Dear Franco
The excellent piece below was written by a PN councillor for Gudja, Mark Sammut, who didn’t go to St Aloysius College and who is about the same age as Franco Debono’s Form IIC mid-year school report.
He uploaded it on his blog yesterday, and I’ve stolen it without his permission and reproduced it here because this website got 100,156 views yesterday and I want as many of you as possible to read this.
Mark Sammut gets 100% from Miss Daphne, because back in my day, English language tests were also tests of logic, reason, maturity and comprehension, and I’m told they no longer are.
Compare this piece of writing by a 25-year-old (so all right, he’s also an engineer) to that sad sack 38-year-old criminal lawyer member of parliament, hawking his 25-year-old school report about town to prove that he is cleverer than Joseph Muscat.
The first man is a Gudja councillor and the second is a member of parliament who is holding the country hostage to his ambition to become a cabinet minister.
Truly, life’s a bitch.
————
Dear Franco,
I never believed you would actually come to this, but you did. In your personal quest to prove yourself as Malta’s Messiah, you lost your sense of reason and logic.
We thought it was about the mess of the Public Transport reform. But in your landmark 50 minute speech in Parliament during the vote of confidence in the Transport Minister, you spoke about Lou Bondi, PBS, justice, the right of a lawyer’s assistance during interrogation…and never about what was done wrong in the reform.
No mention of how you expected things to have been done differently. No suggestion of how you expected the mess to be resolved. And then, we realized it was not about the reform. It was about Manwel Delia’s interest in contesting your district. And we were disappointed.
Then we thought it was about the division of the Justice and Home Affairs portfolios from the same Ministry. You decided you should give a deadline. You extended it. The Prime Minister, who had already said he was considering the proposal back in November, implemented it just after the Christmas holidays.
Still, you were unsatisfied. Contrary to any sort of logic, the day your proposal was implemented, you withdrew your support to the Government. Two months after you expressed that “Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was doing his best and was focusing on jobs and the economy”, you expressed your complete lack of confidence in Gonzi and that you “would support anyone but Gonzi”.
And since you got 73 in Maths and your logic is not so messed up, we realized it was never about the separation of the portfolios. It was about you being Justice Minister. And you disappointed us yet again.
You mentioned the Cabinet’s honoraria to justify your loss of confidence, just when you knew the Prime Minister was going to retract it. But you never spoke about it in the previous two years. Not once. You actually voted against the opposition’s motion to have it retracted. So it wasn’t about that either.
If you really were after the country’s best interests, and you really wanted to change the current political mentality, you could have campaigned for a myriad of illegalities that both main parties close their eyes to in fear of losing votes. You could have spoken about the thousands of private bore-holes illegally extracting our water.
You could have spoken about the illegal buildings squatting our land. And you would have found many people four-square behind you. But you had nothing to gain from these issues. So you stayed mum.
Instead, you kept insisting for the division of Justice and Home Affairs portfolios, arguing that it is causing the whole country undue hardship, pain and suffering. Hardship, pain and suffering…because the portfolios are under the same Ministry?! But that’s what you were after: the Justice Ministry.
It was so obvious in your last press conference. Franco, it’s not the separation or not of the portfolios which was causing us pain. It’s your state of mind.
It was a farce when you used to show your Form 2 report to people within the Party to prove that you are intelligent and should be listened to. It was a farce when you told people within the Party that you should actually be leader because in that Form 2 mid-year report, you got better marks than Joseph Muscat, the Opposition Leader (who probably got better marks than you in Form 1, 3, 4, 5, and in the annual Form 2 report, since you have decided to show only that particular one).
And then we understood that the only reason you were in politics, was to continue your rivalry with your ex-classmate and keep inflating your self-pride. That’s why you were so proud to be the youngest MP in Parliament before him. Until he became party leader, at a younger age than you, and your envy was re-ignited. And now that it has gone public, it has stopped being laughable.
Your petty school-boy rivalry is not a farce anymore. It’s a tragedy. A national tragedy. Please Franco, don’t let your unstable personality de-stabilize a country during the worst economic crisis of the last century. That instability would really cause us undue hardship, pain, and suffering.
Reality is Franco, that a 37 year old flailing around his 25 year old class report as proof of his sanity and intelligence, actually proves the contrary. Back in summer you told me to look-up what individual ministerial responsibility means. Today I ask you to look up our Constitution, article 54.1(e). It’s the MP with an unsound mind who should vacate his seat, not the democratically elected Prime Minister.
Franco, deal with the fact that you’ll never be Minister and you’ll never be Prime Minister, because the only ones left admiring you now are either megalomaniacs who assimilate themselves to you, or those who want Labour in power at any cost. And the ones who voted for you are actually the ones most disgusted.
