From this afternoon’s press conference
Published:
February 22, 2013 at 7:11pm
Tonio Fenech’s press conference this afternoon is not yet up on YouTube, so meanwhile I’ll just upload the powerpoint doc
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It is uploaded on mychoice.pn and can be viewed anytime.
I’m very, very sorry to say this, but Tonio Fenech should not have accepted the clock. The ministerial code of ethics is absolutely unambiguous in its preclusion of this. It’s not his first offence either.
[Daphne – He wasn’t yet a cabinet minister. He said so, clearly, at the press conference. I think we all forget that Fenech only got his cabinet position in 2008.]
Furthermore, his visit to the police HQ to confront a defendant about a matter relating to a subjudice case is utterly disgraceful.
[Daphne – He did not do that. He went to the Hamrun police station to file a formal complaint (kwerela) for slander against Evarist Bartolo and Chris Cardona. And the Police Commissioner rang him himself to say that there is no mention of either Eur5000, a clock or any other sort of gift in any of George Farrugia’s written or broadcast statements. The Police Commissioner is perfectly within his rights (it is, in fact, actually his duty) to clear up matters like this when they occur. He might well also have summoned Chris Cardona to ask why he keeps saying that he has a copy of the statement Farrugia gave to the police, but it is up to Chris Cardona to tell us.]
Yes, Labour are liars and they are awful, but that is no excuse for Tonio Fenech’s behaviour. I’m afraid you are attempting to defend the indefensible.
[Daphne – No, Jackie, I just have years of news analysis behind me (23 years, to be precise) so when I listen to things like press conferences, my mind is trained to get not just the general gist but the details. Of course you are shocked if that is what you understood, but it is not what happened.]
If Tonio Fenech wanted to be corrupt he would not have done it for a mere clock. Joseph told us that we buy a million euros a day worth of oil.
Would you take a clock as payment?
The bottom line is that it was NOT George Farrugia who gave him the clock but George’s sister-in-law and she is not implicated in the oil scandal.
Ok. I accept that the fine details are crucial and I stand corrected on key points (e.g. the difference between being a parliamentary secretary and a minister).
[Daphne – Those details on which I set you straight were NOT the ‘fine’ ones but the salient ones. You would not have been (justifiably) upset if they were indeed the finer details.]
However, the way The Malta Independent has reported it reflects very badly on Tonio Fenech (he “requested a confrontation with George Farrugia before the Police Commissioner”).
You don’t have to be a lawyer for alarm bells to start ringing when you read something like this.
[Daphne – You don’t have to be a lawyer, either, to know that confrontations between individuals helping them in their investigation are standard procedure during investigations. There is absolutely nothing shocking or untoward about it at all. Anybody who is mentioned in the case becomes a party to it, because he will be called to court. Up until this morning we all thought, thanks to last night’s news coverage, that it was George Farrugia who brought him into the case. Now we discover that it was not.]
I am waiting for replies from ex-Labour ministers should journalists ask them whether they EVER accepted gifts such as cruises, Christmas hampers, etc.
Not to mention valuable plots of land coerced from developers during the Golden Years
We had one reply, from Dom Mintoff’s brother. Remember the gold Rolex watch?
Issa ahjar ghax tfaccaw zewg Kavallieri ohra tal-Partit Laburista fl’iskandlu taz-zejt.
Dr. Manuel Mallia li jahseb ghax mar mal-Labour jista’ jaghddi z-zmien b’kullhadd, u Dr. David Farrigia Sacco, it-tifel ta’ dak l’Imhallef korrot iehor Lino Farrugia Sacco li nqabad f’korruzzjoni dwar il-bejgh tal-biljetti tal-loghob Olimpiku, jahsbu li n-nies boloh.
Kullhadd jigdeb bhal Joseph Muscat. Sa hansitra anke hu David Farrugia Sacco inqabad jigdeb dwar dan il-kaz.
Imma possibli dawn Avukati u ma’ jafux li min jigdeb, illum jew ghada, jinqabad?
Dawn it-tlett avukati hasbu li qedin il-Qorti fejn issib xi Imhalleff korrot bhal Lino Farrugia Sacco u jibqa ghaddej kollox mar-rih. Dnub ghat tfal tieghu li ghadom tant zaghr u huma involuti f’dan it tahwid, imma kif jghidu hux skond iz-zokk il-fergha.
Insomma jekk il-Kap Laburista Joseph Muscat huwa wkoll giddieb tal-prima klassi x’tistenna minn ta’ tahtu!
Joseph Muscat ukoll qal li blokka droga ghax bajda tista’ tkun blokka silg!
Jekk kienet blokka silg, u mhux blokka droga,Toni Abela fuq liema bazi keccih lil-barman mill-kazin Laburista ta’ Hal-Safi fejn kien isir traffikar kbir tad-droga?
Issa ha naraw Joseph Muscat x’ser jivvinta dwar dawn il-kandidati godda li huma involuti kollha fl-iskandlu kbir tax-xiri taz-zejt! Forsi issa jghidilna kien kaz dwar ilma u mhux dwar zejt.
Ahjar jinvestiga u jkun onest jghidilna min kien il-mohh wara dan il farme-up mela joqoghd jigdeb u jqaraq bil-poplu u jaghtti ilverita’ tal-fatti. Dan x’politiku hu?
Mela Dan Joseph Muscat jahseb li kullhadd iblah jew!
U kif qalet il-mara ta’ Joseph Michelle. Il-kbir ghadu gej, ghax min jaf x’jigri jekk xi hadd jaf x’hemm bejn Jason u Joseph? Jew forsi jaf xi haga Anglu Farrugia b’dak li hemm bejniethom. Jista’ jaghti l-kaz li anke Michelle tkun iddispjacuta u mwqegga jekk tohrog il-verita’.
Chris Cardona celebrita tal-gideb u invenzjonijiet ghax anke fuq il-mezzi tax-xandir jigdeb gideb spjetat.
Chris cardona la ndaha fiha Issa jrid jirrispondi min fejn gaba din l-istorja tal-arlogg li jiswa €5000.
Jekk ivvinta hu hija kidba u jekk sar jafa min ghand George Farrugia, allura Farrugia irid joqoghd attent x’qed jghid minhabba l-proklama li giet moghtijha lilu biex jghid biss il-verita’ dwar dan il-kaz.
Biss pero’ huwa normali li min ikun qieghed f’posizzjoni bhal din ta’ farrugia jibda jhawwad u jipprova jaqbad ma kull tibna biex ma’ jinzilx aktar fil-hama. F’din is-situazzioni wiehed irid jikkonsidra wkoll li George Farrugia kien iqabbad bhala avukati tieghu lil Manuel Mallia u David Farrugia Sacco li diga nafu li huma giddibin per eccelenza.
Ma taħsibx li hu rrilevanti kemm jiswa? Ħadd ma jtik xejn b’xejn għax ‘jammirak’.
Jackie, Tonio Fenech did not breach the code of ethics, as the Labour Party are forgetting to quote the most important part of that sentence.
It states that a minister has to declare a gift or service, whatever its value, if it is deemed to influence any decisions taken by the said minster.
Do you really think that an amateur handmade clock is going to influence a ministerial decision? And that is quite apart from the fact that he wasn’t a minister, but a parliamentary secretary.
If you watched Xarabank yesterday, Tonio proved the point exactly, as Chis Cardona said he would not except anything from anyone.
Along came the Xarabank team and gave out some gifts. At that point Tonio remarked to Chris, “So can I take this gift or not?”