Opposition leader Alfred Sant was part of the Malta delegation for the installation of Pope Benedict
There’s a huge palaver over on the internet comments-boards because the inclusion of Lawrence Gonzi, the Opposition leader, in the Malta delegation headed by the president, due to go to the Vatican for the installation of Pope Francis, is being seen as evidence of the prime minister’s new way of doing things.
People’s memories are short, they are badly uninformed, and that is their downfall (generally taking other with them). The Opposition leader, Alfred Sant, was invited to join the Malta delegation for the installation of Pope Benedict, and he had accepted.
I specifically remember this because I was very surprised that he did so, given that he regards all this as superstitious nonsense. But then I realised that he clearly saw it as a grand historic state occasion which would make for important memories, while the other members of the delegation were driven by perhaps a more religious imperative as well as by their state duties.
As for Joseph Muscat tweeting about it (see picture here), I can’t get past the now very obvious fact that the vote on 9 March was an overwhelming vote by people who want a government in their own image: no systems, no protocol, no correct behaviour, and above all, plenty of hamallagni bil-pulit (which is the 2013 version).
That tweet is spectacularly crass on so many counts that I don’t know where to begin, and any explanation would be lost, anyway, on most of those who voted this I-don’t-give-a-damn-about-good-manners-and-protocol dressed-up peasant into power, though not on all of them.
Why doesn’t he take a funeral wreath with him as well, and lay it down flat with the stand sticking up in the air, as he did so famously on camera (the post for which I was arrested on 8 March)?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dignitaries_at_the_funeral_of_Pope_John_Paul_II#M
What i find striking about that link is the size of Malta’s delegation. It is one short of Poland’s and twice the size of the US delegation.
In my opinion the PN should not play Muscat’s game.
I am disgusted that the Prime Minister tries to score political mileage by tweeting what should have been considered as basic courtesy.
He is a very shallow person – better get used to it. He doesn’t give a damn about protocol, etiquette, standards and ethics.
He doesn’t give a damn because he can’t. He doesn’t understand basic structures and systems of state.
He appears to think that the Prime Minister represents one half of the population and the Leader of the Opposition the other half.
So now he’s planning to rewrite protocol to show how magnanimous he is.
Maybe he’ll serve hamburgers too.
Why should Lawrence Gonzi miss out on the occasion? He is a pious Catholic. He wouldn’t miss such an occasion for the world.
The last time around I remember him saying that he just had to be there because such events rarely happen. I’m sure he’s going to feel very lucky to have attended two of them.
Besides, it will be good to have at least one decent man in the Maltese delegation who’s there to truly celebrate the installation of the pope and who is not there for photo opportunities, a free holiday and hamallagni in Rome.
What happened to TVHemm? It wasn’t on tonight…
The programs are now scheduled to be screened from Monday to Friday if I understood correctly.
For the record, Dr Alfred Sant was also invited to the Canonisation of San Gorg Preca on 3rd June, 2007. He accepted the invitation and attended both the ceremony and the social function later on in the day. He was accompanied by his sister.
I think it was his mother not his sister.
I read on The Times that government offices were looted by the outgoing PN government officials to make way for the Labour administration to take over.
[Daphne – And strangely, no evidence of this…]
Kenneth Zammot Tabona was spreading the same spin on FB – is he the official source?
Reliable sources have it that in the days immediately following the take-over of government by the Partit Laburista, vanloads of computer equipment were carted out of the Ministry of Finance offices. The reason for the wholesale removal and the destination of that equipment remains unknown.
That could well explain the reported disappearance of similar equipment from that and other ministerial offices.
That is precisely what I read between the lines of the articles. Looks like ‘sack’ was inadvertently high on the agenda this week.
So, in reality, the looting was done by the new Labour officials not the outgoing PN ones.
There wont be any evidence Daphne, the PL will probably keep under wraps, they will do the same or even worse when they lose the election next time. I wonder if an inventory was kept, which I doubt.
All IT equipment in government offices is serviced by MITA contractors or MITA. They have a very good system to catalogue all IT products since Claudio Grech was there. If “vanloads” of computer equipment were carted out it would be very easy for the government to see which items disappeared.
Computer equipment at ministries and departments is not owned by government. It is leased from private companies.
Leased computers are registered on their individual users, and when a user is transferred, the person in charge of IT has to apply for the transfer of the PC, which moves with the user. When a user’s employment is terminated, the PC returns to the private company that leases it to the government office.
If the story is true, it can only mean one thing – that several (or all) of the employees are being transferred to another ministry or department.
