Many people have been approaching me full of suggestions as to how Labour should react to the arrogant, roughshod and politically expedient manner in which the PN has been acting both in the run up days to the election as well as even more so during Gonzi’s first few weeks in government. At a time when he promised a ‘ONE NATION’ approach.

I personally feel that while one should give due consideration to any suggestions, a firm and coherent strategy should best be formulated only once the new leadership is in place rather than presenting it with a fait accompli.

But in the meantime many disturbing events that have been unfolding these last few weeks, days and even hours cannot go unnoticed and unmonitored.

If one takes the JPO case it is now more than ever apparent that while during the election campaign a PN dilemma turned itself into the sole objective of wining the general elections regardless of whether they were being taken for a ride by JPO or not, it now seems that the PN’s major concern is how to be seen to be tackling the JPO affair fairly and firmly without jeopardizing the stability of what is in actual fact a fairly frail and fragile government.

Particularly given the rumblings that have been coming our way about :

· still existing baggage in the Cabinet – even amongst some of the most senior ministers

· the disgruntlement of those who have been left out of the cabinet, particularly certain wild cards who are openly boasting that they have nothing to lose since they might not run again next time round

· The deep frustration of those who were deliberately left by the wayside by the electorate after being sidelined by the party inspite of still standing an outside chance of making it to the House through by-elections.

Last Wednesday I was inundated with e-mails and phone calls from friends, voters and political analysts who felt mystified by Joe Saliba’s comments in another section of the local press. Not only did he stubbornly refuse to comment on whether JPO told the truth or withheld information from the party when Labour dropped its Spin Valley bombshell in the last week of the election campaign. But he dropped a bigger clanger when he cheekily and brazenly admitted that he would still have made the decisions he made at the time even had he been in possession of the information he has now.

This statement is politically devious and opportunistic because the secretary general of GONZIPN indirectly admitted when saying so, that he seemed indifferent to the fact that he might have come to know of info he did not know then.

But even worse, when trying to justify his party’s endorsement of JPO when gate-crashing Alfred Sant’s press conference scheduled by the Broadcasting Authority as part of the electoral campaign, he declared that since he (ie Joe Saliba himself) was working to win a general election, he implicitly admitted that he could not have given a damn about the antics JPO might have allegedly been up to up to at that stage.

One must have hoped in vain, that with the benefit of hindsight, now that the elections are out of the way, Joe Saliba should have had the decency to admit that had Alfred Sant not unearthed the JPO scandal the whole Mistra Valley issue would have remained dead and buried. Like many still to be unearthed scandals!

When pressed for further comments Saliba admitted that he had a position on the issue as of now, but felt it was not his duty to state it publicly at this point.

While all this shows how badly the PN treated the whole concept of transparency and accountability particularly during the run up days of an election campaign, when clinging to power was so evidently their over riding objective, Gonzi’s own behaviour since then puts him in a bad light too.

Let us try and forget for a moment how the whole PfP issue was sprung upon us without any prior consultation or the slightest mention or hint during either the election campaign itself, the party manifesto, or even the various foreign affairs committee meetings and sparse but important foreign policy debates we had in the whole House. Many are still asking whether government did give in to external pressures on the matter, particularly since as former main foreign affairs spokesman I had been lobbied more than once by non EU sources to try and convince the party to change heart on its refusal to reactivate PfP membership. Something which would have been unthinkable since I had co-ordinated and been responsible for the party’s foreign affairs vision statement which made specific reference to our refusal to join PfP. A stand that was incidentally unanimously approved by the parliamentary group and the national executive of the party during a joint sitting.

But then even were we to hypothetically put aside this mishandled issue, how can we accept the following from Gonzi himself :

a) that rather than demoting George Pullicino, who was politically responsible for the mess at MEPA, he chose to kick him upstairs by giving him what at first glance looks like a beefed up Ministry

b) that since his announcement that he would be taking over the MEPA portfolio after the elections – which promise to be fair he did indeed keep – he did not take any corrective measures about a MEPA permit for the building of a supermarket on agricultural land between Safi and Kirkop on what is reported to have been agricultural land without apparently consulting any of the local councils nearby.

c) That Gonzi did nothing to stop the green light for what seems to be an irregularly approved construction when the board members responsible apparently stepped down due to this shameful permit.

d) Why did the PM show political impotence when on the 26.2.08 the MEPA auditor published an investigative report, confirming that the permit for the said supermarket was a ‘gross irregularity’ and that MEPA’s Planning Directorate had given seven reasons as to why the supermarket was not to be approved?

e) Is he contemplating any action – criminal or otherwise – against the DCC board allegedly responsible for having defied all these factors and issued the permit on 6.11.07?

f) Even more serious is why are MEPA’s boards now back in business and in full swing as of to-day 1st of April when by the time this article is being written no MEPA reform process has been evidently undertaken or initiated?

g) Why did the holier-than-thou Lawrence Gonzi choose to take the admittedly bold decision of freezing all post election development permits for a while, without having had the political courage and determination to do so also regarding the various development permits that were hurried through by a newly and quickly appointed DCC days and hours before the general elections proper?

h) That inspite of being a former President of the Catholic Action he has just ended up under fire by the Archbishop’s Curia for his mishandling of environmental and MEPA issues that fell under his government’s political responsibility.

As someone said Gonzi was right on one issue.

IVA, FLIMKIEN KOLLOX POSSIBBLI! Word perfect indeed!

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Leo Brincat is a Labour MP for the 9th District.