They didn’t obey him, so he resigned
Wasn’t that just to be expected, the moment Jeffrey said back then that if the Nationalist Party executive did not expel Richard Cachia Caruana, then he would have to think about his own position?
Basically, he wasn’t submitting his request for expulsion to the normal rules of procedure.
He was ORDERING the Nationalist Party to expel Cachia Caruana, with implied threats and menaces.
When the vote against his request was unanimous, which must have really shaken him given how shocking he thought – in his own tragic self-delusion – his amazing revelations to be, he said, right, I’ll show them.
So this man’s idea of due process is ‘do what I say or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll bring the house down’. He calls himself liberal and progressive, a ‘true Nationalist’, but it’s quite obvious from his attitude why he feels more comfortable sharing his bed with Labour politicians, literally and figuratively.
He thinks Labour: the imposition of will as distinct from democracy. Jew taghmlu li rrid, jew inhassar.
He told the prime minister that he has resigned from the Nationalist Party because he feels he can’t “militate in” (who speaks like that, for heaven’s sake, if not members of the Brigate Rosse) a political party which has been “hijacked by Richard Cachia Caruana and Austin Gatt”.
Sorry, MISTER Richard Cachia Caruana and DOCTOR Austin Gatt, because nobody ever taught this man that when you use full names in that context, you don’t use Mr and Dr. Those come subsequently, when you have used the full name and then move on to using the surname only.
But enough of that.
Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando Smith) must always convince himself that he’s doing the right, honourable, correct, heroic and gentlemanly thing, but he invariably gets it wrong and behaves like a knave, blackguard and total scum. But as long as he approves of himself, he seems oblivious to the opprobrium he has drawn down on his shoulders.
And when he does catch a glimpse of the contempt in which he is held, instead of blaming himself and his own dreadful choices, he projects blame, transfers guilt and plays the martyr.
Can any member of parliament possibly have behaved more badly than Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando Smith) has behaved over the last four and a half years? Where does he go from here – into the welcoming arms of Consuelo Herrera, Robert Musumeci and Joseph and Michelle?
It sounds like a life of hell, cut off from where he really wants to be, but still holding out hope that when Lawrence Gonzi is defeated at the next election with his help and his vote, the new party leader will have him brought in on a donkey to the waving of palm fronds.
He told the prime minister, in his resignation letter, that 5,100 constituents gave him their first-preference vote, and so he will “out of respect for the clear mandate they honoured me with, continue to collaborate in the implementation of the measures outlined in the PN electoral programme for 2008”.
Unfortunately, Jeffrey doesn’t get the quintessential point that we didn’t give our first-preference vote to him. We gave it to the Nationalist Party.
I did not vote No. 1 Jeffrey. I voted No. 1 Nationalist Party. This means I don’t want Jeffrey as such filling my representative’s seat. I don’t want him at all, actually. I want a Nationalist MP sitting in it.
So what he should be doing, if he truly wishes to honour his obligation towards us, is resign his SEAT and not the party whip, so that our wishes can be honoured by having a PN MP represent us in his stead.
Pullicino Orlando should answer this simple question: when people gave him their No. 1 vote, what came first – their vote for the PN or their vote for him?
I’ll answer it for him: their vote for the Nationalist Party.
He has said he will support the government, in a sort of coalition format, until the end of the term, out of respect for those who voted for him and the PN electoral programme. But if the government presents a bill that is not in the electoral programme, then he expects to be consulted.
This is, of course, more self-deluding hogwash. His constituents did not give him a mandate to present a private member’s bill on divorce, and yet he did so.
His constituents certainly did NOT give him a mandate to collude and plot with Joseph Muscat over drinks with Michelle and Carmen and cause as much trouble for the government as humanly possible.
And the very suggestion that we – I, of all people, for instance – gave him a mandate to hatch a plot with the Opposition to force the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana is outlandish and outrageous.
We did not give him a mandate to be a thorn in the nation’s side and give this country four years of look-at-me hell as he revved up to exercise his grudges in full view of a contemptuous and horrified constituency.
And not content with doing all that, he pushed the envelope even further and asked the Nationalist Party to, basically, choose him instead of Richard Cachia Caruana, rejecting the latter and championing the former.
That could never have happened, and if his thinking were not entirely warped by bitterness and hate, he would have been able to see how wrong it would have been to do that, how very immoral. What he told the party, basically, was that the price for his support was Richard Cachia Caruana’s head. Having obtained that head in one forum, he wanted it again in another.
