Dr Pullicino Orlando’s Fejsbuk Wall

Published: June 16, 2011 at 11:44pm

This is my column in The Malta Independent today.

Isn’t there somebody who can take Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando gently to one side and let him know that the only sorts of decisions you should discuss on your very public Facebook wall have to do with what you should feed your hamster and when?

Anything else is dangerous.

If you talk about where you’re going tonight or announce that you’re out of the country then you’re setting yourself up for burglary. And if you talk about how and why you voted as you did in parliament, then you’re setting yourself up to be dismissed scathingly with the Maltese word carlatan.

Perhaps it’s too late to expect Dr Pullicino Orlando to be a man. Gentleman would be setting the bar far too high, going on what we have seen over the last three years.

But it’s not too late to remind him that at his age and in his position he shouldn’t be rushing to Facebook to hint darkly about what the prime minister told him and what he told the prime minister, how he planned to vote but why he changed his mind and so on and so forth like a kid smoking behind the bicycle shed while embroidering on an altercation with the headmaster to impress his mates with his ‘gatz’.

As one of his constituents, I am perfectly placed to tell Dr Pullicino Orlando to decide once and for all where he stands and what he plans to do. It is to me and to the thousands of others who put him where he is to represent us that he is accountable and to whom he owes explanations of his behaviour.

He owes no such explanations to the crowds of Laburisti , greaseball Labour Party lawyers and Super One hawks, sharks and worms who clog up his list of Facebook Friends.

They just see him as a useful tool and he usefully obliges by messing up his own political career to – wittingly or unwittingly – help further theirs. He gets given one chance after another to restore his reputation to some semblance of credibility and instead of seizing this he sets a stick of dynamite beneath it and blows it up.

If he is taking advice on how to behave from some of the questionable people with whom he is photographed in social situations, then I am not surprised that his behaviour has come to be what it is, including the highly inappropriate exchanges on Facebook.

As the Maltese chestnut has it, if you spend your time with people who limp, you end up limping yourself.

If Dr Pullicino Orlando is so much at odds with the prime minister, then he has just two behaviourally correct choices before him: to demand the resignation of the prime minister or to resign himself – and by that, I mean resign his seat and not the party whip.

The options he seems intent on pursuing – death by a thousand cuts for the prime minister and for his own political career and credibility – are ill-judged, unwise and above all, absolutely dishonourable. He appears to have adopted the behavioural code of a greaseball hick Labour lawyer.

It is significant, I think, that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando wrote on Facebook that he voted with the government because he does not want to disappoint those of us who voted for him, by being ‘used as the excuse to call early elections’.

He has disappointed us terribly already and it is far too late for him to start worrying about that.
He disappoints us again with his explanation, because we expect him to say that he votes with the government because he supports the government and not because he ‘doesn’t want to be used’. The only people using him are the Labour Party, but apparently, that’s all right with him.

Dr Pullicino Orlando has been in parliament for years. He should know by now that Joseph Muscat’s ‘motion’ was in effect one of no confidence in the prime minister and his government. Had it been carried with his vote, then he knows what the consequences would have been, even if his Facebook Friends do not.

Had we who voted for him ended up with a Labour government two years before due date just because of his ego and the need to feed it – at least he is not talking about conscience – then we would have wanted to metaphorically lynch him. But we don’t want him to behave well because he is frightened of our reaction. We want him to behave well because he knows it is his duty to do so.

Jesmond Mugliett is no better. True, he released a statement to the media rather than nattering on his Facebook wall, but still. He said he voted against Joseph Muscat’s motion because he did not want to destabilise the government and so imperil divorce legislation. The implication is that he would have been more than happy to destabilise the government had there been no divorce bill about to be debated.

If these two carry on as they are, their political career is going to end up on the scrap-heap or with the Labour Party, which amounts to the same thing anyway.

You blew it, Jeffrey. Again.




53 Comments Comment

  1. il-Ginger says:

    He blew nothing Daphne, you should have given up on him when I did.

    He blew himself up a long time ago with the crying nonsense and abusing his position to go in front of Dr Sant and throw a tantrum like spoilt child whose sweets have been taken away.

    Besides that he later on proved Dr Sant right, when people found out his green credentials were not about caring for the environment.

    You can’t reason with somebody like him. He should either shut up or vote against the government. I’d rather he votes against the government, because I’d like to see the look on his face once the Labour Party has no use for him and deserts him, unless he offers free dental care to Dear Joseph.

  2. Evelyn says:

    Hope it does. Good riddance!

  3. wrangler says:

    I remember Pullicino Orlando pestering after Alfred Sant everywhere he goes (Mistra problem), crying and telling him “x’ghamiltlek jien” bid-dmuh f’ghajnejh. The result was li telgha sparat minn zewg distretti. Those who voted for him have a bearing of what he is doing today.

    • galian says:

      I was one of those who voted for Pullicino Orlando.

