Tonio Fenech got a clock, but the Labour Party got a car
God, I would feel so stupid right now if I were one of those Times of Malta reporters who fixated on that ruddy clock, or one of the idiotic switchers who were totally gulled by Labour.
Permit me to address you directly (you know who you are). How do you feel, knowing that those Labour politicians sold you all that fuss and propaganda about George Farrugia having given Tonio Fenech a clock, when they were fully aware that he had given THEM a car?
You must feel like such suckers right now. But don’t worry – you’re just catching up with reality.
You looked like suckers at the outset.
On Times of Malta earlier tonight:
Pardoned oil trader George Farrugia told the Public Accounts Committee this evening that he and his brothers had given the Labour Party a car at around the same time that they had given former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech a crafted clock.
His brother Raymond, he said, had been in contact with former Labour official Manuel Cuschieri over the Daiwoo donation.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131211/local/george-farrugia.498564#.Uqj75LB3sdU
“Mr Farrugia said he knew that Tarcisio Mifsud, who was then Enemalta’s head of finance, was involved when Mr Mallia was in hospital in 2000 or 2001. He had gone to see Mr Mallia and he had told him to go to speak to Mr Mifsud who told him that he had to pay him whatever he used to pay Mr Mallia because they used to split.
He said he used to call him and he used to go to his office to pass on the money.
He remembered one particular time when he called him had he gave him Lm3,000 and Mr Mifsud told his he had no chance of winning the next tender”
” Tajjeb li tkun taf ” hekk jew mhux hekk Manweli, jew skond kif jaqbillek.
I must believe that Saviour is disappointed he “missed” the information about the car?
It is worth noting that Dr Franco Debono is Mr Farrugia’s legal adviser.
The Maltese press can never be taken seriously, they simply report what they are told and do not challenge what they are told.
Even less they will not ask themselves why are they being given the information.
The old saying “make noise in the east and attack in the west” in unknown to them.
Today’s press reporters are simply cut and paste standard.
I would have expected that by this morning we would be told what happened to the car and who owns it now, and that the press would be banging on Labour’s door for the information if Labour has not released a statement to prove its transparency.
Hudu go fikom
Actually I read it on the comments board of this blog before it was published on the Times, and I believe that so did they.
Who exactly within the Labour Party is benefitting from this Daewoo car donation ? In whose name is it registered ? The public needs to know more on this.
I suppose the Labour elves will not now be littering the Times of Malta comments board with their ‘vroom vroom’ comments as they did with their ‘tick tock’ remarks some months ago.
Hypocrites. They are like the proverbial whitewashed tombs, the lot of them.
Hypocrites.
Franco Debono looked so uncomfortable in the news clip. He must have known about this from the beginning.
Probably he must have tipped off the Lejber Party that this will be out in the open. Am sure this car changed ownership by now.
From MaltaToday’s blog on the proceedings: “Azzopardi momentarily stops the meeting as Farrugia’s lawyer Franco Debono is told not to record the hearing on his phone. Debono explains that he was only following a live blog which was streaming the hearing.”
What was he following the blog for? He was there present in the sitting itself why did he care so much on what was being reported? In any case wasn’t his job to assist his client to reveal the inner workings of the “evil click”? Instead he reacts like a schoolboy caught fooling around with his smartphone.
Simple — he was checking how he looks, and more importantly the amount of visual coverage he was getting on the live streaming.
You know Narcissus.
Then why the hell is he mentioning it now ?
Kemm smajna ‘Tick Tock’ minghand tas-Super One. ‘Vroom vroom’ ma smajna qatt imma.
Let those Times of Malta people bask in their shining stupidity. I have never bought a copy of Times of Malta again since March. I urge you to do the same and let them support Il-Partit ta’ Kasco alone.
Done already.
As for your first point, it was only a matter of time. As someone on the timesofmalta comments board once put it, tick tock, tick tock…
Incidentally, does anyone know if Maltapost sells all Maltese newspapers or just Times of Malta?
BOYCOTT is the word.
Island of suckers
Isn’t that the Law Commissioner and head of constitutional reform right there?
Presumably with a tank full of petrol.
I do not think that the Times of Malta was stupid. It was intentional. The stupid suckers are those who believed all that was fed to them by the Times of Malta and the PL.
