So Johnny Cash/HuBastjan is the new (unofficial) health minister

Published: June 16, 2013 at 3:09pm

This is what is known an an innocent smile.

Is he going to have a seat in cabinet/attend cabinet meetings?

It’s the obvious question the press should be asking, because it’s the obvious condition John Dalli would have made for his acceptance of this role.

Bear in mind what his primary motivations are, and what the driving psychological factors are.

I won’t say anything about pecuniary motivations because as we all know now, the man is innocent, which is why Joseph Muscat appointed him after spending years targetting him for perceived corruption when he was a Super One hack not that long ago.

John Dalli was the Labour Party’s main target in the allegations of corruption surrounding tendering and construction for the new general hospital. Super One TV and radio, and the Labour Party’s newspaper KullHadd, had a wild time with him.

Despite court injunctions, Dalli the Minister insisted on awarding the contract to Skanska. The jury is still out on whether he was right or wrong, but the Labour press discovered that Skanska was to sub-contract the supply of concrete to a company newly formed by Dalli’s brother, Bastjan – a man who traded in whatever it was convenient to trade at the opportune moment, including marijuana from Libya (only to discover that the Libyans cheated him and loaded a cargo of green soap onto the Jolly Roger instead, which was what the police found when they raided the boat).

And that’s how John Dalli became Johnny Cash and HuBastjan to the Labour Party newsroom, which included – oh sweet irony – Joseph Muscat.




41 Comments Comment

  1. Alexander Ball says:

    Everyone says it’s for the help Dalli gave the PL before the election. I actually believe it’s more his payback to Joseph for keeping him out of jail – to be the fall guy when Health goes belly up.

  2. Paddy says:

    Daphne you are a beacon of free press. Keep giving us the information because we sometimes forget, as with the case of Bastjan Dalli and Skanska, and how Labour used to call their new buddy John Dalli, HuBastjan.

  3. Psycho socialist says:

    Why exactly should someone who was recently certified to be suffering from “psycho social exposure” be advising the Minister of Health on how to reform the public hospital services?

    • Alexander Ball says:

      A student once asked Picasso why he was a communist? ‘When you’re as rich as I am, you can be what the hell you like’ he replied.

      36,000? Rich enough?

      • Bubu says:

        Some people regard Picasso as a fraud in fact – nothing but a PR man. Something like your Joey, come to think of it.

      • anthony says:

        Picasso was a genius.

        Joey is a moron.

        Kindly do me a favour.

        Please do not compare Picasso with Joey.

        I am about to puke.

    • Min Jaf says:

      It takes a thief to catch a thief, so perhaps it takes a man who bears certification that he was sick to sort out hospital administration problems.

  4. george grech says:

    http://claudballs.wordpress.com/2008/10/

    Jista xi hadd jistaqsi lil Glenn Bedingfield kif jahsibha fuq is-sur Dalli ?

  5. Paddling Duck says:

    This is not socialism any more. This has turned to a far-right-wing-leaning populist nationalism at its worst.

  6. bingo says:

    your e mail address please

    [Daphne – [email protected]]

  7. bastjan il-pastizzar says:

    Missu ma jsibx xi rokna mal-Labour Party Johnny Dalli ukoll! Mela ma tafux li r-razza u radika li J. Dalli ghandu Hal-Qormi kollha daru u vvutaw Labour fl-elezzjoni li ghaddiet bhala sens ta’ sapport u solidarjeta’ ma Johnny taghhom?

    Nahseb li mhux hu biss ser ibill subajh mal-Labour imma dawk kollha tal-familja li qalbu mal-Labour ghalih.

  8. Joseph Vassallo-Agius says:

    If decisions on Health are going to be taken by John Dalli, what is Godfrey Farrugia going to do?

    • Cinquanta Sfumature di Rosso says:

      Next Colpo di Scena: Godfrey Farrugia resigns.

      • anthony says:

        I do not think Godfrey will resign.

        He should have done so already.

        No, he is too good, too naive and too hen – pecked to resign.

        He will stay on as a faux health minister.

        He will be reduced to anglu tal-festa status: “Bil-musmar f’sormu ikanta vittorja”.

    • ciccio says:

      This is all so sickening, so Godfrey Farrugia is going to have to be patient.

      What exactly happened to the office which Minister Farrugia opened at Mater Dei to solve the hospital’s problems? Shut down for refurbishment already?