Deal with the fact that Joseph Muscat will beat you to it…again. And this time, ironically, it will be thanks to you. But please, deal with it alone, and don’t drag the whole country into it. Leadership is not gained with Form 2 report cards. It’s gained with other qualities and personality traits.
The people who elected you instead of Louis Galea have taught us one very important lesson: change for change’s sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is. May the people keep that in mind when they have to choose who will lead the country in the next election.
Take good care of your health, and hope you get well soon,
From a Nationalist councillor who initially believed that yours was constructive criticism, until you started blackmailing the Prime Minister and he discovered that yours was only power-hunger coupled with a 25-year old personality problem. And he was disappointed.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l2W-ndMUa4
Issa jekk Franco johrog ghall-elezzjoni u jgib mitejn vot allura naghmluh messaggier? U dan suppost avukat.
Le naghmluh Kummissarju tat-tfal,bhal ma ghamilna lil dik li qatt ma giet eletta mill-5 Distrett hlief meta Louis Galea ceda dak id-distrett ghal by election.
It had to be an engineer!
Prosit, Mark.
I already had that feeling that you may be an engineer too.
Has anyone bothered reading past the 100 in Religion which so happened to be the first subject listed? Someone must crack this mystery for us. There must be a reason.
Also, until a few weeks ago, I remember you writing about Franco Debono beating Joseph Muscat in exams at school. The pitch was that Muscat always followed in Debono’s shadow because Muscat was always ‘lazy’.
We’re talking secondary school education, of course. So was Debono always top of the class or were your previous claims inaccurate?
This has little merit in the grand scheme of things, of course, but for accuracy’s sake, it needs answering. Only then can we bring in Vittorio Sgharbi to critique Franco’s kindergarten drawing masterpieces.
EXCELLENT.
“. . . change for change’s sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is. May the people keep that in mind when they have to choose who will lead the country in the next election.”
This is brilliantly put and should be the main theme of the PN’s electoral campaign.
One of the things I like to be changed is, for example, that I dont want to have a Prime Minister who “orders” one of his cabinet ministers, whom he considers to be one of the best, andtherefore depriving the country of his services, so that he can devote all his time to the Party. This is the worst form of partisanship coming from a Prime Minister that I have ever seen. I can’t believe it had to be Dr Lawrence Gonzi to say it.
Whatever his merits or lack of them, the truth is that Austin Gatt is hugely unpopular with the public. I think he is being politely shown the back door and being allowed to have one last party on the way out.
Albert, you are getting as funny as Franco Debono himself!
Funny but annoying.
Partisan is Joe Debono Grech, when a minister, announcing ‘Il-bieb tieghi miftuh ghal-Laburisti biss’. But if that’s what you want to return to, please yourself.
Austin Gatt does not play for popularity. He plays for what is right.
With people like Mark Sammut, there is hope for the party after all.
I agree that it should be the main theme of the PN’s elecoral campaign. Brilliantly written.
Amen
Thank you, Daphne. Well done, Mark Anthony. Excellent. Very well said.
This is by far the best article I’ve read on the issue. Daphne I think it would be better to link the source (i.e. his website) at the end of the article.
Mark Anthony Sammut, you have made my 2012.
You have rekindled my faith in Malta’s younger generation which I had never really lost.
God bless you and thank you for a very much needed breath of fresh air.
http://www.markanthonysammut.blogspot.com/
“The people who elected you instead of Louis Galea have taught us one very important lesson: change for change’s sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is. May the people keep that in mind when they have to choose who will lead the country in the next election.”
Billboard these words on every street and corner:
Change for change’s sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is.
Bravo! Read it twice. Bravo!
Mark Sammut captured the real Franco.
Thank you, Daphne.
These are the people we’d like to see in the PN. More of the same please.
Brilliant
He voted for separation but ends with divorce.
Mark Anthony Sammut was at St Paul’s Missionary College in Rabat. I used to teach him English and English Literature and were he to show us his results, I’m sure Franconi’s wouldn’t even be worth using it to wipe with, let alone.
Well done, Mark Anthony – this makes me proud to know you and to have taught you for a while.
Now take the next step and go get Franco’s votes next year. You are what the Nationalist Party really needs – just as hard working, better results, clear thinking, sound in judgement, and loyal.
Sammut and Debono sit on the opposite ends of the scale of reason.
Malta would do brilliantly with 65 Sammuts. But then life would probably be too boring.
Putting it differently, Malta would do well with 0 Debonos. One might add Debono Grechs too.
Mr Sammut’s piece is brilliant (as is most of his work which is published from time to time in The Times).
Perhaps Dr Debono might like to listen to Mr Sammut’s equally brilliant speech delivered at the “Lejn Kultura tal-Liberta” evening to mark the 25 years since the 1986 Labour attrocities in Gudja, Tarxien and Tal-Barrani.
