‘Dalli’ Articles at j’accuse

It has just been reported that Joseph Muscat considered his invitation to Dr Mallia to resign as a matter of courtesy. The impression that the Joseph Muscat of 15.00 hrs today wants to give is that the Joseph Muscat of 21.00 hours (approximately) yesterday was not simply asking Dr Mallia to consider the possibility of resigning (after reading his homework) but rather that it was a case of handing him the rope to go hang himself.

Much of the Prime Minister’s reputation hangs on whether this latest interpretation that he gives of what went on between him and Mallia once the report was out is believable. Did Muscat really decide that Mallia had to go and give him an honourable way out or did he really hope that Mallia would get the hint and save him the trouble of having to sack him? In the end Muscat went ahead and sacked Mallia (with no resignation letter in sight) and appointed his replacement.

There is an interesting twist though. Someone else who has been collaborating closely with the Labour government is currently in court precisely on a similar matter as that with which Mallia was confronted. Muscat has worked closely with John Dalli who, as far as he (Dalli) is concerned, is still a Commissioner of the European Union. Dalli had problems understanding whether he was invited to resign or whether he was sacked during a historic meeting with former Commission President Barroso.

Muscat has had no qualms about working with the ex-Commissioner notwithstanding Dalli’s interpretation of events. This begs the question: When does Muscat think that an offer to resign is a matter of courtesy and when does he believe it is actually an indirect way to sack a person?

Just as all the oohs and aahs were beginning to gain momentum, the government has made it abundantly clear that the Dalli Mater Dei report does not represent an official government position. It might, on the face of it, seem strange that the government is distancing itself from what is definitely turning out to be a damning report of “bad practices under GonziPN”. It is not strange however when you step back and look at it in the general order of how the Taghna Lkoll government functioned – both when in opposition and now that it is in government. Muscat tends to prefer the non-committal policy which is really a non-policy. What happens is that the Labour party gains time acting like some kind of all-encompassing party (Musumeci’s ridiculous concept of “moviment”) and then when it has sussed out what popular opinion is on the subject it goes ahead and claims some kind of ownership of the idea – or ditches it as someone elses.

Taghna Lkoll is still learning that this kind of modus operandi does not always work – just look at the passport for sale fiasco: the turnaround occurred too late since the law had already been enacted and the egg was splashed all over the government’s face and reputation. Dalli’s report, loaded as it is with innuendos of personal vendettas and burdned with the unfinished business in Brussels might still turn out not to be such a smoking gun that does any good to Labour’s purposes. Already the nurses are up in arms (whether rightly or not is another issue) so what does Muscat do? Well, via his metatron the Health Minister he declares that the Dalli report is “not the government’s position”. Next we will have two boards examining the report itself – it’s beginning to sound like an administrative nightmare.

Muscat will not ask you not to shoot the messenger. He’s actually quite happy to put the messenger high on a pedestal and have him as a prime target… deflecting attention from whatever position he may eventually end up taking. What is important is that there is a new spin trying to breathe new life into the idea of “the wastage and corruption under the nationalists”. Still governing by opposition, still unable to actually print that roadmap we heard of so often in the run up to last election.

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