Watching Simon Busuttil on Dissett: Bugeja is playing the part of government representative in a debate

He’s just said that the Prime Minister should get rid of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. He has also said that the Prime Minister should act on the allegations that his chief of staff was involved in acts of corruption with the managing director of the company which owns the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times. The managing director was immediately suspended by the board of directors, he said, but the Prime Minister did not follow suit.

He was very firm about that and came across well, so of course Chris Cilia’s uncle felt the need to leap in and turn the subject to Giovanna Debono and works for votes. Busuttil responded by pointing out that Debono was made to resign the party whip immediately. He also said that when Ninu Zammit and Michael Falzon’s names emerged in the HSBC Swiss Leaks scandal, he suspended them from the Nationalist Party. They were retired anyway. Konrad Mizzi is right now a cabinet minister and Keith Schembri is right now the PM’s chief of staff.

Chris Cilia’s uncle is holding his own for the Labour Party. What about the oil scandal? He doesn’t mean the one in Baku. Busuttil said that in that case, no politicians were involved and in fact, some of those who are involved are linked to the Labour Party, like Tarcisio Mifsud (whose brother Alfred has been appointed deputy governor of the Central Bank and was Muscat’s only employer in the private sector, at Crystal Finance).

Watching Busuttil, I feel smug (forgive me) at having countered all those naysayers who said that he came across really badly and would never make it. Never make it? Muscat had a goatee when he started out. He wore black suits with black shirts and white ties. Busuttil is up to the mark now. He makes Muscat look bad. He’s years older than Muscat and actually looks younger (and more in shape).

Now they are arguing about whether the Police Commissioner should take action. Chris Cilia’s uncle has given up pretending to be an interviewer and has instead taken on the role of Busuttil’s opposite number in a debate. Chris Cilia’s uncle is now sticking up for the Police Commissioner’s inaction. He is actually arguing with his interviewee.

Now Chris Cilia’s uncle has asked whether there is corruption in Konrad Mizzi’s case or whether it is only the suggestion of it. Busuttil has responded that it is just as bad if the company is ’empty’ because it shows that it was set up for a purpose and is just waiting to serve that purpose.

Busuttil is now talking about how his driver is under investigation by the police and a magistrate because of his fuel consumption, while they investigate his fuel gauge. His driver is still suspended, he said, because it is his view that while he is under investigation he shouldn’t be driving the Opposition leader. “But then on a case as grave and shocking as that of the Energy Minister and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, the Police and the Prime Minister do nothing. I decided as the Opposition leader and not as Simon Busuttil. I have to protect the integrity of the role. And I appeal to the Prime Minister to do the same.”

Now Chris Cilia’s uncle has played a recording of what Busuttil said in Parliament, about why companies and offshore trusts are opened: to hide bags of money. He clearly did NOT say that Mizzi and Schembri have bags of money there, but that this is why structures like that are set up, for that purpose. That is not libellous at all. Chris Cilia’s uncle responded by repeating the Labour Party’s refrain: “Did you repeat this outside Parliament?”

Chris Cilia’s uncle has just said: “What is your opinion of Ann Fenech and her companies in Panama?” UNBELIEVABLE. What a Labour Party propaganda parrot. “It’s a lie,” Busuttil said. “But there’s nothing wrong with having a company in Panama, is there?” Chris Cilia’s uncle said.

Now they are talking about the price of diesel and petrol, and how people in Malta are being ripped off at the pump thanks to corruption. “So that’s good: Konrad Mizzi has a company in Panama while people are being ripped off at the pump,” Busuttil said.

I have to say it: Chris Cilia’s uncle can’t cope. He’s been out-manouevred. They’re talking about the Nationalist Party’s document on good governance. Chris Cilia’s uncle objects to the bit where gifts of a value up to 150 euros are allowed. “Isn’t that corruption?” he says. But a company in Panama, when you are cabinet minister or the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, is fine.

Amazing – there’s an interview clip in which Michael ‘SwissLeaks’ Falzon, who has been suspended from the Nationalist Party and who Busuttil has just given as an example, is talking about his views of good party management. “What do you think?” Chris Cilia’s uncle says to Busuttil. How surreal. In Busuttil’s position I would be tempted to say exactly what I think of both of them and the weird and typically Maltese Kafkaesque scenario. That’s why I’ll never be a politician.

Now they are talking about Australia Hall and so on. “The Labour Party stole those properties,” Busuttil said. Oh my God, now we are going to hear that rancid fossil Godfrey Grima’s view about the Opposition – you know, the Fat Controller’s brother who promoted Joseph Muscat so assiduously after years of tacking himself to Fenech Adami’s coat-tails. And he’s talking bollocks as usual (I won’t make excuses for the language).

Now Busuttil has outwitted Chris Cilia’s uncle and got back to the subject of how the Prime Minister should sack his minister and chief of staff. But Chris Cilia’s uncle is having none of that: he’s quickly interrupted to ask him about gay marriage. You’d imagine that a seasoned reporter like him would know that the civil unions law is identical to the marriage law in all but name. But he’s not there as a seasoned reporter and interviewer. He’s there as the Labour Party’s defence counsel.

They’re talking about the price of oil and Chris Cilia’s uncle is bickering with Busuttil, defending the government’s position. Busuttil has said that when he is prime minister he will buy electricity where it is cheapest, and he’s committing himself to that. Chris Cilia’s uncle is now defending Konrad Mizzi, saying that he brought investment to Malta, including from China. Busuttil has replied by saying that everything Konrad Mizzi has done carries a dark shadow and that he has published no contracts.

Chris Cilia’s uncle is disgusting. Now he is challenging Busuttil by saying that the government did nothing wrong in the issuing of thousands of Algerian visas and that even the European Commission said that there was no corruption. Busuttil replied that the European Commission said no such thing and that it did not go into the matter of corruption and bribery or payment at all. The Prime Minister is fooling around with people, Busuttil said. There was no police investigation into those visas and there should have been.

Now Busuttil has brought up Panamagate again. “I’m apologise for not having time to finish that other thing I told you about, but round about then a massive scandal involving Konrad Mizzi exploded into the public arena and the priorities changed.”

“I want to win votes by being straight and honest with people, by telling them the truth,” he said. Chris Cilia’s uncle is bristling with hostility and being openly and visibly sarcastic. Perhaps if Busuttil were to open a company in Panama for money-laundering purposes, Chris Cilia’s uncle would look on him more kindly.

“I want to work to make Malta a normal country.” Amen to that.