Lino Spiteri: “It would be a fine mess indeed if the country’s ambassadors were personally held to account before the House of Representatives in censure motions.”
Lino Spiteri, writing in The Times today (a prominent back-page piece):
(…)
To me, it remains mystifying that the Labour opposition chose to raise and debate the allegation now, in a context of little interest to the nation as a whole and even less so to the movement Dr Muscat is trying to build to carry him to victory when the election is held.
It contradicts the Labour leader’s well-put projection that he is a man of ideas with a visionary eye. In itself, the motion is misplaced. It relates to government policy, not to any policy dreamed up by a representative individual. It would be a fine mess indeed if the country’s ambassadors were personally held to account before the House of Representatives in censure motions.
It is the executive politicians who make and are responsible for policy. They are accountable.
It is besides the point that the core of the allegations against Mr Cachia Caruana were denied by the Prime Minister. The principle involved is one of accountability; as Labour argued in the parallel case of Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, ministers are ultimately accountable.
The hours spent in committee and today’s debate are, to my mind, wasted time and effort.
They are a waste of both parliamentary and political time, including irrelevant questions such as how much Dr Cachia Caruana is paid. What would have been relevant, once the ambassador had been hauled before the House committee, was to ask his views on succession planning, what is he advising and preparing in that regard.
Mr Cachia Caruana has built a strong machine out of the resources available to him to tackle the extensive task of representation in the EU. What happens when his role ends? My understanding is that he has a very good non-political number two. As an MP, I would have wanted to be ascertained of that.
Mr Cachia Caruana cannot be there forever, even should the Nationalists retain office.
That is talk for the future which, no doubt, Dr Muscat is thinking about. Spending so much time incorrectly about the past is not only a contradiction, it plays into the hands of the Nationalist spin doctors.
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Isma’ Jeffrey wkoll. It’s all about settling personal accounts. Addio wikileaks.
Good points made by Lino.
For conoisseurs of the history of politics this RCC episode is no great surprise.
It reminds me of Clive of India who, like RCC, was an emissary of the first order.
He gave Britain more than it deserved thoughout many years of a brilliant career. He literally made his country rich.
He was hounded by the Commons because of envy.
He ended up committing suicide at a young age.
RCC will be remembered for generations as Malta’s best representative in Brussels.
Time will prove me right.
And RCC will not commit suicide.
He will just enjoy himself mocking (privately) his pathetically stupid adversaries.
Lino Spiteri makes the fundamental mistake of assuming Joeseph Muscat gives a hoot about how government should function properly when he becomes PM.
Dear Daphne — I would not teach you on whom to rely or not of course but for me, Lino has always been a very shaky character — his words are not to be trusted due to his greyish style of reasoning.
The moment he establishes a line of thought, he immediately contradicts himself in no time at all.
We will see his up-coming article extolling Joseph for being precisely ”a man of ideas with a visionary eye”.
I am sorry but I learned to read Lino with a pinch of salt.
Favettu, I agree – Lino Spiteri should write about the time he worked at the Central Bank.
I wonder if Lino Spiteri knows or remembers anything about Orion Bank and its portfolio of politician customers, especially between 1975/1987 ?