MaltaToday Special Edition 19 June

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Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando yesterday backed a Labour motion calling for the resignation of the PN’s main strategist from EU ambassador.

Has Lawrence Gonzi been hit at his inner core’s central nervous system?

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News Analysis

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

Lawrence Gonzi entering parliament yesterday

PM expresses surprise at vote but accepts Cachia Caruana’s resignation Jesmond Mugliett abstains after Pullicino Orlando votes for Labour motion PRIME Minister Lawrence Gonzi suffered a second defeat inside his parliamentary group Monday evening, when Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando voted in favour of an Opposition motion calling for the resignation of permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana.

Nationalist MP Jesmond Mugliett abstained on the motion, which accused Cachia Caruana of having manoeuvred the reactivation of Malta’s participation in Nato’s Partnership for Peace in such a manner as to bypass the House’s need for ratification of PfP. The vote was passed with 35 votes in favour of the Opposition motion and 33 against as Jesmond Mugliett abstained.

Lawrence Gonzi told MaltaToday he was surprised at the vote, saying there was an understanding within the parliamentary group that all MPs would vote against the Opposition motion. “I am surprised that one MP voted in favour

and another abstained on this motion.”

Gonzi said he accepted Richard Cachia Caruana’s resignation as permanent representative to the EU, but asked Cachia Caruana to stay on until such time as a substitute is found to take his place in Brussels.

“The Opposition’s motion was motivated by personal reasons against Cachia Caruana. Labour is putting its own interests ahead of the country’s at this delicate time.

Justice will prevail, even if today it has been betrayed.”

But Gonzi said that as long as he had the support of the parliamentary majority, his position and that of the government was sustainable. “I still respect the decision of the House.”

In comments to MaltaToday, Mugliett said PfP reactivation which was announced three weeks after the PN’s re-election in March 2008 when parliament was still in dissolution - had not been in the

party’s electoral programme.

“After the general election, since PfP was not listed in the electoral manifesto, this had to be discussed in parliament, irrespective of whether there was a legal obligation or not. It was a matter of importance that needed parliamentary consent. Even if there was no consent, it had to be discussed in the House.”

On his part, after a speech in which he accused Richard Cachia Caruana of having used media acolytes of targeting critics of the PN and the government, Pullicino Orlando told this newspaper: “No official should consider himself above this House.”

Throughout his speech, Pullicino Orlando insisted that Cachia Caruana had pushed Malta into reactivating Partnership for Peace in a such a manner as to bypass a divisive vote, and said this had also led to Malta’s support of Turkish EU membership without consulting the parliamentary group.

Labour leader Joseph Muscat, in a press conference called at the party’s headquarters, said the loss of yet another motion for the government was a confirmation of a “meltdown” inside the Nationalist one-seat majority.

“This motion was a clear vote in favour of Labour’s motion, and one against the position of the prime minister, who chose to stay in denial and instead target Labour with his base attacks,” Muscat said.

“The GonziPN system has failed and it is no longer sustainable.

What happened today attests to this failure, of the failure of Lawrence Gonzi’s leadership and it has nothing to do with any MP.” Muscat said the so called ‘GonziPN’ system was now in meltdown, and its effects were being felt on the government’s stability and the governability of democracy during a time of recession. “It is clear that Gonzi’s leadership has no solutions left at all.”

This motion is the second blow for Lawrence Gonzi after the motion of no confidence in Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, which was passed after Nationalist MP Franco Debono voted with the Opposition. The minister resigned immediately.

Cachia Caruana has formerly been a PN campaign manager and a personal assistant to former prime minister Eddie Fenech, He then negotiated Malta’s accession to the EU, and was appointed permanent representative to the EU in 2004.

The Opposition motion, calling for his resignation, is based on US embassy cable leaked by Wikileaks, which quotes American officials saying Cachia Caruana supported a ‘procedural bandaid’ to revive Malta’s partnership for peace agreement without having to go the House for a divisive vote.

By Jurgen Balzan and Miriam Dalli

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

3 MaltaToday, MediaToday Co. Ltd, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 MANAGING DIRECTOR: ROGER DE GIORGIO MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN 5FM Æ 'BY

Website: www.maltatoday.com.mt E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt

Editorial

The end of the tether Yesterday’s vote in parliament did not only bring to an abrupt end an illustrious 30-year career behind the scenes of the Nationalist Party – a career which can only be described as remarkable by any standard, regardless of how unpopular the person himself may have always been in political circles – but it also ended, with spectacular aplomb, the illusion of a government that felt it could simply carry on shrugging off all challenges to its slender parliamentary majority indefinitely.

At face value, the subject of yesterday’s parliamentary debate was whether or not Richard Cachia Caruana, as Malta’s permanent representative to the European Union, had acted behind parliament’s back in negotiating (some would say ‘engineering’) Malta’s readmission to Partnership for Peace in 2008.

It is perhaps for this reason that the Opposition’s motion of censure failed to strike a chord among the public at large. Both the claims made by Labour MPs, and the subsequent parliamentary discussion in the House’s foreign affairs committee, turned out to be highly technical in nature: revolving around questions of protocol and procedure which, by definition, cannot be expected to excite national interest.

All along, however, there was simmering beneath the surface a latent volcano of resentment and antipathy, which all but the most observant of political observers had curiously failed to take into account.

When Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando stood up in parliament yesterday, he prefaced his contribution to this debate by claiming that he would not resort to ‘personal’ issues; but rather, he would limit himself only to the specifics of the motion presented by Labour.

And yet he went on to devote almost 90% of his speech to issues that, prima facie, appear to have had nothing whatsoever to do with the motion: outlining various instances in which Cachia Caruana could be seen to have orchestrated specific media attacks on persons within the Nationalist administration (himself included); and quoting a variety of public figures to illustrate his point that the permanent representative to Brussels had arrogated unto himself powers far beyond the remit of his official position.

In fact, Pullicino Orlando succinctly condensed his entire thesis with a single image – that of a government that had been hijacked by a clique of untouchable, power-hungry individuals, with Richard Cachia Caruana perched firmly at the helm of this unofficial hierarchy.

