y.]