Il-Guy says: “They have to back me because I am not politically controversial”
Karmenu Vella (centre, in front of Alex Sceberras Trigona, now Malta’s envoy to the World Trade Organisation) in China in 1972 with Mintoff’s delegation. That’s 42 years ago. He was 22 years old and Mintoff took him along with him because he was his special pet.
Times of Malta, yesterday’s print edition, quotes Karmenu Vella as saying that he fully expects the Nationalist Party to support his nomination as EU Commissioner:
“This is not an issue of political controversy, so Malta has to unite behind its nominee,” he said.
Is he joking? His nomination is politically controversial precisely because HE is politically controversial. And not just politically, either. The man is consummately unfit for purpose. He would have been unfit even when he was firing on all cylinders, but now that he is much diminished, inflicting him on the European Commission would be even more dangerous and irresponsible than the decision to inflict John Dalli on it.
Dalli at least had experience of public office and his mind was still sharp. The problems were with his attitude and his psychology, and the risks he posed because of his failure to respect boundaries and understand what is considered corrupt behaviour and what is not, outside the bounds of Gaddafi’s Libya and Malta.
Vella has no experience of public office. Twenty-two months as Sant’s minister of tourism almost two decades ago don’t count, and his being a minister in the cabinets of Mintoff and KMB count even less. That was not public office; that was robber-baronetcy. That is the sort of thing that works AGAINST his nomination and has him regarded as unfit for office, and not the reverse.
The Opposition should definitely oppose this one with all its might. It has real and proper grounds to do so, and will look totally wet if it does not. And that’s quite apart from the fact that when you’re forever going on about how terrible Mintoff’s and KMB’s governments were in the 1980s, you don’t then go and support the nomination for EU Commissioner of a man who was prominent in those governments, because it undermines your arguments and affects the credibility of both positions.
Il-Guy is unfit – for moral and political reasons and for reasons of crass incompetence. The bottom line is this: to dispatch him to the European Commission is madly irresponsible. It is deeply wrong and immoral (and lousy strategy, because it boomerangs) to inflict your problems on others.
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And let us be clear about one more thing.
When Karmenu Vella or others in his party – especially Jo – brag about Mintoff’s recognition of China 40 years ago – hence the journey immortalised in the picture – they are talking about Mao Zedong’s China, and not modern China. They are talking about China of the Cultural Revolution and China of the Great Chinese Famine, which led to the death of millions of Chinese.
Modern China, open for business, is a phenomenon of the last 30 years. Chairman Mao died in 1976 and deserves no credit for it. In fact, it was only after Zedong’s death that China started to open itself to the world once again. Despite this, even today, China remains a country which suppresses personal freedoms.
The Chinese leader, Deng Xiao Ping, who forged the opening up process was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution – as usual the Malta Labour movement on the wrong side of history.
Exactly.
Karmenu Vella’s problem is not that he is not politically controversial, but that he is politically incompetent and hopeless.
I know that at the end of the day this won’t count, but I think I won’t vote in the MEP elections if the opposition decides to back this guy for EU commissioner.
It would be the ultimate contradiction in terms – like spending years attacking Marie Louise Coleiro as general secretary of the MLP in the oh-so glorious Labour years and then backing her as President.
With all due respect to either person we either mean what we say or we don’t…and if we don’t let’s just not say it.
[Daphne – You are completely right. I agree with you and feel the same way. The Opposition should never have backed that woman for president, and Simon Busuttil should not have allowed himself to be press-ganged into that charade at her mass, handing her a flag with the PM, and then appearing with her on the palace balcony. Allowing yourself to be dragged into other people’s rubbish and compromised by your involvement and presence is just so daft and such bad strategy.]
Er, I must have wandered off at some point, because I don’t remember the Nationalist Party ever saying how terrible Mintoff’s and KMB’s governments were.
They just said that they had better “proposti” and better “opportunitajiet”, “ghall-familji Maltin u Ghawdxin.”