In an unusually candid delivery, Pullicino Orlando went on to single out by name a number of high-profile media personalities – Daphne Caruana Galizia, Lou Bondi, Andrew Borg Cardona and Fr Joe Borg – who he claimed form part of a coterie of strategically-placed media commentators, tasked with the

specific purpose of defending that same clique’s interests.

In what can only described as a wideranging attack on his own government – mostly for the shabby way in which Pullicino Orlando felt he had been exploited to turn around the 2008 election, and then promptly rejected the moment he was no longer of any political use – the Zebbug MP sounded precisely as if he were motivated by purely personal concerns.

At one point he even quoted a seemingly endless excerpt from an article penned by Caruana Galizia shortly after the 2008 election: an article in which Pullicino Orlando claimed the Bidnija blogger had ‘confirmed’ that Cachia Caruana was the man behind an organized media campaign aimed at forcing him to resign his parliamentary seat.

He went on to list numerous other instances in which Cachia Caruana had irked or antagonized his own political allies within the Nationalist Party – arguing that as many as 10 PN parliamentarians felt the same way about Malta’s permanent representative to Brussels, though they would not be voting with the Opposition on this motion.

The full list of Nationalist MPs to have borne the brunt of media attacks allegedly instigated by Cachia Caruana – mostly undertaken by Daphne Caruana Galizia – remains in fact an impressive display of a party that seems to have gone into self destruct mode in recent years.

Robert Arrigo, Jean Pierre Farrugia, Louis Galea, Ninu Zammit, Guido de Marco, John Dalli, Michael Frendo and Jesmond Mugliett were among the names of Nationalist exponents highlighted by Pullicino Orlando as ‘victims’ of media smear campaigns‌ all of which, he insinuated, could be traced directly to Cachia Caruana’s door.

It was only in the last few minutes of his address that Pullicino Orlando eventually turned his attention to the Labour motion: arguing (quite convincingly, it must be said) that Cachia Caruana had unilaterally dictated Malta’s policy of support for Turkey’s EU membership bid, for reasons which were alien to the actual issue at hand, and without any form of discussion in the parliamentary group‌ still less in Parliament.

Impartial listeners would have however detected an unmistakable bias in the Zebbug MP’s thrust: Pullicino Orlando has been viscerally opposed to Turkish EU accession, and came across yesterday as particularly resentful that the sensitive matter of Malta’s support for this development – a support that is by no means shared by the population at large - would have been negotiated behind closed doors and without Parliamentary approval.

However, in the light of the subsequent vote – in which two National-

ist MPs refused to toe the party line: Pullicino Orlando voting against, and Jesmond Mugliett abstaining – it ultimately matters little whether any of these accusations are borne out or otherwise by the facts of the case.

Ultimately, this was – as Nationalist MP Charlo Bonnici so ruefully tweeted immediately after the speech – a case of ‘payback’ more than of politics.

For this reason Pullicino Orlando’s one-man backbencher revolt also speaks volumes about the extent to which the Nationalist Party has for years now been eaten from within by internecine squabbling: illustrating in the process the curious stamp of leadership that Lawrence Gonzi has placed on that party since he took over the helm in 2004.

Yesterday’s parliamentary debacle in fact placed its finger squarely on the root cause of the now evident malaise within the PN. If Pullicino Orlando’s speech yesterday can be described as personally motivated, Gonzi’s defence of Richard Cachia Caruana was surprisingly weak, given the extent of the possible repercussions in the case of defeat.

In fact there was nothing that Gonzi said yesterday which he hadn’t already said countless times before‌ mostly couched in the same inaccessible terms that makes this whole issue so uninteresting as far as the wider public is concerned.

Moreover it became painfully obvious to all who listened that Gonzi, even at this late stage, remains in denial as to what yesterday’s parliamentary vote was really all about. Unlike Pullicino Orlando, he chose to stick exclusively to the arguments brought forward by the Opposition– even if these were very clearly not the real reason why at least two of his own Parliamentary colleagues would go on to ignore their Prime Minister’s impassioned appeal for ‘justice’, and defy his calls for a No vote.

Gonzi will probably keep denying this all the way to the bitter end, but yesterday’s revolt by two government MPs was not, ultimately, dictated the reactivation of PfP at all. As such: to what avail was his argument that the Attorney General had twice opined that this same reactivation did not need parliamentary ratification? And what was the point in using his halfhour intervention to endlessly bash the Opposition‌ when the real problem did not lie with the Opposition at all, but within his own government bench?

Even if we close an eye at the undeniable fact that Gonzi ignored the real issue at hand, his speech remained a weak and rather disappointing defence of a man who (for all his faults) was ultimately a far more valuable component of government’s team than others whom Gonzi defended with greater determination.

Apart from coming across as a lukewarm and somewhat perfunctory at-

tempt to stick up for a beleaguered ally, Gonzi’s delivery yesterday managed to underscore his own image as a Prime Minister who has lost sight of where the real problems lie. His line of attack – i.e., that the Opposition had stooped to new levels of dishonesty and incompetence – was typical of what one would expect from a Nationalist leader who knows he can rely on the support of a united party behind him.

And yet, that is arguably the last thing that Gonzi can rely on at the moment. So not only did he ignore the elephant in the room‌ but he carried on ignoring it even after it had just trumpeted in his own ear.

In so doing, Lawrence Gonzi succeeded in illustrating the exact nature of the problem crippling his own government. It is now a government that constantly points its fingers in all directions: blaming its problems on everything except itself, even when it is now very visibly being eaten from within.

From this perspective the Nationalist Party would be well advised to take stock of the real root cause of its own discomfiture now resides. Pullicino Orlando may have opened himself up to criticism for seeking a personal vendetta‌ but few can realistically deny that he was spot on in his diagnosis of the PN’s current disease.

His reference to the intolerable tendency of internal dissenters to be savagely torn apart by media pit-bulls was indicative of a situation that has now been exacerbated beyond any reasonable limit. Whether justified or otherwise, his exasperation at the situation was nothing if not fully understandable.

But while Gonzi has played to the usual Nationalist script by loudly decrying the tactics used by the Opposition, he has done nothing to stop the Nationalist Party from tearing itself to pieces through this same, reprehensible strategy of publicly humiliating its own members. And this has been the case now for almost five whole years.