  9. Quantum Interrogation says:

    One sentence: ‘X’imbarazz ta’ nies’. Malta nisthajjilha suq ta’ affarijiet second hand, fejn wiehed isib l-imbarazz kollu.

    Bring in the Empty Horses.

  10. Quantum Interrogation says:

    Te imbeciles voted Labour to get the people within the PN out of their sight and mind. But the imbeciles didn’t know that the PN out of sight mind lot were picked up by Labour’s Muscat Joseph.

    Next…

  11. Last Post says:

    Read your piece on The Malta Independent this morning on the same topic: John Dalli – Labour’s New Minister of Health, or something very similar.

    A great Sunday morning read as ever. I had a few grins as well at the irony and hypocrisy which you so ably expose. You really have a knack of ‘telling it as it is’. No wonder they hate your guts for it.

  12. Ken says:

    I remember when I was a kid reading about the insider trading during the sale of Mid Med to HSBC. I reckon it was something to do with a Dalli family member buying loads of mid med shares before the sale to HSBC was announced. Did this have any foundation or was it just hearsay?

    • Blue says:

      As Konrad would say, ‘correct’. It was Dun Gorg Dalli, who was advised by his brother John to purchase thousands of Mid-Med shares.

      This sort of thing must be in their DNA.

  13. edgar says:

    Joseph Muscat said today that it was Godfrey Farrugia who asked Muscat to appoint Dalli BA to become the unofficial Health Minister. Mhux hekk tghid. I am surprised how Marlene has kept her mouth shut.

  14. matt says:

    First the MLP media destroy people and than when it is convenient for them they will praise them. That’s why I never bother reading any MLP media.

  15. Gladio says:

    Did Bastjan benefit from Labour’s amnesty?

    • ciccio says:

      Don’t know. But if HuBastjan benefited from OLAF’s amnesty. He was freed from the Brussels prisons one and a half years before the term of 4 years was up.

  16. Moi says:

    Hi Daphne, what about Lou Bondi….what is going on?

  17. charon says:

    Johnny Cash, HuBastjan! More like Teflon John.

  18. Deceduti says:

    So now it’s John Abela/Horwarth’s turn to do the consultancy. Yet more payback time.

  19. the chemist says:

    I guess the Labour media have also conveniently forgotten about the unsecured loan of millions of liri to Daewoo, which went belly-up soon after the loan was granted and which featured prominently on their headlines for years.

  20. Candida says:

    Where is the road map that this Minister had bragged about before the March elections, the plans that he had prepared?

    To bring in a 65-year-old freshly recovered “Psycho Social Exposure” patient to run a hospital isn’t exactly a fine way to solve the problem.

  21. Sorry Daphne you are mistaken. John Dalli gained his nickname “Johnny Cash” when he was consultant at Daewoo. Former owner Joseph Mary Scicluna, who used to call himself a doctor, Chevalier, chief executive officer, chairman and several other titles, came up with the nickname because he said Dalli would only accept payment for his service in cash.

    I am also sure that many people would still like to know what sort of business John Dalli was conducting in Libya. It was during that period October 2007 that John Dalli stood guarantor for his brother Bastjan for Lm1.45 million (€3.4 million approximately). In his effort to save his brother from financial ruin and by acquiring Mixer Ltd., John Dalli tried to avoid paying stamp duty and capital gains tax amounting to Lm250, 000 (approximately €575, 000). Judge presiding on the case saw through John Dalli’s dodgy manoeuvre and turned down his application. http://4th-one.blogspot.co.uk/

    This deceitful politician cannot play by the rules. He is a master of dodgy manoeuvers. Yes, John Dalli still has to explain what sort of business he was conducting in Libya. Everyone knows now that his brother Bastjan was dealing in drugs/green soap.

  22. stella says:

    Do you still remember the ‘I’m in’ Labour campaign? Many who signed are already in…in BOARDS CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS, MINISTRIES.

    And Dalli Is In Mater Dei Hospital, but not because of his assumed psycho-social trauma.

  23. rondhead says:

    What an insight!

  24. Alexander Ball says:

    In business, I was in close contact with a lot of Labour-types who constantly referred to him as Johnny Cash and would bombard me with stories of all his alleged misdeeds.

    I still call him Johnny Cash because of this verbal onslaught.

    Who’s have thunk how it would’ve turned out, eh?

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