But that was one wedding-present too far.
——
Jeffrey’s resignation letter:
Haz-Zebbug , 19-7-2012
Prime Minister,
After much consideration it is with sincere regret that I must tender my resignation from the Nationalist Party, effective immediately. My reason for doing so stems from the fact that I do not feel comfortable militating in a party which has been hijacked by Mr. Richard Cachia Caruana and Dr. Austin Gatt.
Without detracting from the attributes both these individuals may have, I do not subscribe to their way of doing politics.
I am aware that this difficult step will mean that I am no longer a member of the PN Parliamentary Group. I will, thus, be informing the
Speaker of the House, Hon. Michael Frendo, of my resignation from the PN. I will also be requesting a meeting with him in order to plan a way forward, given the circumstances.
5,100 constituents gave me their first preference vote in the last general elections, which I contested on the PN ticket. I will, out of respect for the clear mandate they honoured me with, continue to collaborate in the implementation of the measures outlined in the PN
electoral programme for 2008. Given the circumstances, I expect to be consulted by you should any measure which is not specifically mentioned in the electoral programme require my support in Parliament.
This onerous decision should not, in any way, be interpreted as a reflection of the respect I have for you on a personal level, which
remains unaffected.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando M.P.
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You know, JPO has the PN right in the palm of his hand. Now every time he says jump, they must answer, how high?
[Daphne – Hasn’t it been like that from the beginning?]
Addressed to a fellow observer of your blog, I offered following remarks elsewhere:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120719/local/Will-rebel-MP-pull-the-plug-.429117
@ Angus Black:
As a neutral observer, I must admit that it is extremely difficult for me to believe that your side has and/or had considered “the situation” from a “million angles”.
As an aftermath of Gordon Pisani’s most recent disclosures and as a result of what I heard yesterday from Francis Zammit Dimech on Realta (TVM) and from Beppe Fenech Adami on Issues (ONE TV), I am compelled to surmise that your side, Angus Black, missed the first, most important angle from the million, which you wish to mention.
GonziPN political analysts and/or strategists should have immediately realised that, under the given Mistra circumstances, Dr.Pullicino Orlando was, and would be, a most dangerous liability for the PN.
Ironically enough, if Dr.Joseph Muscat and his PL would now wish to welcome and enclose Dr.Pullicino Orlando in their fold, Dr.Muscat and his PL would then themselves be additionally burdened with the liability Dr.Pullicino Orlando.
If I, as a worker aka employee, were to be a member of the PL, I would then have to ask myself how, and why, my party wished to associate workers’ needs with the ambitions of a capital investor.
If I understood the chronology correctly, in the days immediately preceeding the last election, when Mistragate became public, Dr.Pullicino Orlando was coached and advised by the presenter of Xarabank and by Richard Cachia Caruana as how to behave himself (overtly as a cry-baby and journalist). If it were really so, one can only shake one’s head in disbelief with respect to morals and ethics within the framework of this Machiavellian comedy.
Miskina Malta!
Addendum:
Daphne, I must admit that I am most flabbergasted after becoming conscious (through reading) of your own possible (early) role in this saga.
Leo Said, what you have missed is the fact that the Nationalist Party was only made aware of the situation on 6 March, two days before polling day. They had choices to make.
1. Admit to JPO’s underhanded deal and risk the possibility that the whole party would go down with him.
2. Press on with JPO’s candidacy and hope for the best, as they say, in Maltese, ‘Mill mitluf wiehed jiehu li jista’, and luckily and by a razor-thin majority Malta gained four more years of Nationalist government however painful it turned out to be for the PM.
They read the situation correctly and went for number two. This gives credence to my analysis that the PN Executive, even now, are capable of reading the tea leaves right. Not that this time there is joy in reading them, but with Jeffrey out of the equation, it seems an easier task.
Angus Black, please be certain that I did not miss the facts.
ad 1: Maybe there were two possibilities, namely, the possibility to which you refer and the possibility that GonziPN would have come out ethically, morally and politically stronger, had GonziPN there and then ad hoc renounced Jeffrey’s help. Retrospectively, one may be more clever but one can hardly ever have a guarantee a priori.
ad 2. I understand the consideration but I have to ask myself whether the painful 4 years in government will now possibly lead to more years in opposition. Allow me to emphasise that I personally would not yet bet much money on a PL election victory, regardless of the current voxpop and electorate euphoria.
The grey cells in my brain tell me to disagree with your last paragraph. At the moment, I cannot convince myself that Jeffrey is out of the equation. Indeed, he might now even be stronger enrooted in the equation.