This has all along been an untenable situation, and now that Gonzi has publicly lost the support of two of his backbenchers – not counting Franco Debono, who has similarly proved uncooperative (to say the least)– it is as though the Nationalist administration has finally come to the end of its tether.

It can no longer forge ahead regardless, pretending that it simply doesn’t have a problem – as it has tried so unconvincingly to do since December.

It can no longer disguise the dissent within its own ranks. These problems are now not only staring us in the face, but shouting in our ears.

With all this in mind, Prime Minister Gonzi should really think twice before trying to keep up the futile pretence that all these issues are merely figments of our imagination.

Quote to remember The cable was published by MaltaToday. As always I have the tendency to ignore what appears in MaltaToday – Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana testifying in parliament’s foreign affairs committee - 6 June 2012

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Analysis

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

Analysis

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

JPO’s last laugh?

The man who paved the way for divorce to be introduced under Lawrence Gonzi’s watch, has brought down the man perceived to be the power behind the throne. What does yesterday’s vote say about the long-term legacy of a man who made all this possible? JAMES DEBONO investigates ONLY a few months ago, after enshrining his name in history as the man whose private members’ bill on divorce signalled a definitive break in Church-State relations, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando decided to call it a day from politics.

Judging by a MaltaToday survey showing that he had little chance of getting elected on the Nationalist ticket (being distrusted by 43% of Nationalist voters, and trusted by only 31%), it seemed to be a way of bowing out of the political scene in an honourable way.

Yet this announcement also freed his hand completely from any concern of not being elected next time round.

JPO may well claim that he has been a thorn in the government’s side since before Gonzi’s re-election in 2008.

In fact he built a reputation of a politician guided by strong environmental principles, when he opposed the development of cement plant in Siggiewi and a temporary landfill a short distance from the prehistoric temples of Mnajdra.

Then came the shock: Alfred Sant’s pre electoral revelation that Pullicino Orlando, back then perceived to be a loyal ally of Lawrence Gonzi, was the owner of pristine land in Mistra earmarked for the development of the MEPA-approved ‘Spin Valley’ disco.

This contrasted with Lawrence Gonzi’s promise to redress the country’s environmental deficit.

But instead of ditching him on the eve of the general election, the GonziPN electoral machine excelled in turning an embarrassment in to a political opportunity, turning Pullicino Orlando into a martyr of Alfred Sant’s antics.

This reached a climax when Alfred Sant refused to confront JPO in a press conference, to which Pullicino Orlando was sent as a PN journalist.

Yet once elected with a staggering 5,131 votes from two districts, Pullicino Orlando quickly became an embarrassment to the PN. Not only were Sant’s allegations proved right, and the permit for the disco revoked‌ but the MP who had proved so useful an electoral asset was suddenly turned into a pariah subjected to the criticism of PN-friendly media pundits after the general election.

Former PN general secretary Joe Saliba frankly admitted that Pullicino Orlando’s fiery show of defence had led the PN to victory; but still declared that the MP should have resigned upon being elected.

Ultimately Pullicino symbolised ‘GonziPN’ – the disparate coalition which reassured Gonzi’s re-election but was pregnant with all sorts of contradictions, including the personal recriminations of those who felt excluded from the inner echelons of the party despite having played a role in its re election.

A cathedral too far

Upon being elected in 2008, JPO flatly refused to disappear. Instead of resigning, he embarked on creating a niche for himself: becoming the first MP to test Gonzi’s one seat majority, by striking out against a project in which Richard Cachia Caruana was involved as a member of the St John Co-Cathedral Foundation.

The involvement of Cachia Caruana was significant: as the PN’s foremost strategist, it was natural for JPO to view the ‘eminence grise’ as an em-

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ing to vote against divorce after the referendum was approved.

The divorce issue also brought to the fore a split between the party’s liberal and conservative wings: even if one can argue that by forcing a resolution of the divorce issue before the general election, JPO has done his party a favour by nullifying a potential electoral asset for the Opposition.

This was not the last sortie by Pullicino Orlando into the civil liberties camp. In March he became the first parliamentarian to propose gay marriage. Ironically, by doing so he made sure that it would be a Nationalist MP to be the first to make such a proposal.

Turkey trouble

By setting the divorce locomotive in motion, he struck at the heart of the party’s identity, putting the PM in an embarrassing situation of having to vote against divorce after the referendum was approved bodiment of the party which had used him and dumped him.

The controversial project, opposed

by Astrid Vella’s Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, envisaged an underground museum to house St John’s collection of Flemish tapestries.

In this way JPO could rehabilitate his name by re-inventing himself as a defender of a symbol of Malta’s heritage. while also getting at the man whom he blamed for first milking him for all he was worth; then banishing him to the political wilderness.

In the end, JPO got the first taste of victory by testing for the first time Gonzi’s one seat majority. In February 2009, the project was withdrawn.

But it was only after Gonzi’s dismal performance in the MEP elections in which Labour won 55% that Pullicino Orlando first hinted at his resentment at the way the party had treated

him before the election mentioning Cachia Caruana by name as the man whose orders he followed during the Mistra controversy.

As votes were still being counted Pullicino Orlando, expressed his resentment in an interview with MaltaToday.

In that interview, he revealed that before the general election, when he faced Sant’s allegations on Mistra, he had acted according to the instructions he received from Richard Cachia Caruana. “He would always give the instructions. The Prime Minister told me to follow his instructions to the letter.

And I did.�

In the interview he invited Gonzi to “watch this space� and in subsequent months he did everything possible to retain his visibility.

And Gonzi did watch Pullicino’s

He revealed that before the general election, when he faced Sant’s allegations on Mistra, he had acted according to the instructions he received from Richard Cachia Caruana

space: appointing him chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology in March 2010. But this did not stop Pullicino Orlando from expressing very unorthodox views.

Pullicino Orlando kept himself busy in his attempts to carve a niche on the political scene. For a while he toyed with anti-immigration sentiments. In two articles published in The Times in 2009, he argued that Malta should consider opting out of its international obligations. He also suggested towing immigrants within swimming distance to Libya – a declaration, which blots Pullicino Orlando’s liberal credentials.

