Hypocrite
Joseph Muscat has met Jeremy Cassar Torregiani, an heir to one of the larger shareholders of the National Bank of Malta at the time of Mintoff’s heist and its conversion into Bank of Valletta, at the latter’s request.
Muscat told him that he “intends” to put together a “team of advisers” to draw “precise conclusions” on the “implications” of the National Bank court case.
Of the court case, you understand, and not of the actual heist.
It’s convenient, isn’t it, that if Muscat intends to follow through on his intentions, obviously after having secured the vote of those whose property Mintoff stole while Muscat’s nanna rocked his cradle to the tune of Ma Taghmlu Xejn Mal-Perit Mintoff, that he has quite a few of the original protagonists of the 1973 Labour Party on board his bandwagon already.
He’s got Lino Spiteri, who very conveniently played a significant role and can tell Muscat about it first hand.
He’s got Il-Guy, Karmenu Vella.
He’s got Joe Grima, the Fat Controller.
He’s got AST.
And he’s even got Joe Debono Grech.
If he cleans out the cupboards at Mile End, he’s bound to find more lurking there.
And of course, there is no way on earth he can square the circle of giving the National Bank of Malta shareholders what is owed to them without admitting that it was stolen from them in the first place, by the man he has re-elevated at the hero-icon of the Labour Party, and on whose daughter’s vote-catching abilities he now counts.
The hypocrite.
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It’s a shame that Jeremy is sucking up to Muscat. He should be more intelligent than that.
“I have known Jeremy since my schooldays but I did not know that he was involved with National Bank,” Muscat told MaltaToday.
Yes, right. Because every Tom, Dick and Harry’s surname’s Cassar Torregiani.
Muscat is even more of a cynical bastard than I’d thought him.
[Daphne – I believe him. He’s from Burmarrad, remember. Familja daqxejn out of the loop.]
What I meant was not that he’d have known Jeremy Cassar Torregiani, but that a Mintoffjan raised by a Mintoffjana, modelling himself on Mintoff, lionising Mintoff, and courting Mintoffjani by politically adopting Mintoff’s daughter had better know who and what Mintoff did to whom and with what effect.
How else could he justify himself to Mintoffjani when he sucks up to Mintoff’s victims promising them…absolutely nothing?
That is what I immediately thought when reading it. Ara veru bright Joseph, lanqas one plus one ma jaghmel. Opportunist.
He can only get as far as Cassar.
The Torregiani bit throws him completely.
He was expecting someone whose surname was National.
Why did I think that you would have welcomed such a move to try and settle the National Bank saga once and for all?
Is it so difficult to accept something from someone who you are convinced can only be your enemy?
[Daphne – For heaven’s sake, Silvio. Joseph and his party have no intention of settling. Read his words again. And use your head: they can’t settle without admitting it was theft. Otherwise, they are just giving away money for nothing. And they’re never going to admit it was theft, ergo, they can’t settle. Appointing a team of advisers to look at the court case! We have separation of powers (thank God). What does he hope to do by analysing the court case?]
What’s wrong in accepting his offer and make sure he sticks to it?
[Daphne – What offer, Silvio? Did you see one somewhere, because I certainly did not. I find it unbelievable how people hear what they want to hear and pick up what they think is the gist of a news report without actually reading it properly.]
It’s now come to the point where there is no harm in trying.
[Daphne – Yes, there is harm. One risks coming across as wholly unprincipled, to say nothing of totally lacking in dignity, by presenting oneself as a supplicant to the very people who stole your goods in the first place. There a difference between pride and dignity, and some people have to learn what it is.]
I think that Jerremy should be commended for leaving out no options.
You should know better being the daughter of a businessman.
There is and has never been either pride or dignity where money is concerned.
[Daphne – How wrong you are, Silvio. Some people are like that; others are not. Some people understand that money is there to serve a purpose, but is not a purpose in itself. Others forget that.]
Of course some mght try to give the impresson that there is, but believe me this was never the case. I know it’s hard to admit.
[Daphne – Actually, Silvio, what some people find hard to admit is that they know they are immoral and unprincipled, but find justification in seeking to make out that all others are like them and that it is the natural and instinctive thing. The natural and instinctive thing is, in fact, to protect one’s sense of self-worth, rather than one’s worth.]
I assure you that you’ll never get any interest from any bank by trying to deposit either dignity or pride. These are two things that you have to learn how to swallow . The most important thing is getting back what you believe is yours.
[Daphne – Not at all. See above. This is something all women are practically born knowing, because most women – perhaps not the younger generation but certainly all generations of women throughout history up until my own, have at some point had to decide whether to compromise or sacrifice their pride, dignity and self-respect for material gain. And yes, that includes many marriages. Why exactly do you think so many older women are leaving their marriages now? Because they would rather live in two rooms on a pittance but with their self-respect intact, than in a whacking great villa with a swimming-pool, servants and spending-money, and a husband who treats them like dirt.]
As a matter of fact we also have a saying in Maltese’
” Minn He…a mexa”
[Daphne – Not really, Silvio. What goes round comes around in many of these cases, though not all certainly – and close observance over the passage of time has revealed that minn hexa spicca stuffat hu.]