Hence, I cannot opine that the PN Executive is “reading the tea leaves right”. On the contrary, I must fear that the PN Executive is dangerously fumbling with cold coffee and stale beer.
That is one heck of a wedding present he gave Carmen: the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.
In return , Joseph Muscat will give him his Mistra permit as a belated wedding present this time next year.
Jew juzah ghalissa u ma jtih xejn la jitla t-tarag ta’ Kastilja.
One wonders if the PN could present a motion of no confidence in JP(OS) in parlament next October, and use the Speaker’s casting vote to medicine him out?
Do the math. It’s a tie.
With a one-vote majority, if you make such a motion you will definitely lose it with or without the speaker’s casting vote – do the math.
Irrelevant – they can expel him from the party (he beat them to it) but they cannot expel him from the parliamnet unless he commits a criminal offence.
[Daphne – I actually think he wanted them to expel him, Raphael, as that would have given him an excuse to bring down the government.]
“My reason for doing so stems from the fact that I do not feel comfortable militating in a party which has been hijacked by Mr. Richard Cachia Caruana and Dr. Austin Gatt. Without detracting from the attributes both these individuals may have, I do not subscribe to their way of doing politics.”
Yes, JPOS’s way of doing politics is much, much better.
Maryanne, let me affirm your comment and piggyback on it with this.
There is a reason Richard Cachia Caruana and Austin Gatt are so hated by JP(OS) and others, and by the collective PL. By virtue of the positive (and sometimes abrasive) characteristics they share, they are beacons of rationality who are passionate (in the clarity of vision) to their skillful service to MALTA through the vehicle of the PN, the only political party with the capacity for the mission.
These two persons, Mr Cachia Caruana and Dr Gatt, over the long years of their executive/ministerial service to Drs Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi as prime ministers, have together brought about the generational transformation of Malta post-1987.
The enemies of rationality and vision, of course, would have their heads on a platter, as both Mr Cachia Caruana and Dr Gatt have been wont to burst many a bubble and ambition of Dr Alfred Sant, and they stand in the way of the present aspirations of the PL for their “Movement.”
Along the way of engineering progressive and successful politics through the wilderness of irrationality in the Maltese political environment, these two servants have always been a magnet for their opponents.
And the forces within the PL (and a few certain PN or Ex-PN MPs) are not rational. The PL (and the others) could have achieved their political goals far more easily if they had adopted a truly rational approach.
However, “truth” and “rationality” are inseparable allies, and therefore there is a natural reason for the PL’s inability to adapt, discard, apologize, and amend, and to adopt rationality and sound reason as a standard for what otherwise is its skip.
Be gone. The sooner the better. I wonder who has been colluding with the Opposition for all these years. A ride into the sunset never did any harm to sun seekers.
So is JPO going to resign his position at the Malta Council for Science and Technology as well?
Please Dr Gonzi , humour us and kick that wretched man out of his chairmanship.
It-tapp tal-Kinnie irrizenja.
Do the math. It’s a tie.
JPO, those 5100 people voted primarily for the Nationalist Party and not for you. The honourable thing is to resign your seat and make way for others.
So having victimised those whom he perceived as having stood in his way and held the government hostage to his crazy whims, JPO now wants us to believe that duty urges him to do the honourable thing towards those who elected him.
ARA VERU M’GHANDUX ZEJT F’WICCU.
Issa jiddobba ftit zejt minn wicc Joe Mizzi li ma kellux kuragg jidher xhud ghal JPO nhar it-Tlieta li ghaddiet.
Kodardi.
What a spiteful, jealous liar and a hypocrite.
I cannot believe how far this man has gone in his hatred towards Richard Cachia Caruana. He is blinded by hatred and jealousy and has lost his morals and principles, if he had any to begin with.
He has become Labour’s puppet, and will be discarded by them when they are finished with him.
It’s the best thing he’s done in ages.
HYPOCRITE (Bil Malti: Demel)
[ 5,100 constituents gave me their first preference vote in the last general elections, which I contested on the PN ticket. I will, out of respect for the clear mandate they honoured me with, continue to collaborate in the implementation of the measures outlined in the PN electoral programme for 2008. ]
But then why did you push for divorce? Or was your intention to drive a wedge in between your fellow MPs?
HYPOCRITE
You are not worthy to hold a seat as our representative! Resign and make way for a decent man or woman.
Anyone asking for JPO to do the honourable thing is wasting his/her time.