The ‘bolt from the blue’

Yet it was Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s decision to drop a bombshell on Lawrence Gonzi, by setting the divorce locomotive into motion, which will ensures the MP’s place in history.

Teaming up with Labour exponents like Evarist Bartolo and Green Party chairperson Michael Briguglio also helped the maverick MP dispel memories of Mistra, thus rehabilitating his name among opposition voters.

Moreover on this single issue Pullicino Orlando felt safe enough to vote for an opposition motion proposing the wording of the referendum question: on which the Prime Minister allowed a free vote on his bench. This was the only occasion prior to yesterday where Pullicino Orlando voted against government.

But by setting the divorce locomotive in motion, he struck at the heart of the party’s identity, putting the PM in an embarrassing situation of hav-

It seemed that JPO had reconciled himself to basking in the limelight as Malta’s leading “liberal� parliamentarian. Then he surprised everyone by opening fire on the issue of Turkish membership in the European Union.

What seemed a non-issue for most Maltese – except for a few doctrinaire ‘Islamophobes’ – can be seen to have its own hidden logic directed against Richard Cachia Caruana.

For it was during this petty controversy that Pullicino Orlando re-exhumed the cable in which Richard Cachia Caruana had lobbied for Malta’s entry in Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme.

This set another locomotive in motion, which eventually led to today’s vote.

Possibly sensing Pullicino Orlando’s motives, the Opposition immediately pounced on the government’s fragile one seat majority presenting a motion to ask for the resignation of Cachia Caruana. Unlike Franco Debono, Pullicino Orlando’s silence kept everyone guessing. Also unlike Debono, he voted against the Opposition’s motion asking for the resignation of Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

His only statement was to reiterate the view that an election should be the best way forward in the circumstances.

But this did not keep Pullicino Orlando from voting in favour of government in a confidence vote the following Monday.

For Pullicino Orlando, the backlash for voting against government on the Richard

Cachia Caruana motion is a calculated one.

Having already declared that he will not be contesting the next election, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has put himself in a position where he is no longer accountable to the electorate for his actions.

Neither can Gonzi do much to punish him for his insubordination, as he still depends on his vote in parliament to continue the legislature. Moreover, in the case of Richard Cachia Caruana one does one expect the same wave of public sympathy generated by Franco Debono’s vote against Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

A survey conducted by MaltaToday shows that nearly half the electorate are oblivious to Cachia Caruana’s fate; while 27% are against and 24% in favour of Labour’s motion. Clearly the Labour motion has not struck a chord with the electorate; nor has the Prime Minister’s defence of his man in Brussels sparked much sympathy for the Cachia Caruana.

Besides, like Franco Debono before him, Pullicino Orlando has managed to settle his score with an individual cabinet member, thanks to his collusion with the opposition. What the opposition gets from the bargain is further confirmation of the government’s instability.

This collusion may well be Pullicino Orlando’s major weakness after yesterday’s vote. For now he risks being perceived as a turncoat or a closet Labour supporter.

This may well not be the best note for a politician to end his political career, but who said that this is Pullicino Orlando’s last hurrah to GonziPN?

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News

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

News

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

THE BIG PAYBACK MATTHEW VELLA JURGEN BALZAN AND MIRIAM DALLI IT looked as if Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando would give MPs and his listening audience the usual spiel expected of every other MP and toe the party line.

As it turned out, Pullicino Orlando did not toe the line. He regaled the House with a speech that hit back at Malta’s permanent representative to the EU – Richard Cachia Caruana – the former personal assistant to Eddie Fenech Adami and now one of the PN’s chief strategists, reinforcing the impression of his behind-thescenes manoeuvring, personal campaigns against dissenting MPs, and his use of mainstream and unofficial media to carry out his bidding.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi must have steeled himself the minute he took the floor to berate the Opposition’s tactics, which he claimed were exploiting his party’s weak links, and in the process giving democracy a bad name, by attacking a civil servant. It was just minutes after Pullicino Orlando had declared he will vote in favour of the Opposition’s motion calling for Cachia Caruana’s resignation.

Pullicino Orlando, claiming first he had no personal quarrel with Cachia Caruana, held no punches back from his personal dissection of the man who had coached him into an attack-dog strategy against former Labour leader Alfred Sant in the last general elections, so much so that it paid back: the PN won the 2008 election and JPO was elected on two districts.

But, the MP said, he believed the US embassy cables released

by Wikileaks and what they said about RCC. He believed this on the basis of his own personal experience at the hands of the unofficial media that does RCC’s bidding.

Gonzi, having heard he was now about to lose a second motion against one of his allies, must have thought that turning it into a vote of confidence – as Alfred Sant did fatefully back in 1998 – was the next step. For some time during his speech to the House, in his re-

Getting ready for action: Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando enters the House, and (right) Lawrence Gonzi, not yet aware of the unexpected outcome of the vote

lentless criticism of Labour’s “base and shameful” motion, Gonzi alluded that all responsibility lay at his own feet. Cachia Caruana had, after all, been following “my orders, and the Cabinet’s orders, into doing what he had to do as any civil servant is expected to do.”

But despite his defence, it was not to be: the prime minister knew better than to risk going for early elections to save a high-ranking,

powerful and influential civil servant with no form of electoral gain for himself. Gonzi clocked off and declared his conviction in voting against the motion. The rest, was history. Much like Cachia Caruana (but not entirely…)

The crucial turning point in Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s speech came after he listed the many instances in which critics of the party had been earmarked for public

disdain by the journalists who do RCC’s bidding: Fr Joe Borg, media academic and broadcasting advisor to the education minister; Andrew Borg Cardona, corpulent columnist for The Times and one of the government’s staunch apologists, Times journalist Ivan Camilleri, the Bondiplus presented Lou Bondì, and Daphne Caruana Galizia, columnist for The Malta Independent and whose person-

al, poison-pen blog has been the source of several attacks against the government’s main critics and dissenting MPs. At first, Pullicino Orlando started off his speech with a reference to the unfortunate ousting of home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici, claiming that the circumstances of his departure had indeed been unfair. “Surely there were shortcomings in the home

affairs ministry, but I did feel he should have not been targeted in that manner. And we certainly shouldn’t look to make sacrificial lambs of people simply for partisan gains.