Joseph Muscat must be very upset because Pope Francis is drawing a lot of attention precisely at the time when Muscat would have loved to be at the centre of it all.
‘badly uninformed’ … what the hack!
The Maltese delegation to the Vatican has nothing to do with symbolising national unity. It is matter of protocol and the PM is in duty bound to follow it.
Read the comments … they write like he’s the new Messiah!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588602351151718&set=a.121488787863079.19747.119437001401591&type=1&theater
X’injoranza ta’ nies! Clueless.
Is it possible to physically suffer from a ‘political nervous breakdown’? I honestly don’t know how I’m going to cope with all this ignorance and it’s just flourishing.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
All praise for our beloved PM-JM who is now teaching one and all what protocol is all about. He is so nice, so thoughtful, so understanding to invite Dr Gonzi to join the President and himself in Rome.
What is sad is that even after some respondents clarified the situation that inviting the Leader of the Opposition is normal protocol, the bloody idiots kept rushing in.
It is a consolation that he was not addressing the likes of us on this blog but a vast number of idiots who voted him in.
Yes, dear Lisa, this ignorance flourishes like weed which creeps in and is not easy to kill. Sad, very sad.
Lisa, just remember what Muscat thinks of China’s strategy to ‘pacify’ public opinion.
Organise the web to counter any opinion taking over the space. Of course you felt surrounded, that was the intention.
Yes it’s very odd to try and make political capital out of what should be normal protocol.
Not with Joey Muscat, it ain’t. You should know that by now.
And if I am not mistaken, it’s the President who heads the delegation, and it’s the President who invited the Leader of the Opposition to form part of the delegation and not the Prime Minister.
Yes, it is the president who receives the invitation, and not the prime minister.
Welcome to the second republic.
Where governing by Twitter and Facebook should circumvent parliament.
The only thing Muscat hasn’t been keen on doing is proceed with the new legislature.
Pure Berlusconismo.
Expect him on TV, exclusive guest, unchallenged, brash and partial to the odd vulgarity to keep his ratings high.
As the economy folds.
The only missing item, up to now, is the “bunga bunga”. or not ?
Agħmlu għaġeb fuq Facebook, qisu r-reinkarnazzjoni ta’ Ghandi, Madre Teresa u Martin Luther King f’daqqa.
Mzazzen.
Gandhi :)
Sorry, typo.
Late nights and too much coffee :)
Muscat is a fraud. He will take political mileage at any opportunity and the PN are at the moment in shambles so cannot keep him in check and he is taking advantage of that.
Daphne, thank you for keeping this up. I am not even bothering to check The Times any more. It is compromised.
I hope The Malta Independent take this opportunity to come forth as the one truly independent newspaper and build up their team with investigative journalists. Without independent media, one of the essential pillars in a democracy is gone.
I have dumped the Times and started taking The Malta Independent as I understand many others have done. The Malta Independent should see this as an opportunity to beef up their newsroom.
Same here, and some time back
Kemm hu najs il-prim jitnejjek bin-nies tieghu u bl-inteligenza taghhom….dalwaqt jghidilhom li ha jqaddes hu u jemmnuh. Brejnwoxd f**ck*rs.
Muscat needs Gonzi to translate.
Qisu qed iqassam it-tickets b’xejn biex imorru jaraw il-Papa.
X’arroganza.
To all those idiots out there who were impressed by Muscat’s ‘gesture’ of inviting the leader of the opposition – it’s called PROTOCOL.
Everyone from both sides are reading too much into this. It just happens that twitter is around now, would expect the same if Dr. Gonzi was PM. The problem is Labourites thinking it’s the first time this actually happened.
timesonline is now adding “Full story in the Times” at the end of each uploaded item. Feeling the pinch in circulation?
The Times has never explained why months before July 2011 it started a scaremongering, totally negative campaign against Arriva thus brainwashing passengers in expecting a crap service. Another idea from Kasco?
Labour have a better marketing tool. This is something PN lacks. The downfall of the PN in this election is due mostly to bad marketing and bad “customer care”.
Labour put on a nice face and had a powerful marketing strategy.
Daphne, ara jekk tistax issib il-Protocol ta’ Malta u ppublikah jew ghamel il-link, halli kullhadd ikun jista’ jaqra kif imorru l-affarijiet.
Kemm qed jahsibna boloh, Joey.
Il-vera li hu bniedem bla sinsla. Ma nafx kif jiflah jippoppa daqsekk sidru qisu ghamel xi bravura, meta dawn l-affarijiet iridu jimxu skond il-Protocol. Grazzi Daphne.