      In all the previous elections (except the one before the last) I never had any qualms about voting because, coming from Mosta, I always had Dr. Fenech Adami on my ballot paper.

      I opted for Pullicino Orlando last time around because I wanted to vote PN and I used it as a protest against the MLP, who instead of presenting a decent programme kept clinging to issues such as the Mistra project.

  4. mark v says:

    My question has been the following. Why on earth did Joe Saliba defend Pullicino Orlando so vehemently from Alfred Sant before the last general election, when everyone with a bit of common sense knew that Sant was telling the truth and Pullicino Orlando was lying albeit his crocodile tears.

    • Macduff says:

      Because admitting the truth about Pullicino Orlando’s shenanigans would have cost the Nationalist Party that general election. So the Party defended him tooth and nail, and coupled with Alfred Sant’s political naivete, it pulled it off.

      When the election was over, the same people who had defended Pullicino Orlando now wanted his resignation. And they were right: that was the time when he should have bowed out. But Pullicino Orlando thought he had been used as a sacrificial lamb and, because of the slim Nationalist majority and the way he was comfortably elected, that it was he who won the election for the Party, rather than having nearly lost it. So he stayed on, and the rest is history.

      I may be completely off the mark, but that’s my take on things.

      • mark v says:

        I agree with you, in this case it means the PN had to lie to the electorate to keep it in power, so the PN is an accomplice in lies, and now it is backfiring.

        We are left with a divided party with a weak general secretary, full of renegade individuals trying to find a way to form a parliamentary group.

    • A.Attard says:

      Exactly – the wise decision would have been to cut the ropes at that time. Had the party revoked Pullicino Orlando’s candidacy there and then we would have been spared this charade.

      • Gakku says:

        Had they cut the ropes at the time, we would have Sant as prime minister today. I think I prefer this charade.

    • Joe Micallef says:

      A necessary evil!

    • Wrangler says:

      Because staunch supporters are not interested in the truth. They are blindly in love with the party, so those who voted for Pullicino Orlando next time please hadmu ftiet mohhkhom. Joe Saliba tnejjek bin-nazzonalisti ghax kien jaf li JPO qed jigdeb! thats it !

      [Daphne – Actually, no. I know for a fact that at that stage nobody knew he was lying, and even he had has convinced himself that he wasn’t.]

  5. anthony says:

    There is one consolation for anti divorce legislation (as it is being proposed) people like myself.

    It will forever be associated with one of Malta’s most obnoxious politicians. One not fit for purpose.

    The legislation the country will be getting at the end of this never- ending palaver deserves no better.

  6. Etil says:

    This chap’s head has become bigger than his body and he seems to think that everyone is admiring him. Another one to do away with at the next general elections.

    • ciccio2011 says:

      Etil, it is going to be hard to “do away with him at the next elections.”

      He’s got 5,000 friends on Facebook. That’s already more than one quota – and nine more than Joseph Muscat’s 4,991 friends.

      I think he is still in with a good chance of being elected on two districts.

      He could register on the PN ticket in one district and on the PL ticket in another, securing himself a seat on the government side irrespective of which party wins.

  7. silvio says:

    As I see it Dr.Pullicino’s political future is nonexistent. He has himself pressed the “Self Destruct” button. Nobody will trust him anymore.

    Sometimes I think that he is always causing problems because he expects the government to find some way through for the deal he had going at Mistra. That would be the price to be paid for his behaving well.

    Another point is the less his name is in the limelight, the better it will be for all. He loves the publicity.

  8. A Sant says:

    Even Pullicino Orlando’s peers in the divorce camp ditched him at the final hour because he was embarrassing them and their cause. It’s Mugliett who is the real culprit. He’s the one who seems to be sleeping with the Opposition and manoeuvering behind the scenes within the PN. He just cannot accept his failed career and with a wife who’s doing better than him in everything he just blames Gonzi for his demise. Mugliett is your Cassius.

  9. Pecksniff says:

    Facebook and other social networks;see what is being said and have a look at the pics for a laugh but never join. I have been on the internet since 1996 (remember dial-up ?) and have never uploaded or posted anything which might come back to haunt me days, weeks and even years later; some people, not only teenagers, have discovered this too late too their acute embarrasment. But then if you have got a thick skin and hanker about chav status, just go ahead and take the plunge.

    • Grezz says:

      I agree. I can’t look at anyone I know in the same way after seeing what they upload or write on Facebook and elsewhere.

      I can’t even sit through Parents’ Day after seeing some teachers posting such cringe-worthy photos online. And let’s not start about children’s parents posting their own holiday and party pictures online with their partner-of-the-moment, to get back at their estranged spouse, while simply ignoring the fact that their children – who are ridiculously also their “Facebook friends” – are seeing it all too.

      What a sick world.

  10. maryanne says:

    I have always thought that Joseph Muscat is one hell of a lucky person. For these last three years, PN MPs and PN supporters have been acting government and opposition at the same time. The PL always messed things up and the only way they were able to dent government work was when it had the help of PN MPs.