“So if this is what happened with Mifsud Bonnici, it seems we could have avoided that situation had we discussed the Franco Debono motion on justice reforms before that of the Opposition. But that’s

water under the bridge.”

Pullicino Orlando here turned to Cachia Caruana, revealing from the start that the two had held a sort of meeting at the MP’s house, ostensibly to iron out some outstanding matters between the two.

“The media reports of discord between the two of us are untrue. In my work as MCST chairman I have often turned to him for advice. On a personal basis we have a good relationship… it is not true Cachia Caruana and myself had some personal fallout. The fact is we cannot be led by our personal sentiments, but by the interests of the people.”

But from here on, Pullicino Orlando took the House on a winding tour of the last four years in which Cachia Caruana – long dubbed the power behind the throne – was exposed as the very eminence grise he is often been portrayed, confirming such comments as those made

by Labour MP Leo Brincat of being “larger than life”.

And in making his own judgement of RCC, which Pullicino Orlando said was that the permanent ambassador did work behind the scenes to secure the reactivation of the Partnership for Peace without House approval, the MP decided to analyse “the way Mr Cachia Caruana works in terms of this country’s democratic norms.”

“Is it true that Cachia Caruana abused of his position, showing

contempt for this parliament’s sovereignty? I agreed with the prime minister, who told me personally that Mr Cachia Caruana had to be given all opportunity to defend himself on the foreign affairs committee, on the accusations that were based on the Wikileaks cables.

“But to correctly analyse these cables, we have to see whether it is true that Cachia Caruana used his influence in an improper manner.”

And there started Pullicino Orlando’s incursion into the way the power of the media was wielded

by Cachia Caruana to hit out at critics or dissenting MPs, him included, over the past four years.

“It is a well recognised fact that Cachia Caruana has an enormous influence on journalists and opinionists who ingratiate themselves with power, and RCC is without doubt one of the people who has the most power and influence in Malta...

“There are those who are his

acolytes and stand personally to gain from their proximity to him, amongst them Daphne Caruana Galzia, Andrew Borg Cardona, Lou Bondì, and Fr Joe Borg. But you also have to see how those other journalists who didn’t enjoy his patronage were treated.”

Here he quoted a recent letter to the Malta Independent by Roger Mifsud, a former deputy editor at The Times, who described Cachia Caruana as “an unscrupulous bully” for not having been one of the more accommodating members of the press to the then personal assistant to the prime minister.

“I can mention other victims.

The late Guido de Marco, whose funeral was marked by Daphne Caruana Galizia as a ‘hypocritical state funeral’ and ‘another party for me’; or John Dalli, whose forced resignation was prompted by a colleague of Lou Bondì at Where’s Everybody, and who described Joe Zahra’s false report as a plan to remove him when he

was viewed as a threat to others.

“These were serious accusations, and accusations that Richard Cachia Caruana had to take note of.”

The MP said several other MPs were the target of frequent criticism, namely Louis Galea, JeanPierre Farrugia, Jesmond Mugliett, Robert Arrigo, Ninu Zammit, and Michael Frendo.

“All were attacked because they were ready not to bow their heads down to everything they were told to do,” Pullicino Orlando said, insisting that there were at least 10 MPs in the House who wanted to vote for the motion because they felt Cachia Caruana used his influence to show “his utter disdain towards the democratic system of the country.”

“So how can one wield such influence and then expect not to be treated like a normal civil servant?” Pullicino Orlando asked.

Then the MP started detailing

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD

“It is a well recognised fact that Cachia Caruana has an enormous influence on journalists and opinionists who ingratiate themselves with power”

Revenge: a dish best served cold, as Richard Cachia Caruana must have found out yesterday in the House of Representatives

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“If ever there was proof that Labour has lost all political decency, then this is it.�

Lawrence Gonzi

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD

the way he had been used, ostensibly as some sacrificial lamb, as part of an attack-dog strategy against former Labour leader Alfred Sant during the last general elections when he was accused of having used his influence to obtain a MEPA permit for an openair disco on his land in Mistra. “I was accused unjustly by Sant of being corrupt, and then sent to pursue Sant – until then I wanted to ignore Sant’s allegations with a simple statement. But I obeyed, and every step I took and every word I said was under the absolute and rigorous direction of Cachia Caruana. “It was not easy facing down Sant, but I managed to convince so many undecided voters that I was saying the truth and turned the tide – as was even stated by [former secretary-general] Joe Saliba – in our favour. And this was down to Richard, through me of course.�

But Pullicino Orlando then said that after the 2008 election was won, and he was returned to parliament with over 5,000 votes, the bad blood being fomented against him by the members of the press was being fomented by Cachia Caruana.

Pullicino Orlando repeated previous claims he made in court, that even Daphne Caruana Galizia had told him that Cachia Caruana had instigated her to make him resign his seat, quoting a long entry she made in her personal blog soon after the 2008 election. “Cachia Caruana was also told by the prime minister not to persist with these attacks, and those against Louis Galea, Robert Arrigo, John Dalli, Jean-Pierre Farrugia, and others.�

Pullicino Orlando’s tour de force was complete when he switched up the gear, claiming – to the contrary of his colleagues – that he did not have “the slightest doubtâ€? that Cachia Caruana did intend bypassing the House’s approval when he sought the so called ‘procedural bandaid’ to reactivate Malta’s participation in PfP. “We ended up supporting Turkish EU membership, because Richard Cachia Caruana wanted to reactivate Malta’s PfP application‌ I support Malta’s participation in PfP, but even the Irish held a referendum on it.â€?

Before his time was up, Pullicino Orlando seemed to sound a cautionary note to the Prime Minister, telling him he did not need to call a vote of confidence. “Because I will still support the government,� he said, setting the stage for the most inevitable of outcomes when he declared he will vote in favour

The game-changer: Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando voted in favour of the Labour motion and prompted the resignation of an old foe, Richard Cachia Caruana of the Labour motion.

As soon as Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando sat down, reporters witnessed government whip David Agius glance at the MP with some sense of resignation. As Lawrence Gonzi later said, the parliamentary group had resolved to vote against the motion – and clearly enough, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had just shown the House he was not about to accept the will of his masters.

