They suspected others of corruption because that’s how they would have played it themselves
When the Labour Party were in Opposition banging on repeatedly about corruption and accusing others of taking this or taking that or getting backhanders for this and that and giving contracts and employing friends & c & c, I was always left with the nagging suspicion that their fixation came not from genuine moral outrage but from the feeling that if they were in government themselves, that is what they would have done and how they would have played the system.
Sure enough, as soon as they leapt into government we were left breathless by the sheer, unbelievable extent of their brazen, blatant, shameless cronyism and nepotism.
The backhanders are not staring at us in the face, obviously, but going by their shameless milking of the system in other ways, I have little doubt that they’re there, and happening hard.
I can’t help wondering who got the sweeteners on the Malta-China deal, how big those sweeteners are, and where they’ve been hidden. It’s China. It’s a very corrupt dictatorship which operates without the rule of law. American businesses, let alone American governments, can’t bribe foreign decision-makers and politicians even in their own countries, because it is very much a criminal act that will see you pursed by the FBI.
Yet for Chinese businesses, for the Chinese authorities themselves, corruption is a normal part of life. Chinese culture is steeped in sweeteners: buying expensive gifts for decision-makers so that they will look favourably on you.
Any money paid to Maltese individuals, in elected politics or fellow-travelling, is unlikely to touch Malta or Maltese banks. The likelihood that journalists will ever find anything is practically zilch. Austin Gatt was hammered by the Labour Party and a barely comprehending public because of Swiss investments made by his father in the 1970s and left untouched ever since. The Labour Party deliberately misrepresented this to the public as some secret account in which he stashed bribe money.
They think that way because that is how they would have behaved themselves, and I can’t shake off the feeling that this is what they are already doing now: using state deals to set themselves up for life.
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Il-giddieb minghalieh li kullhadd jigdeb.
Exactly.
Kulħadd ikejjel b’xibru hu qawl aktar f’postu.
Tal-Labour jaslu ghal kollox. Taht Mintoff ghamlu minn kollox, omicidji politici, ministri jisirqu sfaccatament, abbuzi ta kull tip u forma. Muscat ma jistax jaghmel bhalu mhux ghax ma jridx izda ghax habba l-Unjoni Ewropeja kellu jilbes maskra u joqghod lura.
Minn taht mhemx dubbju li ser jashbu ghal rashom.
I couldn’t agree more. Plus, my gut feeling is that they are convinced that this is the only way it’s done. Plain and simple.
Government of half truths.Today Konrad Mizzi expressed that the power station project has started as drilling is taking place for the foundations.In reality this is earth core drilling taking place for preliminary earth core studies, far way from finalising project in eight months
Vote Joseph – Get Lorry.
“I can’t shake off the feeling that this is what they are already doing now: using state deals to set themselves up for life.”
That’s just why Manwel Mallia is invaluable.
That’s the only way it could have been.
Manwel Mallia is the commission stasher – just as he’s always been.
Sakemm jinqaras l-ewwel wiehed …..
As long as we continue to see the faults of one party and not the other – we the people will continue to be the losers.
And it’s all a charade. There is no PN or PL. There is a corrupt political class which uses the country to enrich themselves with the result that the country is now a hub for international crime.
And the parties collaborate and work as a single team when it comes to commit fraud – all the way playing US against each other.
Joseph Muscat and his cronies – in Malta, China and elsewhere – have got so much to lose.
I hope the PN is not expecting fair and democratic elections.
Il-giddieb ghomru qasir.
Kullħadd ikejjel b’xibru !
Il-mara ta’ Konrad Mizzi qalet li visa ghac-Cinizi minn Parigi tinghata fi zmien jumejn. Mhux veru! Li jinhargu BISS li jkollhom diversi visa qabel.
Din qalet li se tghin fil-proceduri biex jithaffu l-hrug tal-visa minn Malta, haga li tmur kontra r-regoli tax-Schengen. Parigi hafna minnhom jirrifjutawhom f’anqas minn jumejn. Hafna Cinizi attaparsi turisti biex jaharbu jahdmu.
Ahjar ma tindahalx ghax tidhol go basla.
You have to set a thief to catch a thief.
Ma niskantax bil-fehma murija minnek li l-ghajta tal-korruzzjoni tal-Laburisti qabel l-elezzjoni jakkuzaw lill-ministri Nazzjonalisti kellha l-iskop specifiku li tahbi x-xenqa u l-pjan taghhom li jaghtu taghlima lill-istess PN kif ghandek taghmel il-korruzzjoni, sintendi minghajr ma thalli tracci warajk ghal xi gazzetta bhal Malta Today biex taghmel xalata minnha.
Fejn tidhol il-korruzzjoni il-Partit Laburista minn dejjem kien il-pijunier u l-espert. Kull meta kien fil-gvern, il-korruzzjoni f’Malta dejjem lahqet il-milja taghha u ghamlu minnha mandra li ddum 30 sena biex tmur l-intiena taghha, ghalkemm bosta maltin tilfu qatiegh is-sens tax-xamm.
“Corruption is literally built into the foundations of modern China”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cleo-paskal/chinese-corruption-party-_b_1460519.html
Outside China and similar states sweeteners may end up sending the perpetrators to a jail term. In these countries commissions are usually disguised as consultancy fees.
Here are three examples.
Australia – The ICAC (Independant Commission Against Corruption) Commissioner, the Hon Jerrold Cripps QC, found that the corrupt scheme was not limited to cash payments and waste disposal but also included the construction of a new driveway, valued at $11,000, at Mr Hetman’s home. “Mr Hetman set up a company, GRT Consulting, to which Domenic Murdocca’s company paid $106,355 between June 2005 and October 2006. These payments were falsely disguised as consultancy fees and were really Mr Hetman’s benefit for awarding work to Sage – which received $3.7 million in RailCorp work from October 2003 to June 2006.”
Canada – CBC News and the Globe and Mail have discovered that a division called SNC-Lavalin International Inc. (SLII) that focuses on smaller contracts to design and supervise megaprojects has for years used the code words “PCC” or “CC” interchangeably to describe hidden so-called “project consultancy costs. Sometimes it was ‘project consultancy cost,’ sometimes ‘project commercial cost,’ but [the] real fact is the intention is [a] bribe.”
Malta – Mr Sammut also told the police that George Farrugia, the local agent of Trafigura (who has been granted a presidential pardon in return for information on this case) had known about the commissions and even helped work out the kickbacks disguised as consultancy fees.
Then there are some who came close but managed to get away with it. Mark Thatcher is one such example.
If I am not mistaken an investigation of Gatt’s Swiss account had been launched by the PL. What was the outcome?
[Daphne – Political parties are not empowered to investigate the bank accounts or investments of citizens. And that’s exactly the way it should be.]