Leaked minutes – the President needn’t worry as nobody’s privacy was breached
I thought I had best point out, given what the President said on television about the person “who leaked the minutes of the Community Chest Fund meeting having to shoulder his/her responsibility”, that there is no way he can know who leaked them, because not even I know, and I was the recipient.
The person who leaked them remains anonymous to me because he or she went through an intermediary, who is also anonymous to me because he or she uses an alias.
I wish to make it clear, given the President’s accusation that this anonymous person did something very wrong in leaking the minutes because the board discusses individual, personal cases who have a right to privacy, that whoever it was actually did the decent thing and leaked only the specific section which covered the President’s intervention on behalf of Miss Darleen Zerafa.
Therefore I do not know who or what else might have been discussed at that meeting, and given that there is presumably little or no public interest value, I have no wish to know.
The President has no right to get angry about the leaked section detailing his attempts to get money for Miss Zerafa. That definitely has public interest value.
His problem is not that this section was leaked, but that his family, household and office have been taken over by the family into which his son married. This annoys people, because it strikes them as abusive and Third World.
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So it seems that any and all excuses George Abela is trying to make to defend himself and his actions have gaping holes. Quite a shocker, there.
It’s getting complicated.
Well, with this logic we definitely know that George Abela will never assent to the Whistleblower Act becoming law.
Although having said that, I have a strong suspicion that Labour won’t move to legislate in its favour over the next five years.
Well done again Ms Caruana Galizia. You are a real journalist that have Malta’s interest at heart, not like George Abela that only has his family’s interest on his thoughts,
If it weren’t for you we would have remained in the dark on this one. Well done.
Jidher li dak li wassal x’intqal waqt il-laqgha ma kellux il-kuragg (forsi ghax qatt ma stenna li l-president se jigi b’din il-proposta) ghax l-ewwelnett il-president jaf li hu ma kellux idahhal xi hadd li hu qrib tieghu biex jiehu ghajnuna biex jaghmel il-PH.D.
Meta wiehed ikun persuna pubblika ghandu joqghod b’sebgha ghajnejn, specjalment hu. Aktar gravi hu l-fatt li hu issa ippregudika organizzjoni. Forsi issa din l-organizzjoni saret b’sahhitha zzejjed u fejn hemm hafna flus ikun hemm xi hadd li jrid jaghmel gwadan. Ftit huma dawk li ma jaghmlu xejn ghal xejn.
Well said, as usual.
The person who leaked this information is not the problem. This person sensed that flagrant abuse had taken place and that he or she had a moral obligation to reveal this abuse.
The president just self-destructed his presidency.
Although I hate Norman Lowell, perhaps he was slightly right when he suggested that George Abela is not suitable for President of the Republic, but ‘Prezident ta’ kazin tal-banda’.
If you can for a moment forget about Lowell’s views on immigration, you’ll find that most of his political commentary made perfect sense.
Funny how times have changed.
Couple of months ago everybody and his brother was bleating about protecting whistleblowers and what not.
Today, we are told that there could be repercussions should one expose dubious (charity makes me avoid the temptation to call them corrupt) proceedings.
With a year to go, the race is on to cash in.
Maybe someone can get pregnant to get the christening done at the palace.
I suggest also we all submit ideas for how the Abela clan can fill their coffers.
I’ll start off with: selling a decoration under the Maltese Honours system.
I thought this was a perfect example of a whistle-blower doing his bit for the country. After all Mr President your mate’s been telling us ad nauseam that Malta is taghna lkol certainly not your bleedin’ family’s.
I thought Labour was in favour of protecting whistle blowers. Abela is letting his side down.
Fortunately Abela never made it to the top of the PL.
If he had done so we would now have Ir-Repubblika ta’ Zerafa.
George messed about and was caught out.
HOWZAT.
He had a silly mid on when he really needed extra cover.
The president has ruined his reputation, and nothing can alter that.
Resign Resign was a non stop call by the Labour Party (the President is Labour after all) for months and months before 9th March 2013. What now? Nobody resigns?
My thoughts exactly
Aren’t all non-profit organisations transparent? I mean shouldn’t their minutes be published if it’s the public’s money they are using?
I agree with the ‘personal’ cases but just black out the names when uploading them onto the website.
I think few are giving thought to idea that George Abela’s greatest error is not the granting of personal favours to those close to him, but the way he is debasing the Presidency when he embroils himself in these shenanigans.
It is actually third world.
I notice a few similarities in mentality with what happened in Tunisia during the last decades?
The president of Tunisia, Ben Ali, was married to Leila Ben Ali, a former hairdresser with little formal education. She has ten brothers and sisters. After her romantic relationship and subsequent marriage to then Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, she and her family rose to prominent positions in Tunisian business and became noted for their greed, power and ruthlessness. The first lady and her immediate family’s greed was one of the reasons for the Tunisian uprising.
She was so powerful that on their way out of Tunisia during the escape, Leila’s guards stopped at the central bank to steal monetary gold bars held as the national reserves. Reportedly, the governor tried to stop her, and Leila’s guards asked him to call the president who could not stop her looting of the central bank’s vault.
Similarities? Hardly. Find me one Maltese brave enough to set himself on fire and start a revolution.
Norman Lowell perhaps, if he weren’t surrounded by complete morons.
So there you go! Someone in the Community Chest Fund has a conscience and understood all that is/was happening.
Now if the president is pissed off at someone leaking the minutes, he should be even more pissed off for trying to pass a story like that under the noses of a national charity.
Ultimately, considering all angles the one that ought to be ashamed is the president and no one else, not even Ms Zerafa.
Before the elections, hardly a day passed without us hearing about whistleblowers and how GonziPN was ‘evil’ because they hadn’t passed the Whistleblower Act and how josephmuscat.com will come to the rescue and guarantee protection to whistleblowers, etc., etc.
Well, now they’ve received a dose of whistleblowing and they don’t seem so happy about it.
If only I could marry a Zerafa sister. My future would be secure.
The President should have come clean and admitted that he made a bad ‘faux pas.’ Making excuses, and on a popular TV show to boot, demeaned him and his office even more. What next? A special Xarabank programme?
Mr. President, the person who leaked the minutes of the Community Chest Fund meeting might have to shoulder his/her responsibility but in the bigger picture you have to shoulder yours….