GUEST POST (written by somebody else)
GENTLEMEN’S CLUBS
What do Dom Mintoff, the former chief justice, ex-convict Noel Arrigo, and the rebels within the PN have in common?
Not much, except one thing: they are specimens of an unsavoury trend that has been evolving in our national institutions over the last decade and a half.
In essence, institutions like parliament, the courts and political parties were originally rooted in a fundamental assumption. Namely, that those running them were men (and women) of honour.
They were to be run by gentlemen whose character and commitment to the public good was unimpeachable. Citizens put these most powerful instruments in the hands of these gentlemen to do, well, good.
Consequently, parliament, the courts, political parties and other institutions were not designed to deal with situations in which rogues and blackguards, rather than gentlemen, were at their helm. In such situations, these key institutions at the heart of our democracy become acutely vulnerable, turning into the antithesis of what they were meant to be.
When former chief justice Noel Arrigo and ex-judge Patrick Vella were found guilty of taking bribes and jailed, we could do nothing but look on naively in horror.
When former judge Anton Depasquele failed to turn up for work for seven years, we the taxpayers could not believe that we were still paying his salary and for his chauffeur-driven car. He could not be impeached because the Labour Opposition refused to cooperate in a vote that required not a simple majority, but two-thirds of the House.
When the allegations about Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s sordid private life sailed through public opinion uncontested, we all just looked incedulously at each other. When, more recently, Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco was caught on video by The Sunday Time of London apparently negotiating for a scam on Olympic tickets, we just rewound it and watched it again.
In all these cases, we, the citizens, can do little. Our courts are not meant to prosecute their own. Our magistrates and judges are expected to be gentlemen. Their mission is to judge, not be judged.
When parliaments began to be born in Europe, the main driving force was the representation of people’s interests by democratically elected politicians, and the protection of those interests against the absolutist power of monarchy and the church. Again, the assumption was that, for all the factional differences and parliamentary wheeling and dealing, what emerged in the end was legislation which served the public good.
For all the rhetoric, backstabbing and grandstanding, parliament was where gentlemen lived. And where party loyalty produced stable governments.
There have been times in the past when the Maltese parliament has been the scene of some very shocking and ungentlemanly behaviour, but over the last four years, we have been forced to look at some extraordinary developments in this regard.
The PN’s single-seat majority has outed the worst elements of its dishonourable members. Isn’t it blindingly obvious, with hindsight, that Jeffery Pullicino Orlando’s objection to the St. John Cathedral museum project was a personal vendetta against Richard Cachia Caruana, one of the project’s promoters?
Isn’t it crystal clear today that Franco Debono was locked on to a course to destroy ministers he envied and because he was not one of them?
Wasn’t Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s vote in favour of Labour’s motion against Richard Cachia Caruana the ultimate historic perversion of what our parliament should be? An institution which evolved to protect citizens was used as a personal instrument to lynch a Maltese citizen.
Again, all we could do was watch in horror.
The final expression of this sordid and personally vindictive political conduct is Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s call on the PN’s executive committee to expel Richard Cachia Caruana. If without party loyalty stable government is impossible, then a political party simply cannot exist in its absence.
Without gentlemen running it, a political party is just a band club committee too dangerously close to the seat of power.
Has Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando been a gentleman towards his party’s executive? Definitely not. He wants Cachia Caruana expelled without specifying exactly why. We all know the reason by now: personal animosity. For reasons best known to himself, he hates him. And so the country, the government and the Nationalist Party must be held hostage to his grudges and feelings.
He’s called on ‘witnesses’ who are either from the opposing party, or are prevented from giving evidence because of their public office, or who have already said that they know of no facts which can substantiate the allegations.
And now he’s in an even more untenable situation. The same executive that Pullicino Orlando wants to use as an instrument to lynch Cachia Caruana a second time has banned him from contesting on the party ticket again, precisely for lynching Cachia Caruana the first time.
The conclusion should be blindingly obvious. Bring back gentlemen (and women) to our courts, our parliament and our political parties. Without them, the proper conduct of our institutions is not just impossible, but is actively hindered and obstructed.
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Iehor li ghadu jghix fil-passat.
Is-seklu ghadda, beda iehor, irrinunzjana l-ftit sovranita li kien fadlilna, bdilna l-kmand, il-parlament sar kunsill amministrattiv, iffirmajna kull trattat sottili li ordnawlna niffirmaw, dahhluna f’xibka ta’ dejn perpetwu, nezzawlna l-qalziet, bellghulna r-ross bil-labra b’kemm allahalaq bzar fl-ghajnejn… u dawn il-qatta qlafat ghadhom jahsbu b’mohh midfun fis-seklu l-iehor.