Lawrence Gonzi chose to focus his attack on the Opposition, accusing it of having exploited the

weaknesses of his parliamentary group to its own base, partisan ends. “We have a motion presented by Labour that attacks a person, this time an ambassador of the country for reasons that are indeed indescribable, except that they attack the loyalty of this person, and incorrectly so, using parliament to achieve this end,� Gonzi started.

The prime minister had harsh words for the Labour opposition, accusing it of having “once again� taken the country’s political

standards to their lowest levels in a bid to acquire power at all costs “by attacking a person who has worked in the national interest of our country.� “If ever there was proof that Labour has lost all political decency, then this is it.�

At this point, Gonzi appeared to reinforce a notion previously floated by other government MPs that civil servants had to remain untouched by the censure of MPs, and that political responsibility had to stop with ministers.

“If anything this vote should be about me, because Richard Cachia Caruana followed my decision, with the authority of the Cabinet.

But Labour are out to get Richard Cachia Caruana. “This was my very position in the foreign affairs committee, but my appeal has fallen on deaf ears because Labour is exploiting the fact that an MP from the government side is backing this motion.�

Gonzi did concede that he was saddened by this state of affairs, seeing that he would lose yet an-

other political ally within the space of a few weeks. But he kept up the attack on Labour, saying theirs was an accusation without any substantial evidence. “The Opposition is only happy to throw more mud‌ in 2004 we had tried to find a solution to the fact that we had no access to Nato classified documents, and we tried to argue that there was a security agreement in place, a minimalist approach to gaining access to these documents. But Labour demanded

that we seek their approval‌ “How can it be that Cachia Caruana is accused of working against the national interest when he was working on Cabinet’s orders? Labour’s opportunism is shameful – even a person accused of murder in our courts has more rights than somebody accused by the Opposition.â€?

Gonzi said he had been optimistic that the matter could be resolved in such a way that Cachia Caruana’s loyalty could be proven

beyond doubt. “I was mistaken.

The more this motion’s motives became misrepresented, the more ferocious the attack became.�

At this point, Gonzi questioned whether this was the right thing for MPs to be doing: to be passing such a judgement on a public official who was carrying out his duty according to what was expected of him.

But, as perhaps was after all expected, Gonzi did not turn the vote into one of political respon-

sibility and instead beckoned the House not to back the motion. At the end, political realism dictated that Cachia Caruana would have to follow the eventual outcome of the motion.

George Vella

Labour’s spokesman for foreign affairs, and co-signatory to the approved motion, George Vella said that despite the attacks perpetrated by the government side, Labour knew that it was right in

tabling the motion.

He however told the House in his address that the party was offended by accusations that it was corrupt. “The aim of our motion has always been of bringing back parliament the respect it merits as the highest institution of this country.

No one is above parliament, and no government should be subjected to the orders of others, especially by those who are not even elected by the people,� Vella told the House during the winding-up speech. “GonziPN has got used to acting behind parliament’s back, as evidenced in the way it approved the ministers’ honoraria increase,� he said harking back to the salary increase the Cabinet awarded itself back in May 2008.

He said the “biggest insult� the PN could do to Labour was to tell the Opposition how democracy works “after a track record of decisions taken behind parliament’s back�. “It is clear that GonziPN does not believe in parliamentary scrutiny and does away with it when convenient. It is afraid to stop at these sacred cows who dictate government’s agenda,� Vella said, referring to Cachia Caruana’s reputation as the ‘power behind the throne’. “The prime minister and his ministers have got used to work according to what Cachia Caruana tells them, following his orders blindly.�

Referring to the debate held within the parliament’s committee for foreign affairs, Vella lamented that the government had hindered the Opposition’s attempt to question Cachia Caruana. “It is shameful how the government side attempted to stop us from asking questions to an individual who is accountable to parliament and is paid out of the taxpayer’s money.�

He said that government had tried to scare the opposition by providing “an endless list of witnesses�. “Yet, it objected to the summoning of European Commissioner John Dalli. Even worse was Cachia Caruana’s attempt to threaten us by insisting that he would have sued us hadn’t we been protected by parliamentary privilege,� he said.

Vella said that as the democratic representatives of the people, it was the members of parliament who determine the country’s best interests and no one else.

Without mentioning her by name, Vella said Gonzi made use of columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s poison-pen blog to hit out at critics. “The Prime Minister is not even capable of stopping her,� he added.

Referring to the reactivation of the Partnership for Peace, Vella said Cachia Caruana had designed a plan and sought a strategy on his own of what he wanted. “With his plan, Cachia Caruana insisted on going against the will of the people who in 1996 voted for a Labour government whose electoral mandate included the removal of Malta from the programme.�

Vella added that at no point did Cachia Caruana feel the need to point out that parliament should discuss the reactivation. “On the other hand he sought plans by which government wouldn’t have the need to seek the advice of parliament.�

Vella insisted that had it not been for the cable released by WikiLeaks, the Opposition would have never known what went on behind everyone’s back: “No matter the outcome, the end doesn’t justify

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Owen Bonnici

Lawrence Gonzi and his parliamentary group, minus Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Jesmond Mugliett and Franco Debono, addresses the press after yesterday’s vote the means. Our motion condemns the lack of transparency and defends the people’s right to see that decisions are taken by the people they trust, those they elected to represent them.�

Luciano Busuttil

The parliamentary debate on the Cachia Caruana motion was opened by Labour MP Luciano Busuttil, co-signatory to the motion censoring Malta’s permanent representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana. He said that the motion was not against any country or against Nato itself.

Busuttil insisted that during the grilling both Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Cachia Caruana never denied the content of the

Wikileaks cables.

For several times during the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, both Gonzi and Cachia Caruana denied having acted behind parliament’s back in the reactivation of the Partnership for Peace and insisted that the cable did not report what was said during the meeting, but “the thoughts and impressions� of P. Michael McKinley, an official working for the American embassy. “Despite Cachia Caruana’s attempt to depict this motion as a form of personal attack against him, in reality this motion only shows the Prime Minister’s trend of taking decisions behind parliament’s back,� Busuttil said, likening the reactivation of the Part-

nership for Peace with Gonzi’s decision to increase the ministers’ honoraria.