I would imagine Dr Debono was too self obsessed to realise that, whilst he was in Form IIC, the democracy and human rights he claims to champion were being trampled upon by the ruling regime. His behaviour will only serve to place the same people (Joe Debono Grech, Karmenu Vella etc.) right in the seat of power.
Then he will definately have some real human rights and justice issues to deal with.
Where can we listen to Mr Sammut’s speech? Is there a recording online?
http://www.markanthonysammut.blogspot.com/2011/12/il-kultura-tal-liberta.html
This is an excellent piece of writing.
The more I see Franco Debono’s body language and facial expressions the more I agree with Daphne’s assessment of him.
Wow!
Absolutely brilliant.
I had the pleasure to attend a lecture about the Maritime Museum delivered by this young man a couple of years ago.
His knowledge, eloquence and delivery were marvellous.
At the end of the lecture the audience gave him a standing ovation.
This is what I call TOP MARKS
Brilliant
Absolutely brilliant, Mark.
Well said, Mark.
Brilliant.
Excellent ! Thanks Daphne.
I spent a few Wednesdays (our day off, instead of Saturday) at school in full uniform. But I ended up mending my ways, got all my O levels, entered St Aloysius sixth form, got my A levels, did not enter university immediately because those were ‘those days’ .
I have a very successful career. I never showed them my excellent form 1,2,4,5 results or my horrible form 3 results.
So Franco showing his ‘excellent’ form 2C midyears is the most irrelevant nonsensical thing I have ever seen.
Also I know people who have excellent marriages but never did well in religion exams. I know people who have succesful businesses and are incapable of stringing a sentence together.
That’s putting Franco Debono in his place.
My preoccupation is that phasing into a modern democratic state does not mean throwing away the qualities which our past politicians had. We are forgetting that they were successful because they had common sense and a sense of proportion.
Well described. We must be careful not to make our nation seem to be full of ambitious young men who think it is all about them.
Franco Debono is not a young man. He is middle-aged.
What an excellent and accurate assessment of Franco Debono by Mark A Sammut.
Prosit Mark, the Nationalist Party needs a dozen like you, and as soon as possible.
It would be a real achievement if Mark Sammut and more people of his calibre were encouraged to stand for the general election.
The man’s got some nerve! Bravo! Brilliant mind indeed.
Absolutely brilliant. This article should make Franco Debono hide his face in shame – and abandon the political scene forever.
Brilliant!
”change for change’s sake is not always healthy. Only change for the better is”
I like this.
I would like to ask Mark if he uses his intelligence to do anything useful to improve things in Gudja.
I am a truly neutral person. I abstained in the last election.
The county is in shambles.
One must recognise that not being promoted to minister is not enough to cause you to threaten your own government and your leader. Franco himself stated some time ago that he would not cause any major problems like this.
Therefore Dr. Gonzi had enough time to establish a good relation.
If Franco resigns, he would NOT be doing his duty as he would not correct things.
Resigning is AVOIDING the problem. If Mr Gonzi lost Franco its his own vote. Let’s be clear – Franco is right. There has been fiascos in nearly every department. Austin Gatt – Arriva, Dolores Cristina – An education system that no one wants, Tonio Fenech – debt, the minister responsible for the prison blind. All in one year.
We should praise Franco as it would be EASIER for him to Resign than to protest.
I meant “Mr Gonzi lost Franco its his own problem and he is responsible for it.”
FRANCO DEBONO THE KING.
jekk jaqa il pn malta isa helset min gaddafi
Lou bondi , you daphne & the rest of the evil team your days are counted .
BYE BYE . see you in the oppostion ( jekk tabqaw partit shih ;P)
[Daphne – I am not a politician, and nor is Lou. It would therefore be difficult to be ‘in the Opposition’.]
Prosit, Mark!
Mark Anthony for Prime Minister! Gogogogog, engineer leading the country!
Prosit Mark. Analiżi brillanti. Malta għandha bżonn żgħażagħ bħalek – għidt li kellek tgħid, b’mod dirett iżda pulit.
Well said! Well done Mark Anthony! Jekk kulhadd jirraguna bhalek, Malta jkun pajjiz hafna ahjar, u forsi nghixu trankwilli.
The above is an excellent psychiatric analysis of Debono’s behaviour. It should be sent to him with a note saying: “You should insist that the TVM crew film this one next time they come to your mummy’s home.”
Kburija nghid li Mark wiehed mill-hbieb tieghi!! =)
Well the obvious issue here is that all are Nationalists and cringeing that Labour could be in office soon.
Personally I am sick of this government and to all who kow tow before him.
I admire that Mr Debono made a stand for something he believed in. What is wong with knowing who finances the Nationalists? There must be a long list of contractors and entrepreneurs who do not give a toss about their employees and are capitalists par excellence.
The €85 million hideous rape of Valletta.
