Jeffrey in 2002: “I felt wanted and valued, so I decided not to leave politics even though I wasn’t given important enough positions.”

All of 10 years ago, in 2002, Malta Today had interviewed Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando Smith). Read in the context of all that has happened in the last four years, that interview shows that Jeffrey was just a major crisis waiting to happen.

I’ve put the really telling bits in bold.

We’d all forgotten that in a fit of pique, because he thought he hadn’t been given important enough positions, he decided to withdraw his candidature for the Nationalist Party in the 2003 general election – but then changed his mind when he “felt wanted and valued”.

Time to bring back the psychometric testing for candidates.

——-

ANXIOUSLY WAITING IN THE WINGS

He almost decided against contesting the next election because he felt he wasn’t being given enough responsibility. Today Nationalist backbencher, dentist and self-confessed workaholic Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando tells RAY ABDILLA what changed his mind.

There was much speculation that the Nationalist backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando would stand down at the next general election. But just 11 days ago he decided that he was not going to call it a day in politics.

“It’s simple,” is his reply. “I don’t mind admitting that I’m a workaholic and although I’m the government representative on the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe I felt that I could have been given more responsibility.”

Dr Pullicino Orlando – a dentist by profession – was elected in 1996 and 1998 and was the first MP elected in a hotly contested district, the seventh which included Zebbug, Attard, Siggiewi, Dingli and Qrendi. In fact, having opened a dental clinic at Zebbug and Siggiewi because there was none in existence there at the time and having been brought up in Attard, this hardly seems surprising.

But he doesn’t mind admitting that he would have liked more recognition.

In fact, it is easy to see why his supporters might have felt he deserved more better, after working so hard in opposition.
Dr Pullicino, who is a football lover and supports Arsenal, concedes that he risked becoming disillusioned or highlighting some of the weaknesses he witnesses in the House.

“I would like to see the Parliamentary Group working better and harder, for starters,” he says. “We need to meet more often, as we did when in opposition. He is also disgusted by the amount of time wasted in parliament. “Seeing these problems admittedly caused me to lose the edge off my enthusiasm, so much so that I was considering calling it a day.”

So what changed his mind?

Dr Pullicino Orlando explains that it was something his teenage daughter said that made him reconsider his decision.

“Just days ago I was talking to my eldest daughter, Jennifer, who’s 13 years old and a talented singer,” he says. “I’ve always taken an interest in her singing and was encouraging her at the time.

“Then she turned to me and said, ‘Dad, you’ve got a talent too – politics. You’re encouraging me to stick at my singing – you must keep going at what you’re good at too’.”

This was the first boost of encouragement. More was to come after he attended the first press conference for the Zebbug local council election to support the local candidates all of whom he considers to be personal friends. After this he was inundated with telephone calls asking him if he had rethought his decision not to contest.

“Hearing my daughter and so many friends telling me that they wanted me to contest again made me feel really wanted and valued,” he says. “It was enough to make me change my mind. I knew I could make a difference, however small, if I was in the thick of things.”

Dr Pullicino Orlando’s family background is certainly not straightforward when it comes to political lineage.

His grandfather – Guzè Orlando – was the secretary general of the Malta Labour Party before the war. He admits that people who remember him comment on the resemblance between the two men.

Asked how he arrived at the decision to switch political allegiance, Dr Pullicino Orlando explains that his mother was a moderate Labourite whilst his father was a fervent Nationalist supporter.

“As a kid, I used to agree more with my mother on many issues, but I was heavily influenced by what happened between the Malta Labour Party and the church schools,” he explains. “I was completely against that decision, and was affected by the issue directly since I attended De La Salle College.”

DAPHNE’S NOTE: This is a blatant lie. The church schools crisis was in 1984, which means Jeffrey would have been 21 years old, and certainly not at De La Salle College being directly affected.

He adds that from then on, he decided he wanted to do something useful and began taking an interest in politics. “I started participating in political activities organising student protests and demonstrations and also joined the Attard MZPN,” he says. “I was also a member of the University Students Council and represented my fellow students on the faculty of dental surgery. From then on, I never looked back.”