Ahleb, Guz! Il-midjunin accertati: aktar dejn ifisser aktar gid.
Well, someone like you wouldn’t see the point of gentlemanly behaviour, would he?
Who could see the point of gentlemanly behavour if he believes that by the EU accession, “nezzawlna l-qalziet”?
Kev, do they believe we would be better outside the EU so that the LP would have a freehand to do what the hell it wants as it did during the seventies and eighties trampling on every conceivable human right of the citizens?
Bil-mod Kevin. Int wiehed minn dawn ir-raddiegha li qed jahilbu istituzzjonijiet minghajr ma ghandhom dritt jew kwalifiki.
Int wiehed minn dawk il-kriminali li tajru persuna u HARBU.
Int wiehe dminn dawk li qed tpappuha tajjeb barra mill-pajjiz fejn l-inqas lil Alla tieghek ma taf. Imma l-hmieg biss taf. Mela ghalaq halqek u kompli maxtar sa ma’ Censina tigi zzurek u mbaghad mur ibki dmugh tal-kukkudrilli.
Int fix qed tghix, kev?
Ghandek wiccec u sormok l-istess. Int li qed tant tgawdi fi Brussels – imissek bqat Malta u forsi il PL ilahhquk konsulent ta l’ilma helu. Idiot
If a high quality response is a measure of a high quality audience, no wonder even Fido is sounding wise (with the exception, perhaps, of La Redoute, the bored woman with a depraved man’s mind).
‘A nation of children’ is a term too kind to bestow, but there you are.
Ahleb, Guz! The serfs are convinced they are the true masters of their own fate.
Ah, but it’s fine for you to benefit from all things Brussels.
Typical Labour mentality.
Words such as ‘twerp’ and ‘jackass’ barely describe you adequately, and neither does the expression ‘wiccek u sormok l-istess.’
Many thanks to Matt B for contributing the proof of what I’m saying.
Not when Joseph thinks he’s better off transforming everything into a reflection of the Labour Party.
I never saw this amount of squalor take over to such an extent. It’s becoming the norm, making him legitimate.
The emerging idea is that both parties are the same.
The PN has to go back to what it does best, policy, to avert the damage. Given that it can.
The reason for Pullicino Orlando’s personal animosity towards Richard Cachia Caruana is blindingly obvious: he is jealous, in the way that only spitefuly, desperately insecure people can be jealous.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has repeatedly reminded us of the many occasions he has ‘millitated’ – tiresome term – in the PN, that he was present at all the historic public demonstrations in recent history (unlike some people he could mention), that he plans to take a break from the PN until ‘the clique’ is removed and that he will make a comeback.
The man has more than a few screws loose. He would have us believe that the natural disappointments of middle-age are unique to him, that he somehow deserves better than the rest of us, that the only reason he did not get his just desserts (well, he finally did, if not what he expected) is because others have cheated him out of what is rightfully his, that ‘others’ (i.e. Richard Cachia Caruana) have done well undeservedly, that position is solely a reward for party loyalty (but only as he defines it), that he deserves (as opposed to needs) to have bodyguards and that they must be provided to him (because Richard Cachia Caruana has a couple), that his behaviour is perfectly normal and acceptable despite his artificial calm being only a fragile veneer for the seething jealousy and spite beneath, and that dignity and gravitas are old-fashioned values that have no place in his warped world.
He may need help, but the rest of us deserve deliverance from the best and worst of his excesses. The sooner he fades into private life, the better for him and all of us too.
The degeneration referred to in this excellent post permeates the entire social fabric and not just politicians and the judiciary.
It affects the Church, all the professions and the civil service.
It has had its toll on the university, education in general, sports and the unions.
Everything has been going downhill in terms of high standards, trust and honour and for quite some years now.
I suppose when the prime minister of a country declares publicly “Jien nitnejjek mill-Kostituzzjoni” the green light is on for the entire nation to start going to the dogs in more ways than one.
Those were not just the ‘golden years’ , they were the beginning of an entire ‘golden era’.
The era of Kulhadd Jitnejjek minn Kollox.
Yes Kev, you are right. However, there is a fine line between federalism, egalitarianism and globalisation in which one have to pursue. Not all is black or white.
This has resulted in the loss of some individual culture and social identities together with loss of power to central government.
You are right about the past, but nowadays people know that those in high places are not gentlemen but scoundrels.
In fact, the only way one can advance in this society is by being a scoundrel. Gentlemen are left aside stranded in oblivion, to be pitied for being so naive and stupid.
This reflects a moral decline in our society. But where was the PN (in government for the past 2 decades) when this was happening? It was sanctimoniously pontificating about divoirce making it look more hypocritical than ever.
Are you saying a government is responsible for people’s moral standards now as well?