Dear Daphne, could it be the other way around?
Maybe it is the older men who are leaving the older women.
[Daphne – Not really, no. Only in some cases. Wherever there is divorce in the developed world, the majority of cases are instituted by women. It’s not really any different in Malta. Of course, I am not speaking of Maltese women of your generation, who were raised to be utterly helpless. So your perception may be skewed. With women of my generation, it’s different, and we’re certainly not young.]
Let’s quote from Malta Today so that no one raises any doubt about the truth of what is said here:
“Labour leader Joseph Muscat held a meeting with Jeremy Cassar Torregiani – grandson of National Bank of Malta founder Antonio Cassar Torregiani, and a representative of the NBM’s shareholders in their ongoing quest for justice – at the Labour Party HQ in Hamrun last week.”
“Among the topics raised was the possibility of some form of closure after a legal battle that has dragged on for over 35 years. No final agreement was reached in the meeting, but Muscat told Cassar Torregiani that he intended to set up a ‘team of advisers’ to draw precise conclusions on the implications of the National Bank court case.”
In the first place, this begs the question as to why we are informed about this meeting one week after it happened, considering that this case is of national interest.
But more importantly, what is the meaning of “setting up a team of advisors to draw precise conclusions on the implications of the court case?
Does Joseph plan to interfere with the court case?
Does Joseph plan to overrule the court decision, undermining the independence of the judiciary?
Does it mean that Joseph will wait for the court decision and if he is in government he will bring together a group of experts to appeal the case?
And in any case, what can Joseph Muscat do about this case if he is not in government?
If the shareholders want a court decision based on facts and law, the last thing they should do is to seek political interference with their case.
Seen The Times today? Eddie Privitera says that Gonzi is “A Politician of Yesterday”.
Must be living in another world and seems to have forgotten Sceberras Trigona, Karmenu Vella, Debono Grech, the Fat One, etc etc They must belong to the other century, no doubt, or even earlier.
If Gonzi is “a politician of yesterday”, then Privitera must be a citizen of the Jurassic Era.
And you actually bother to read Privitera’s comments? Why do you do that to yourself?
He probably promised him that a Labour government with him as the great leader would give him his money back, reduce his electricity bills and also a weekly Thai massage for everyone on these islands, to reduce the stress of all these years of a PN government.
I came to Malta in June 1991, and one of the first things I read in The Times of Malta (if I remember rightly) was an article about the run and subsequent takeover of the National Bank.
It seemed then that the relatively new Nationalist government with Fenech Adami at the helm was about to settle a deal with the surviving shareholders.
I am flabbergasted that after 21 years it is still dragging on, especially with the present government doing a volte-face and acting like Pilate.
A wrongful act is always a wrongful act and the Nationalist Party should remember the rhetoric it has used in the past and settle or at least place an offer on the table.
When law suits are still pending for a number of reasons, the government has no ruling to go by. Placing an offer on the table will never resolve the problem but risks some stakeholders taking the government to court because of an inadequate settlement offer. Then, instead of one case pending we may end up with two. Besides it may be interpreted, no less by the Opposition (the originators of the problem), as government interference.
But one cannot argue the point that the court case should have been handled much faster.
In the meantime, the engineer of the whole scandal still has the millions he stashed away in Maltese banks and elsewhere.
Maltatoday’s been at it for quite some time lately, not to mention yesterday’s Sargas ultimatum.
I too was shocked on reading this piece.
Ara veru wicc ta’ qahba.
The heirs of the National Bank shareholders must be fools if they fall into Joseph’s trap. As always, Joseph told Jeremy many beautiful words but there is no substance whatsover.
Were the other shareholders informed about the meeting between Muscat and Jeremy Cassar Torregiani?
Ghandek ragun, Mr Clews, ghax Filfla fejn jghix (Mr Privitera) ma ghandhomx hekk. Skond hu Malta tinbidel mill-11.00am sa 11.05am kif jitla il-Labour.
A British newspaper had run an article under the title of “How to rob a bank without using any guns”.
Which newspaper? When was it?
To me, this thing about “set up a ‘team of advisers’ to draw precise conclusions on the implications of the National Bank court case” sounds very much in its precise meaning like the following:
“He was convinced that the Korean people would greet the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung with shining achievements in economic construction under the wise leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un, he said. He hoped that everything would continue going well in the DPRK.
Satellite launch is a legitimate right of sovereign states, he said, expressing his will to work hard to expand the friendly relations between the Malta Labor Party and the Workers’ Party of Korea and between Malta and the DPRK in the political, economic, cultural and other fields.”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/94599585/Law-Report-Director-Testifies-on-Events-Leading-to-Run-on-National-Bank-Timesofmalta-Archive
http://www.scribd.com/doc/94674309/NBM-Shareholders-Claim-Law-Report-21DEC1975-tomarchive-19751221-040
“Setting up a team of advisers to draw precise conclusions on the implications of the National Bank court case” is a circuitous way describing the old ploy of killing an uncomfortable initiative by sidetracking it into the lap of some subcommittee where it would be discreetly buried.