Dr Pullicino Orlando believes both political parties have their valid and valued people, but is not afraid to say that there are some MPs who are, unfortunately, still caught up in the past.”

“Today’s politics are different,” he explains. “Modern politicians, in particular those that are younger, have a different mentality. People in general want a clean break from the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality of the seventies”.

He believes that the difference between both parties is mostly one of vision, primarily the different approach to the European Union.
“The Nationalist party has a vision in which Malta’s place is in the EU, while the Labour party believes in the Switzerland in the Mediterranean ideology,” he says.

“The Nationalists believe in something which is real – EU membership is a step which we ultimately have to take. We can’t stay out of something which is getting bigger and bigger. Our businesses, our industry will have a larger market to compete with and sell its products or do business with.”

His philosophy is that the Switzerland in the Mediterranean theme that the Labour Party is promoting might have been an option in the days when Mintoff was putting it forward – during the Cold War – but not today.

Dr Pullicino Orlando’s pro-EU stand also sees him against US economic domination.

DAPHNES NOTE: And here comes his simmering hatred and suspicion of ‘the Americans’, and anyone he thinks is collaborating with them, which revealed itself so spectacularly in parliament on 18 June.

“Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against the American people or their country, but I do believe that a bigger and stronger Europe will counter all the over-domination the Americans have in many sectors, which can make them somewhat overbearing at times” he explains.

(…)

The backbencher believes Malta should try to convince the Irish to help the island in this matter. “There are many cultural and historical links between the Maltese and the Irish,” he points out.” I think we should go there and explain our cause, in a similar way to the manner in which English euro-sceptic MPs are coming here and preaching against the EU.

“The Irish are a great lot, I’ve been all around their island, and I’ve really come to appreciate their way of life and mentality. I’m sure Malta can give a very valid contribution to the future of Europe in this respect.”

Turning to the government’s present performance, Dr Pullicino Orlando says he believes things are not going too badly. “Last year there was a bit of a slowdown in many sectors – the world-wide crisis has obviously affected the country – but it looks like things are picking up now,” he says. “We are slowly moving forward.”

Dr Pullicino Orlando says that critics of the government should remember the transformation Malta has undergone “from a third world country into a modern state”.

“It is easy to forget that at one time it was illegal to possess something as simple as a cordless phone or that it was almost impossible to buy a colour television,” he says. “The country has changed and changed radically for the better.”
But while praising certain developments, such as the new airport and the advanced telecommunications system Malta now boast of, Dr Pullicino Orlando has also held true to his roots as an environmentalist when he has believed it was the right thing to do.

This includes speaking out against the construction of a golf course in Verdala at the Council of Europe, the cement plant at Siggiewi and the fish farm at St Paul’s. He went so far as to go against the grain of local politics and presented a private member’s motion in parliament to stop the cement plant’s promoters in their tracks.

DAPHNE’S NOTE: HE’S A DIVER NOW?

He adds that as a diver he is particularly worried about the tuna penning problems. “I still can’t understand how Labour MP Joe Mizzi came to vote in favour after there was so much hype about the whole issue,” he says.

(…)

Back on the subject of national politics, I ask the Nationalist MP whether he believes the PN has managed to maintain its level of popularity, or whether the MLP are posing more of a risk.

DAPHNE’S NOTE: Coming up – how he thinks that the main problem with the Labour Party was that it was disorganised. Presumably, now that it is sort of organised, he approves of it.

“I think that when one weighs everything up, the PN is still the better party,” he answers. “The MLP is still committing almost all the same mistakes it made when in government. It is still very disorganised.”

As to the topic of party leadership, Dr Pullicino Orlando says that he has always admired Eddie Fenech Adami as party leader, especially, he stresses, during the dark days of the eighties.

“He always fought for the rights of the Maltese and I think that now the Prime Minister rightly wants to continue leading the country until it makes history by joining the EU,” the backbencher says. “This will be the point at which Dr Fenech Adami would have made history by putting Malta on a par with other developed countries.”