The other millions spent on the rape of the environment around Hagar Qim. Malta must be the ugliest country in Europe and what do we do, we try and blame in on one person.
Incidentally did the Nationalists ever really win an election? Or was it handed to them on a plate by Mintoff and his sucessor Sant.
Well done
No wonder the country will never recover.
Mark, you as a PN councillor have declalred that you know about the mess of public transport, illegal borehole, illegal buildings you stated that you thought that his was constructive critism, and yet knowing all this you remain quiet.
All you care is to brand a person insane without having the necessary qualifications to do so.
If you really believe in your statements one expects you to do something about it, apart from getting 100% from Daphne for sticking out your tongue.
Well said Anthony, couldn’t have said it better myself! Miss Daphne is just trying to ridicule Mr. Franco Debono in order to aid Gonzi PN, she thinks. However, the more I read her sad attempts to mock Mr. Franco Debono, the more I am convinced of what I already believe.
Mark claims that “It’s the MP with an unsound mind who should vacate his seat, not the democratically elected Prime Minister.” An unsound mind? Mark seems to declare that a person who has the guts to stand up to the “democratically elected Prime Minister” and protests for what he truly believes is in the best interest of the Maltese population, is insane.
Therefore, a sane person is one who keeps his mouth shut and let everyone get away with everything? A wuss is what constitutes a sane person? I tend to think otherwise. This man is courageous. And courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.
[Daphne – He’s not courageous. He’s a mad prick. 100.000 people plus elected the prime minister, and one jerk decides he should go or else. That’s your definition of democracy. If democracy, to Franco, is the will of the people, then he should look at the survey results in yesterday’s The Sunday Times. The majority of people don’t want the prime minister to resign or an election to be called, and that includes people planning to vote Labour.]
Franco Debono not courageous?! Then I am sorry as I have underestimated the ‘intelligence’ of your judgemental skills. You are clearly a die-hard nationalist blinded by your devotion, thus it is impossible for you to see the true picture. However, It shouldn’t be that way. Don’t be so convinced of the rightness of your views that you refuse to see any merit in another position.
[Daphne – Oh, I thought it was supposed to be Franco who is the diehard Nationalist. He’s been working in the party since he was at least four years old, has suffered greatly, unseated Louis Galea (and Helen Damato) and is a member of parliament on the PN ticket. Whereas I….write for a newspaper.]
As for the survey results in yesterday’s The Sunday Times, do you honestly believe it includes people planning to vote labour? That doesn’t even make any sense, people in favour of the Labour party obviously want an election! This is even stated in the blog which “gets a 100% by Miss Daphne” ; “the only ones left admiring you now are either megalomaniacs who assimilate themselves to you, or those who want Labour in power at any cost”.
[Daphne – No, Brina, people who vote Labour don’t necessarily want an election. Not all of them are markedly slow. When you meet one, ask him to explain why. Surveys do not lie, my dear.]
The Nationalist party is just way too proud and power hungry to call an election. However, since Gonzi PN declares his interests to be of benefit to this country, then why not call an election and let the Maltese population decide for itself who it wants to be governing. These are definitely not the democratic values it claims to posses.
[Daphne – Possibly because most people don’t want an election, Brina, because it is in people’s natures not to have their plans and expectations disrupted. People do not like to be taken by surprise and the date they were counting on is only a year away.]
This country is doomed for failure…….I cant understand how Ms Daphne gave such a high esteeem to it, apart from the fact that you tried to give a helping hand to your party by trying to redicule Mr Debono.
Dear Mark, you stated in your excellent piece that you know about the mess of the public transport, about the illegal buildings, about the illegal boreholes, the lack of right of a lawyer’s assistance during interrogation etc. Since you are conscious of these, how come you never did anything to rectify them? Do you actually condem them publically? Are you in favour of the lack of action taken, or wrong action taken, like arriva and the use of heavy fuel oil in the power plant?
You are a PN representrative and if you are proactive then you should speak your mind and condem them.
But like a good citizen you keep quite as it might damage your political career. You are still young and I dread the fact that one day you might be the prime minister of Malta, what prospects will this small country have with people like you in power who are afraid to fight for simple rights., even though it might hurt them.
I think that Mr debono has more guts in his small finger than you might have in your whole body. This is not a matter of blind loyalty to a party, its a matter of a person trying to correct things, that he believes in (and I think you agree that they should be corrected, at least that is the impression you gave), after all these years with PN in goverment there is no excuse that they have not been done, so what option was left open, except a draastic one.
You critisized Mr Debono that he never gave a solution, well DID YOU??
It would benefit the country if we listened a little to Franco Debono.
Just imagine all the money and heartache the country would save if we were to stop general elections and simply elect the cabinet by means of high school reports.
That’s democracy at it’s best. Well done, Franco.
Brilliant piece, Mark – just like all your articles.