Busuttil added that many things said by Cachia Caruana and Gonzi in the committee, did not add up. “For example, the Prime Minister was not able to explain why the decision to leave PfP in 1996 had been described as a ‘suspension’,� he said.

Busuttil also insisted that the Opposition was not against PfP: “Our motion is not against the reactivation of the PfP and we are not against Malta being a member. We are only expressing our disapproval for the way it was activated.�

He noted that it was very clear that Cachia Caruana knew things

which the prime minister himself did not know at the time. “In order not to make a bad situation worse, Cachia Caruana claimed he had not known that Malta would rejoin PfP as soon as the 2008 general election was over, even though Gonzi had told the US ambassador of his intentions.�

He added that through the motion, the Opposition had managed “to prove� that Cachia Caruana had “repeatedly acted behind Parliament’s back, fully aware of his decisions.�

Tonio Borg

Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said the Opposition’s motion was a throwback to cold war politics.

He explained that Labour had staunchly opposed PfP membership and up to some time ago Labour had been saying that PfP membership violated Malta’s constitution. “Although Labour now claims that it has changed its position, it seems that some exponents had not. For example, Charles Mangion declared that Malta should stay out of PfP just after the 2008 general.�

He added that even Joseph Muscat, on 18 May 2008, before being elected Labour leader, had said he disagreed with PfP membership.

Borg described the motion as a “smokescreen to hide Labour’s own u-turn on PfP.� “This motion was announced in

September last year, when it was revealed, through another Wikileaks cable, that Joseph Muscat had a meeting with the US ambassador Douglas Kmiec in which he said that PfP membership did not contravene the constitution.�

Borg said this meeting was held in 2009 but it was never made public until the document was revealed by Wikileaks. He added that Labour was then forced to issue a statement to say they it was not against PfP membership.

He spoke at length on how the Opposition’s motion was debated in the Foreign and European Affairs committee and criticised the Opposition for basing its motion on a document written by a US official who was not present in the

2004 meetings which the document referred to. On the other hand, he explained, that minutes of the same meetings were taken

by Maltese officials.

Borg explained that the 2004 meetings only dealt with how Malta could gain access to EUNato security documents without having to rejoin Partnership for Peace. He pointed out that the minutes and notes taken on the meeting mentioned in the Wikileaks cable do not show that Cachia Caruana was acting on behalf of or guided by Washington.

The minister added that Cachia Caruana was only acting on the instructions of the government and the Wikileaks cable did not “in any way prove that he was try-

ing to circumvent Parliament.�

Borg argued that if the Opposition’s motion was to be believed, how can anyone be accused of treason if the Opposition agrees with PfP partnership. He added that agreements were only taken to parliament once they were signed, if they required ratification.

In his closing comments, Borg said the Opposition’s motion was dangerous because Labour was holding a civil servant accountable and not a minister who was ultimately responsible for the actions of the employees in government departments. “This is dangerous for the Civil Service and could lead to a situation where civil servants were scared of giving advice and carrying out their

Labour MP Owen Bonnici, who also sits on the Foreign and European Affairs committee argued that the Prime Minister, according to the code of ethics, has the “ethical duty� to inform parliament of any decisions to be taken. “According to this code, every minister is responsible for any decisions taken and is dutybound to be accountable and to provide as much information as possible to parliament,� Bonnici said.

Bonnici lambasted the Prime Minister’s decision to “keep his mouth shut� on the reactivation of the PfP after the 2008 general elections.

He explained that essentially the framework of the motion is Parliamentary accountability and nothing else.

The Zejtun MP insisted that the Framework Document for PfP membership should have been presented for Parliamentary ratification in 1995 because the invitation for membership was issued and signed by the heads of governments of the PfP member states.

Bonnici noted that a wrong method was adopted once more in 2008, when, as soon as the PN won the general election, the government reactivated Malta’s PfP membership without consulting the Opposition, without holding a public debate, and without going before Parliament.

Bonnici said the prime minister and his ministers violated the ministerial code of conduct which stated that they had a duty to give account of their actions to parliament, its committees and the public.

However, Bonnici said the US ambassador was informed of Malta’s return to PfP several months before and well before the Maltese people were informed. “I think this is a serious matter and worries me. This is a stain on the history of this Parliament.�

He added that when the government signs such treaties more powers should be vested to Parliament and its committees.

Francis Zammit Dimech

During his speech, government MP Francis Zammit Dimech hit out at the Opposition’s motion “for the lack of substance� which made up the motion, insisting that it lacked all evidence. “There is nothing in the motion

which justifies the Opposition’s need to censure Richard Cachia Caruana,� Zammit Dimech said.

He added that the Opposition should have not persisted in discussing an “unsound motion� and accused Labour of “practicing old politics�.

Decrying the Opposition for its “opportunism�, Zammit Dimech said that during the justice and home affairs motion, the Opposition did not even amend its motion after Mifsud Bonnici lost the justice portfolio to the current minister Chris Said. “This is what the public needs to understand tonight: the citizen must analyse and judge the work of the Opposition and see through the opportunism behind its motions,� he said.

Quoting Lino Spiteri, Zammit Dimech said that the Opposition had wasted Parliament’s time by asking “useless� questions such as what was Cachia Caruana’s salary. “The Opposition, who’s used to political opportunism, doesn’t care about politics of substance or to even have the responsibility to come up with a substantiated motion.�

Zammit Dimech said that the Opposition was seeking to hinder government’s work, “so much so that it tabled the motion seven months after the publication of the cable�.

He argued that if the Opposition was “truly preoccupied� with how parliament worked, it would have addressed the issue earlier.

The Sliema MP said citizens should judge the Opposition on how it treats public officials: “The message being sent to public officials is that they shouldn’t be proactive. On the other hand, we as government have always listened to what they had to say.

