It seems that for the Nationalist administration being the defender of il-valuri (values) means saying No to divorce and paint a face of shock and awe in private circles when told, by some genuine supporter, about all this talk of gay rights and cohabitation or about censorship and what have you.
All this is so hypocritical. I can’t see how people fail to read through the Nationalist administration’s true soul.
When it comes to the crunch of it, valuri stop short when business interests and money are concerned. Let me give two examples.
First example: The Trafigura toxic cargo case. This paper had revealed that part of the toxic waste which – according to some scientists – later led to the death and severe sickness of innocent Ivorians, was produced at Hurd’s Bank, in or off Maltese territorial waters. Later on, I revealed more details about this case: the exact date when this production of toxic waste was made at Hurd’s Bank (so that the government might perhaps wake up and do some checking about all this) and that two out of the three ships, apart from the Probo Koala, involved in this horrible mess, were registered in Malta.
It’s all so disgusting and revolting. I still have to meet one single person in Malta who feels that anything is fair in the name of money making. Rather, all the honest citizens who have spoken to me about the Trafigura case have stated in no uncertain terms that they are sad at the way Malta’s name was tainted due to this cruel and ugly incident.
Then, almost by accident, we get to know that the company which won Enemalta’s term supply contract for 0.7 per cent sulphur oil between August 2010 and January 2011 was... Trafigura! All talk of valuri and ‘holier than thou’ attitude that the Nationalists portray all the time, 24/7, goes out of the window. Out of all companies in the world, Enemalta awards a contract of 240,000 metric tonnes to the same company which a few years before had shocked the world through its gross ‘insensitivity’, for want of a better word!
We have all the details: the supply is due to arrive in eight different lots and the vessels will be discharged at Marsa and Delimara. Of course, the government does not even bat an eyelid about the past of Trafigura – well after all we’re not discussing divorce or gay rights so there’s no need to try and be holier than the Pope. After all, the people out there don’t understand the nitty gritties...
The Nationalists in office are so fake!
Second example: The whole BWSC issue. We had a multi-million contract being signed in the dark, a consultant which was blacklisted by the World Bank but not by the government, a company which has a history of bad practice to say the least, people who netted a couple of millions in commissions, the Auditor General who said that there was no conclusive evidence of corruption, meaning that there were patches of evidence which when taken together did not reach the level of proof required by criminal law (the beyond reasonable doubt test), and various sub-contractors who have an ugly past behind them to mention just a few.
All this seams to be a plot taken out of Stieg Larsson’s Lizbeth Salander series. Almost surreal. And yet all this happened under the Nationalist government tal-valuri. Worse than that, they all voted in favour of this project in Parliament, including those who supposedly have Marsaxlokk and Delimara at heart.
I, for one, can’t stand hypocrisy any longer and I’m sure that notwithstanding the vast experience the Nationalists have in painting saintly masks to cover their true faces, the people out there are smelling and feeling the rotten financial immorality which is characterising this administration.
The only two beliefs which they have ‘incepted’ in their brains are staying in power at all costs and feeding the circle of friends of friends. And no, these two inceptions are not valuri.
Owen Bonnici is Labour spokesman for youth and culture
[email protected]