Surely staff at Times of Malta have the good taste to distinguish between a plywood box with a battery operated mechanism and the real thing.
Imagine if they didn’t and walked into an auction.
There is a maze of connections that links The Times to this and a few direct lines.
I too think it was intentional.
The subject of the car came up while Dr. Owen Bonnici was questioning Mr. Farrugia about any other political donations that Farrugia could have made besides the “arloggi tal-lira.”
At this point, Dr. Francock ‘Tabone’ became more restless than he had been during the entire questioning, and he respectfully reminded the Chairman that maybe it was time for an adjournment or a break. Was there something he wanted to discuss with Mr. Farrugia?
Thanks to Dr Owen Bonnici we now can see all the sides of the jigsaw puzzle clearer.
Our ethics rule at our workplace is : “A bottle of whisky is a compliment/show of gratitude (accept), a case full of whisky bottles is corruption (do not accept)”.
The thing is that now the listing of “presents” will be censored by a commissioner of justice, a bird breeder, the legal advisor and a presidential candidate.
Were you absent on the day it was taught to never ask a question you don’t know the answer to Dr. Bonnici?
Two comments by Pamela Hansen on timesofmalta.com about Daewoo car gift to MLP :
“So what’s new about business people buttering up both sides.”
“The PAC should stick to the issue in hand, i.e. the oil corruption scandal and not get sidetracked with partisan donations, which can be tackled elsewhere.”
Incredible.
John Dalli was pilloried by the MLP about the “Daewoo Scandal ” in the 90s , before he noticed on which side his bread was buttered.
Can’t afford to lose guest appearances on ONE, even if it means becoming the quintessential Labour apologist.
And that’s a mindset.
And yet The Malta Independent on Sunday keeps such obsolete deadwood like Pamela Hansen on its payroll as a regular columnist.
I think she (Ms Hansen) has a point — to the extent that corruption has been endemic in Malta since at least the post-war self-government administrations.
By and large, under the PN the corruption amounts to the wheeling and dealing that goes with major projects in a competitive environment. On the other hand, Labour governments control (or try to) the economy under the pretext of curtailing corruption.
But as we have learned through experience, corruption then becomes government-sponsored, cloaked under legalistic schemes and procedures.
The bottom-line issue is the nature, degree and extent of the corruption under the two regimes. One indicator is to look at the estates of the different Prime Ministers, their cabinet ministers, personal secretaries, etc after they lose power.
Consider Pawlu Boffa, Borg Olivier, Mintoff, Fenech Adami and Gonzi. (KMB’s and Alfred Sant’s terms in office were too transient.) Not to mention their ministers, both dead and alive. You draw your own conclusions.
As a journalist Ms Hansen must be aware of the above. Knowing which side of her bread she wants buttered, she might find it convenient to “stick to the issue in hand, … and not get sidetracked with partisan politics.”
It’s on Times of Malta’s front page but nowhere visible in the online edition.
If you think switchers are going to voice their concern publicly about this (or any other) mess you’ve got another think coming.
For a start we’re too proud and will always justify our actions (“the Nationalists were too arrogant and winning another election would have made them unbearable blah blah”) and more importantly, PL has at least another four (or nine) years at the helm so no one is going to lift his snout out of the trough for the time being… not wertit.
I’m waiting anxiously for Salvu Balzan of Labour leaning Malta Today to discuss the Daewoo car gift with his Labour friends when next as guest on One TV or maybe on TVM’s Reporter.
Saviour Balzan could always rope in his buddy John Dalli, who should know a thing or two about Daewoo given that he had a close brush with it in the 90s and was pilloried for it by the MLP.
Did Ramona Attard know about the car? She was obsessed with that clock.
Sewwa jghid il-Malti l-ewwel ara it-travu li ghandek f’ghajnejk imbaghad ara t-tibna li ghandu f’ghajnejh haddiehor.
Cor, that Franco Debono’s sure lookin’ good.
George Farrugia should have been asked the reason why he/or his family gave such a nice present to the PL.
It could be that someone suggested to him to do so, or else he was paving the way to continue with this corrupt system with who ever is in government.
His family is known to support PN but earning good money drives you to have good relations with any party who may be in power.
Was his brother Raymond aware that this type of this professional corruption, or was this present given to PL for other reasons?
Franco Debono is quite able to investigate and make people aware why the PL got this present from Farrugia..