I say fuck Mintoff, fuck KMB, and may god smite anyone who supports their legacy.
I think the nomination of Karmenu Vella as EU Commissioner is a deliberate ploy by Muscat in his plan to get Malta out of Europe.
He knows that if Vella’s past is made absolutely clear when the grilling starts, he will be rejected.
I can imagine Jo’s reaction: “We are a sovereign state. Europe cannot dictate anything to us. We nominated Vella because he has our full confidence, has all the qualifications and ticks all the boxes. We are not going to bend our knees to anybody. If you don’t like it, you have to lump it. You have to get up and smell the coffee. Refuse to accept out nominee and we will start procedures immediately to leave the Union.”
Mission accomplished. Hello, China, you can come in now.
If the Opposition supports the nomination, the egg will be on their face as much as Muscat’s when Vella faces the grilling.
It’s unbelievable how certain people do not know their limits.
Whose idea was it that Karmenu Vella will be the next EU Commissioner? Is he happy about it and did Jo discuss the nomination with him? I am asking because there are rumours.
Karmenu Vella would do well to answer these questions and assure us that he wants the post before jumping the gun and expect others to back him.
10 years ago Rocco Buttiglione was rejected as Italy’s nominee to the European Commission because of his views on homosexuality. Karmenu Vella has been heard to speak publicly about his strong personal opposition to civil unions and gay adoption. This was less than a year ago.
The PN already “supported” Merilwiess who also came from those terrible Mintoff and KMB years, but at least one might argue that appointment is “supposed to be” only a figureheard in Malta (although she will represent Malta oveseas too, of course, and God help us there).
But it definitely cannot accept thie EU Comminsioner one, for the precise reasons you gave.
It is not true that Joseph Muscat is proud with Karmenu Vella’s nomination as the next EU Commissiner.
If it were so, Muscat knows what he had to do to garner support for Vella. Instead Muscat went on twitter to announce Vella’s nomination without any consultation to make sure that the Nationalists will be against it.
I honestly think that Il-Guy was also given the boot, and his nomination as EU Commissioner was Jo’s only option to keep the ‘guy’ quiet.
Most certainly it was neither necessary for Jo to announce this nomination so early in the day, nor was it necessary for Vella to leave his ministerial post now.
He could have actually stayed on until the grilling process is over and confirmed as EU Commissioner.
Karmenu Vella was fired, and nobody noticed.
If I were Simon Busuttil, I would abstain on, and not vote against, the nomination of Karmenu Vella for the post of an EU Commissioner on the basis that the Prime Minister did not have the decency to consult him before he made this nomination public.
As for what follows, I have a suspicion that Karmenu Vella has been thrown into the EU gladiatorial arena, to face a very doubtful outcome.
Jo must have someone else lined up to become Malta’s next EU Commissioner this October.
There is one hell of a hot summer between here and the October grilling, and before then, the local politicians and the media would already have roasted il-Guy on their BBQs, metaphorically speaking of course.
It could be that Jo will propose that there will be a second term of the incumbent. By that I mean John “Ich bin immer noch EU Kommissar” Dalli.
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/john-dalli-im-interview-ueber-seinen-ruecktritt-und-den-skandal-a-954517.html
Let’s also stop repeating the myth that Karmenu Vella was a good tourism minister. He never really did anything at all.
Not in ’96, not now.
All he did was not rock the boat and let his ministry bear the fruit of the work done by his predecessor.
If this is what is meant when they say he was a good tourism minister, then fine. Otherwise it certainly is not for some revolutionary earth shattering policy that he introduced.
Hard work is not really up Karmenu Vella’s street. Nor is being a leader. He is not known as Il-Guy for nothing. He just likes to be liked and you don’t get done what needs to be done when all you care about is being liked by everyone.
I get the feeling that he would rather not have to deal with the responsibility of being a Minister. As EU Commissioner he probably thinks that with the huge team he can have around him he not have to do anything at all.