    Joseph Muscat has his work done for him and so he can relax and have ample time to search for the right hair volumiser. He will forever be the opportunist that he has always been – fighting tooth and nail against Malta joining the EU and then joining what they are fond of calling the gravy train. He will likewise get to be prime minister and take all the credit.

  11. David II says:

    Jeffrey is one politician I can’t put my finger on. Cannot say I’m impressed by his ethics, particularly with the Mistra debacle, but on the other hand he’s the reason why a long overdue divorce legislation in Malta is now pending.

    Then again, in spite of being the person who triggered the events, he was most probably the YES camp’s biggest liability.

    He obviously can’t keep his mouth shut when he should. And while not necessarily being stupid, sometimes he comes across as just that when he says certain things to attract attention, but it badly misfires.

    In conclusion it is all thanks to him that divorce and, as a domino effect, all the discussion that will ensue on other issues to make Malta a more socially liberal European state in other matters, is happening. But it is probably only thanks to Deborah Schembri that the “YES” boat reached its final destination.

    As for Jeffrey’s political future, I hardly think he has one now.

    PN see him as the perennial troublemaker, the enfant terrible of their parliamentary group. PL, if they play their cards right, would not ask Jeffrey to join the party and contest the next general election.

    While he’d most probably get elected immediately on the Labour ticket, PL would probably be deterring the “liberal” traditional PN voter from voting PL next time round, as I don’t believe the latter have a high opinion of JPO either.

    • silvio says:

      I agree with most of what you say, but I doubt that Pullicino Orlando will be elected on the Labour ticket. NOBODY trusts a turncoat.

      • David II says:

        Look at Jeffrey’s Facebook profile, which is not locked. It is full of Labour supporters telling him ‘Jeffrey, itlaq il-PN u ejja maghna! Hawnhekk zgur li se tkun aktar liberu tesprimi l-ideat tieghek!’.

        Yes, PL supporters have great admiration for him. Even a Labourite acquaintance of my mum told her ‘Tghidx kemm sirt inhobbu!’. I don’t DOUBT he would get elected on a Labour ticket, I’m actually pretty sure he’d get elected with flying colours.

        But with the PN that would be another story, unless he gets elected by number 2’s from Labourite voters. And that’s if he is allowed to contest the election on the PN ticket in the first place!

      • J.Aquilina says:

        Probably the same sort of people who elected his wife, Marlene.

    • Joseph Vassallo says:

      Most people forgot Mistra and the Yes camp conveniently forgave him because it suited them.

  12. Matt says:

    Without doubt Jeffery Pullicino is the most untrusted politician in parliament today.

    He doesn’t understand the important position he holds and so he abuses his privileges. I sincerely hope the good people in his district will vote him out in the next election.

  13. Karl Flores says:

    To a certain extent, I’d prefer to lose the elections than having to put up with JPO, Mugliett et al.

  14. Hot Mama says:

    I ruled him out on the eve of the last election. I no longer consider him to be a Nationalist but a greaseball opportunist who in it only for himself. I just wish he’ll do a Weiner on his Facebook. If not, his patient constituents should do it for him.

  15. No surprises here.

    It was obvious from the word go that this man’s word is definitely not his bond. Why else would he have campaigned for divorce?

  16. Karl Flores says:

    It doesn’t take a genius to guess that tomorrow it will be Joseph Muscat we’ll be commenting about after today’s appearance on Xarabank, no?

    I, also, guess it will be business as usual and that the streets won’t be void of traffic in order to hear their master.

  17. Tony says:

    Jeffrey was never a politician, and he definitely has not become one now! He is just enjoying the present moment, because he feels powerful. But all this will soon end for him, whether or not the PN wins the next election.

  18. Dee says:

    JPO jaghti impressjoni tajba hafna meta izomm halqu maghluq.

  19. Peter Borg says:

    Talking about lowlands (political that is), Tonio Borg thinks that the PN “had been liberal and radical when it introduced measures removing injustices”.

    I don’t think he’s realising the implications of his own words, as if normally and ordinarily, the PN is in the business of creating injustices.

    Well, I guess we should all be thankful for small mercies then.

  20. Catsrbest says:

    This excellent quote has no translation: ‘Ix-xitan – l-ewwel jaghmik, imbaghad idoqq it-trumbetta bik’. It really applies to Pullicino Orlando and his like.

  21. Chris Ripard says:

    “Better to remain slient and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it”

  22. Stefan Vella says:

    Off topic:

    Eddie wants to postpone the divorce legislation till after the election. He’s arguing like Alfred Sant – simply too sad for words.

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110619/opinion/Divorce-law-is-attack-on-national-identity.371353

  23. Impatient says:

    On one hand you imply that JPO is not loyal to the party and on the other hand you have been going for Gonzi’s jugular at every opportunity … but yes, GonziPN is indeed going with the wind.

    Unfortunately, no version of PN will win the next election

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