Oh, good grief – immorru Brussels u niehdu l-politika tar-rahal maghna
So Johnny Dalli thinks it’s perfectly all right for an EU Commissioner to have ‘kenvissers’ from his home turf or constituency kazin acting as fixers for meetings with him, as long as no money changes hands.
How in God’s name did anyone every think him fit for purpose?
So as a Commissioner he was inclined to respond to a request from a canvasser from Malta rather than to a direct request that arrived through the proper channels in his cabinet, and he thinks there’s nothing wrong with that.
So how would lobbyists come to know of his links to Maltese canvassers unless Dalli was involved for reasons he denies, and makes those links known? It’s not as though Brussels lobbyists are going to come across a bumpkin like Silvio Zammit in a bar off the Grand Place and ask him for an introduction.
He says they are after a feeling of importance, not money. And from what do they derive that feeling of importance? Yes, exactly. Influence. So there you go.
Even if it’s only influence to persuade the Commissioner to meet you, it remains influence. People like Dalli can’t understand this.
The Times, today:
DALLI DEFENDS CANVASSERS’ ROLE OF MIDDLEMEN
by Mark Micallef
Former European Commissioner John Dalli has defended the practice of allowing canvassers to act as middle-men with international lobbyists, insisting that no money is transacted in these liaisons.
In an interview published in The Times today he also discloses that many more Maltese canvassers took on this role after they were approached by foreign organisations to facilitate access to the former Commissioner.
“I have many other people in Malta, who have international organisations asking them to fix appointments with me. This is not just Silvio Zammit doing it, because it seems that people think that you have to go through someone to go to the Commissioner.”
About his relationship with Mr Zammit, Mr Dalli said: “Silvio Zammit is a canvasser like many hundreds of canvassers that I have. That is my relationship with him. (With him)… I have the contact I have with other canvassers. When they need something and when they have some friend who needs something… It’s the usual political game in Malta.
“The question is at the heart of the scandal that Mr Dalli has found himself sucked into after an investigation by the EU anti-fraud agency, Olaf, concluded that Maltese businessman Silvio Zammit asked for a bribe from snus producer Swedish Match to be able to influence legislation under Mr Dalli’s portfolio.
Mr Dalli has strenuously denied this, challenging Olaf to publish the report. Mr Zammit also denied the allegation but has refused to comment on any mater related to this case after he released a brief statement with his denial.
Brussels accepts lobbying as a legitimate part of the political game, however, lobbyists as a practice are registered for the sake of transparency.
Mr Zammit was not and Maltese people acting as middlemen usually are not, Mr Dalli admitted.
Moreover, the exact parameters of lobbying have been called into the question following this case.
Asked if dealing with such unregistered middlemen, whose only qualification is likely to be access to him, Mr Dalli said insisted that similar meetings made over the past two-and-a-half years were done transparently.
“I have other people who have contacted me over the past two-and-a-half years, in the most transparent way, and asked me to have meetings with people and I did. So what?”
He also excluded that these would make themselves available for money, arguing instead that they are more likely interested in deriving satisfaction from the important position it puts them in.
“I would be such an evil mind to think that for someone to set up a meeting he would take money. All I say is that it usually is a feeling of importance (that these canvassers seek).”
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“How in God’s name did anyone every think him fit for purpose?”, you ask.
It’s not “anyone”. It’s the prime minister AND his advisors.
Why would a Maltese lawyer (whom we now know is an avukata zghira) need to pass through Zammit to get to Dalli?
Avukata? I was under the impression it was an avukat but I may be wrong.
Maybe she was auditioning for a circus act involving molecular fusion and found herself hurtling through a time-space continuum emerging on Jon Dalli’s lap.
Mjones, things change. A judicial letter becomes an’ ittra bl’avukat’. An ‘avukat’ becomes an ‘avukata zghira’. Megiks
It would be interesting to find out whether respectable organisations like the Cali Cartel in Colunbia or the Sacra Corona Unita ever contacted Bastjan to fix an appointment.
What he’s saying basically is that whatever happens between interested parties and his canvassers is none of his business. And none of our business either.
So, if one is Maltese but not from his district what influence will that be?
With all due respect, will Paul Borg Olivier please speak up? This isn’t going away, anymore procrastination and complicity will be implied.
Principles are a constant. An official position to the situation categorical. You will be damned if you do and damned if you don’t, so why choose doubt?
What we have here is the Labour manifesto in progress, ‘we will let you work, no strings attached’, a call to regressive habits and horizontal networking overturning any legal instruments required to uphold rights and equity in the social fabric.
Who’s responsible for concept building and their arrogation, is it possible that no one’s willing to take up the determining role in the PN?
Dalli’s weird description of his canvassers/middlemen quiclly brings to mind Jonathan Swift’s description of ‘Yahoos’ in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’.
The Yahoos are primitive creatures obsessed with ‘petty stones’ they find by digging in the mud, thus representing distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism.’
Hence, the term ‘yahoo’ has come to mean a crude, brutish or obscenely coarse person.
Oh, as an aside, Yahoos are also very numerous among the reds on the rock.
