Thanks, Daphne, and keep it up,

[Daphne – Edgar Preca married Marie Louise Coleiro only six years ago, when she was 50. She was never married before. She had a long affair with a married man and broke up his family. Edgar Preca is not her 20-year-old daughter’s father.]

Not for nothing does gift mean poison in German.

Hardly.

The soap-dish staged stunt did though.

Was there any need for her to render the life of that gentleman miserable by going out of her way NOT to address a word to him afterwards and to have given him no indication of what the camera-backed stunt was all about beforehand?

Thank God he had the presence of mind to guess what was about to happen and pull the relevant set of files out to bring with him.

What Coleiro Preca never did tell the public at that point was that soap-dishes were no longer part of the housing provision policy and that liquid soap dispensers had replaced these on safety and hygiene grounds..

Also, that the same complainant, thinking she could get more of a ride, returned to the Ministry with some other complaint not long after that incident, and Coleira Preca’s people – not the CEO sent to coventry for the remainder of his term there – sent her flying.

I’d say that that incident, on its own, in the current term of this administration – with no allusions to other incidents under the Mintoffian one – more than qualifies.

I have a hard time understanding how that sort of behaviour, with complete disregard to the direct consequences of her actions to that person’s reputation, career and family fit with this supposed justification of Coleiro Preca as “the daughter of a good Christian family.”

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Similarly someone else mentioned “entitlement.” Everyone is “entitled” to enter a bar and order pastizzi or a restaurant of one’s choice, but even there in both cases there is a condition: that one can pay the set price. In a restaurant, any tip is at the discretion of the of the client and conditional on the service. The client is “entitled” to a good meal no matter his or her CV, social standing and degree of professional prowess.

In this case, “service” is conditional on diplomatic prowess, maturity and standing. On sheen, shine and polish. On the positive intangibles wrought for the nation. On enhancing the overall strength and health of that nation.

The decision to appoint and the decision to accept should entail an appropriate measure of responsibility and discretion, fitting with the respective positions, that has not been applied here, primarily because Joseph Muscat is disregarding the responsibilities of office as and when he sees fit. Primarily, because even though he has been elected to office, he is not fit for it.

Consultation comes second to that. In the same way that the role of a President is fully based on that sense of responsibility and discretion towards the nation, the factors involved in this decision – by both Muscat and Coleiro Preca – are not up to standard here.

Joseph Muscat is set to use his Joker card of ignoring “tradition” whenever it suits him. (The Attorney General will issue an fitting interpretation, the Police Commissioner will be “free” to prosecute, the press will say nothing, the Parliamentary majority is a fact and isn’t everything just hunky dory?)

But this should not be about him and his skewed application of meritocracy, but about Malta.

We are hearing much about sovereignty these days. Some thinking should be applied to the constitutional supremacy of the office and role of the President in Malta.

Whilst Joseph Muscat is with one hand making a show of purportedly endowing the role of President with additional functions, he is with the same hand eroding the supremacy of that role by failing to have the motions for ANY change to that role go through Parliament FIRST.

Since when has the Times of Malta replaced the constitutionally elected representatives of the people, its place of business and the measure of respect due them?

If the people and their representatives chose to act in the same manner and with the same degree of disrespect towards that Constitution that Joseph Muscat is manifesting, by equal measure, there would be anarchy.

The Joker card is being flashed around the parametres of tradition and Constitution, as though it were a valid part of the game.

But it isn’t.

A Constitution is meant to defend us from such moves.

There is the law, and there is the spirit of the law.

A President should be able to safeguard that part of the body politic.

The current one is useless, as we have already had ample opportunity to witness, the approval of the IIP scam bill being but one example.
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The wife’s jibe at “Catholics” is more of same.

No my darling, she’s a hamalla because her bearing is atrocious, her culture is abysmal, her accent is provincial, her manners are gruff and her charm is zero.

And I would accept the nomination. Sure, I’d need a First Lady but I’m sure they’ll be queueing with their knickers in their handbags once I’m Master of The Palace, San Anton and Verdala.

I wonder if the Attorney General has ever been this useful.

Let’s hope that at least she will bundle up those ghastly blazers, throw them in the trash and invest in a decent wardrobe which will at least make her slightly presentable.

I havegreat doubts about her being a President for all people. She is too staunch a Labourite to take Nationalists into her fold.