GUEST POST: Muscat is the villain in this story. Camilleri is just the dodgy fixer.

This guest post was written by Matthew S.

When I read about Mario Camilleri’s donation to the Nationalist Party and to Francis Zammit Dimech’s campaign yesterday morning, like many others, I was quite taken aback. The news challenged our views as to who Camilleri really is.

I came to this website and read its point of view (that the donation doesn’t really change anything) and I agreed with it but I felt that there was something we were not getting.

This evening, I think I put my finger on it. The odd interview with Times of Malta was not Mario Camilleri’s random decision to speak up, but a carefully orchestrated tu quoque leak provoked by the prime minister himself.

This is vintage Muscat.

1) Leak your story to Times of Malta.

2) Get someone else to do the talking. Can we call it the Pontius Pilate syndrome?

3) Muddy the waters by mentioning something done by the Nationalist Party – in this case, accepting Mr Camilleri’s donation.

Mr Camilleri didn’t so much speak up as was coerced to do so. There is no way that Camilleri would have given that interview without the prime minister’s prodding.

The problem is that, in its now notorious bland reporting fashion, Times of Malta neither ran with the headline Muscat was gunning for (Café Premier owner donated money to the Nationalist Party) nor the real news (Café Premier owner is a switcher).

The news is right there. Muscat targeted Camilleri ahead of the general election precisely because he knew that he was the type of person to donate money to the Nationalist Party. Keep in mind that, before the election, Joseph Muscat was not fishing for votes among Labour die-hards (he had long ago won them over). He was fishing for votes among those with power, money and/or influence (hello there Franco Debono, Kenneth Zammit Tabona, Lou Bondi, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Joe Perici Calascione et al) and promising them something they desperately wanted in return.

Mario Camilleri was the perfect bait. A reputedly wealthy, well-connected man, one of whose companies was in financial dire straits. Promise him a financial lifeline and you won’t only win his loyalty and vote but also the loyalty and votes of many other businessmen, employees, bażużli and hangers-on.

From the cry of meritocracy to the television advertisement featuring Lara Boffa, the campaign was one aimed at the monied or tal-pepe class (real, perceived or self-described) and those who think they have reached such heights because they now have more money than their parents did.

I have no doubt that Camilleri is a sleazeball but, weird as it sounds, I think that he is, to a certain extent, a victim of circumstance. If someone were to offer me €20,000 for my rusty, old bicycle, for example, I would sell it in a heartbeat. It is up to the buyer to decide if it is really worth that much.

The chances are that, in his position, none of us would have passed up such a sweet deal as that offered by Muscat. A businessman’s job is always to cut a favourable deal, after all. Camilleri was offered a lifeline and he took it.

If the newspapers really want to get to the bottom of the Café Premier deal, it is Joseph Muscat they should be hounding not Mario Camilleri. Muscat is the villain in this whole story. Camilleri is just the dodgy fixer. Muscat promised Camilleri what he knew the Nationalist Party would never give him and, like a mouse smelling some cheese, Camilleri walked right into the (lucrative and non-lethal) trap.