Harry, if this what they mean when they put up Lawrence Gonzi with his hands to his ears, he has my full sympathy.
The question here is whether the PN intends to face the situation, verbalise it to crystallise the forms required to identify the challenges and point to the way forward.
Labour’s yes to everything and then even more of what it is we’re supposedly missing, has lost everyone the plot.
I’m sick and tired of listening to the moaners taking centre stage everywhere I look. On TV, newspapers, even being invited to dinner has become for me, a mental health hazard.
What with their slapdash idea of liberal views, which to sum them up, amount to an intolerance, to anything seasoned, constant, caustic even.
Here we are, creating controversy simply because Boris Johnson made his dig at us Maltesers. It’s the alibi why we shouldn’t use the bus, too GonziPN you see.
I call it the saturation point, where basically we can’t get any sillier, because you know what? We’ve never had it so good.
So there, I’ve said it, and who gives a toss if those who can’t get round to get their ass off their comfy isolated indolence happen to think being anywhere identified with tradition is such a big no-no. The tradition of common sense and unassuming perception of life and everything ie.
When a Luciano Busuttil keeps posting his glibs to how much time he spent in his car to get to work, and everyone posts their comments to their realtime experience, it seems like there’s this undisclosed agreement to an artificial inflation of distances. Forty five minutes by car is, in our minds, such a long way away, so European, so real world. BOLLOCKS.
And there is also Father Christmas and the tooth fairy. And mqaret are fat free.
If only that last bit were true, but alas.
This is purely an admission of unethical behaviour.
When you hold such an important position and someone wants to meet you, one would write to you or to your staff at your office and get an appointment through the appropriate channel. This is a transparent procedure adopted at all levels and I’m sure that Dalli knows that going beyond such procedure is unethical.
Now if JD accepted to meet persons sent to him by his canvassers outside the normal procedure, then obviously things are not right. There must be a good reason why he did that when he knew this was outside the norms and that it would carry a risk. So he risked and it went wrong. He was caught being unethical and he has to pay the price.
If you cross the racing track when cars are running at full speed you can’t blame the driver for running you over.
.
Ah, but in Malta you do
This is purely an admission of unethical behaviour.
When you are holding such an important position and someone wants to meet you, one would write to you or to your staff at your office and get an appointment through the appropriate channel. This is a transparent procedure adopted at all levels and I’m sure that Dalli knows that going beyond such procedure is unethical.
Now if Dalli accepted to meet persons sent to him by his canvassers outside the normal procedure, then obviously things were not done the right way. There must be a good reason why he did that when he knew this was outside the norms and that it would carry a risk. So he risked and it went wrong. He was caught being unethical and he has to pay the price.
If you cross the racing track when cars are running at full speed you can’t blame the driver for running you over.
C you are right; Dalli acted unethically because he made use of the services of an unregistered ‘lobbyist’. There are reasons for requiring lobbyists to register and the situation Dalli now finds himself in is one of them.
[Daphne – No, wrong. He acted unethically because he allowed his constituency canvasser from Malta to hang around him in Brussels, trying to trade in influence.]
More than that, people in senior positions have a responsibility towards the post they hold. Not only should they act in a transparent manner but they should act in a manner which does not put their credibility or that of their office at risk.
Dalli claims that he allowed Zammit to arrange meetings and that Zammit was not charging for such a service. That too was unethical. Irrespective of what Dalli may think of Zammit, other people will not believe that Zammit arranged these meeting for free. This undermined the credibility of his office and hence, by allowing it, Dalli acted unethically.
Most Labourites, and regrettably some Nationalists, do not understand this concept. The ethical standards of John Dalli are way below those of European institutions and that is what led to his downfall.
And his canvasser demanded Euro 60 million from Swedish Match and Dalli didn’t know about it. I can’t believe it.
It could well have been one of Zammit’s Swedish clients who set the ball rolling.
I can imagine Zammit boasting about his connections. This in no way absolves Dalli, as he should have smelt a rat the minute Zammit came onto the scene.
Dalli intimated that he allowed his ‘gallopin’ to act as an unofficial lobbyist merely to massage his ego and keep him happy.
How he expected Barroso and Co to understand that kind or reasoning is beyond me, especially after it became known exactly what Zammit’s intentions were.
Daphne, ghall-bzonnijiet tal-familja tieghek: tista’ tnehhi dak il-wicc ikrah tad-deputat prim ministru futur ta’ Malta ghax marrad lili, lill-mara u lit-tfal. Grazzi
X’inhuma jghidu l-followers Qriema tieghu? Jadurawh kien jonqoshom.
From The Times’s interview:
“Silvio Zammit is a canvasser like many hundreds of canvassers that I have. That is the relationship with him. And with him I have the contact I have with other canvassers. When they need something and when they have some friend who needs something. It’s the usual political game in Malta.”
In other words, it is perfectly OK to use his position and influence to do favours to friends and friends of friends. Typical Maltese village ethics.
Now I understand what Dr. Gonzi meant when he said, “a limited pool of resources.” Very, very limited it seems.