Their job is to serve the public, yet the Opposition expects public officials to refrain themselves from giving advice and taking a proactive role.�

Zammit Dimech insisted that irrespective of what the Opposition said, the message being sent through its motion is that it was against the reactivation of the Partnership for Peace. “Its attitude is placing Malta in an embarrassing position with the rest of the world. If Labour is in favour of PfP membership why is it doing the country such a disservice?�

Zammit Dimech said it was irresponsible of the Opposition to “tie

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everything to a 2004 cable which I would have expected the Opposition to understand that Cachia Caruana was only trying to make amends for the wrongful decisions taken by the Labour government in 1996”.

In a spirited speech, Zammit Dimech said Malta had acted in the best interest of the country. “We should judge the Opposition for the way it acted with the Attorney General, the witness it summoned. Because after hearing the Attorney General saying that the reactivation didn’t need the approval of parliament, the Opposition insisted on arguing with him over his ruling.”

Quoting from ‘A Man for all Seasons’, the play Robert Bolt wrote about Thomas More, Zammit Dimech said that this should have been dedicated by Cachia Caruana to the Opposition: “What you have hunted me for is not my actions, but the thoughts of my heart. It is a long road you have opened. For first men will disclaim their hearts and presently they will have no hearts. God help the people whose Statesmen walk your road.”

Labour MP Leo Brincat, who was part of Labour’s MPs on the foreign affairs committee that grilled Richard Cachia Caruana, yesterday raised the issue of the permanent representative’s salary.

“It is important to know what his total salary is because it is paid by Maltese taxpayers, and to know whether his salary is indeed comparable to his role as ambassador and how it compares with other ambassadors’ and permanent represenatives, or whether it is an extraordinary one.”

Cachia Caruana is paid the highest salary on Malta’s civil service scale, but it is not known what other allowances and emoluments he is paid for his role. “If this package is disclosed it would only confirm what we already know – that the power behind the throne is indeed being paid for being the power behind the throne.”

Brincat presented a dissection of Cachia Caruana’s public persona, describing him as a behindthe-scenes personage who for long had evaded public scrutiny.

“He never was elected and still expects that he dictates and even influences who gets elected by the people. Not to mention the fact that he even worked with others for the removal of former minister John Dalli.”

In denouncing the role played by foreign affairs committee chairman Francis Zammit Dimech, whom he accused of gatekeeping, Brincat said it was no secret that Cachia Caruana feared being grilled by the committee.

“Zammit Dimech was a magistrate, prosecutor, defence lawyer, gatekeeper and guardian of the prime witness, aided by the foreign minister, so much so that at times Cachia Caruana didn’t even need to talk while the chairman and the foreign minister did the talking for him.”

Brincat denounced Cachia Caruana’s attempt to ram down the Opposition’s throats the impression that he was unaware of the timing of the reactivation of the Partnership for Peace agreement.

“When one keeps in mind that Lawrence Gonzi had already told then US ambassador Molly Bordonaro, in January 2008, that he was ready to take Malta into PfP if the PN were re-elected, we were faced with Cachia Caruana trying to give us the impression – under oath – that he knew nothing of this, and that he only got

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD

Leo Brincat

Lawrence Gonzi exits parliament with his personal aide Edgar Galea-Curmi (left) to know after the election victory of March 2008. As the Americans say, go tell it to the marines!”

Apart from operating singlehandedly behind parliament,’s back, Leo Brincat also hinted that Cachia Caruana had misled Palriament.

“Ever since the motion was presented it was clear that Cachia Caruana is now even lying to parliament, too. How can we be expected believe Cachia Caruana when he claims that he did not know about the government’s plans regarding PfP: not in his capacity as permanent representative, nor as advisor to the PM, nor even as a chief strategist for the Nationalist party?”

Reminding the House that the PfP issue – though settled today – was still a hot political issue at the time, Brincat said he found it simply impossible to believe that Cachia Caruana would have been kept in the dark as to his govern-

ment’s intentions.

Further evidence of the contempt in which RCC held parliament, he claimed, was the fact that, despite the recommendation of then foreign minister Michael Frendo to regularly meet with the Committee for Foreign and European Affairs – specifically, 12 times since 2006 –only three such meetings were actually held.

Referring to the sessions held to discuss the Opposition motion in the same committee over the past weeks, Brincat quipped that these were so ‘lopsided’ that “instead of a kangaroo court, we ended up in a perverse version of The Jungle Book”.

He then accused the Nationalist Party of trying to turn the Opposition’s motion of censure regarding a Maltese ambassador, into “an attack on Partnership for Peace”.

“What they are trying to make people out there forget, is that this

is no longer a divisive issue, and that our position (as PL) changed, not before the election as RCC insinuated… but afterwards… specifically after a change in party leadership, and in reaction to new developments in international circumstances.”

In a side barb clearly aimed at Lawrence Gonzi, he added that the PL was proud to have one team and one leader… “not one who stands at the front of the stage, with lots of extras in the wings, and with some kind of bighead hiding behind the scenes.”

Turning to the Wikileaks cable at the heart of the motion, Brincat quoted the following excerpt by an American official: “Malta’s ambassador to the EU will propose to Valletta that Malta should declare its PfP agreements from 1994 should remain in force, although the country has withdrawn from active participation.” That this was written by a

foreign government official, Brincat insisted, shows ‘clear as crystal’ that this same government knew directly or indirectly from Mr Cachia Caruana what our own government was planning to do, before our own government knew itself.” Moreover, Brincat quoted a certain Bill Grant - a US diplomat who was head of mission to Malta - as saying that “He (Cachia Caruana) told us that he was, in fact, advocating such as approach to Valletta”. Brincat said that this clearly established that Malta’s position had not yet crystallised at the time; so by informing the US government of Malta’s intentions before any decision had been taken, Cachia Caruana had pre-emptively forced the government to adopt his own proposed position, which was more favourable to a foreign country than to our own.

As a result, Brincat argued, Malta “lost credibility”. ·

Cachia Caruana bows out, hinting at ‘collusion’ between Labour, JPO and Mugliett RICHARD Cachia Caruana submitted his resignation letter less than an hour after Parliament voted in favour of the Opposition’s motion. The letter was published by the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who accepted Cachia Caruana’s resignation but asked him to stay on until he could be substituted.

The resignation letter, which was sent via email, was distributed to the press at the end of the Prime Minister’s press conference held in his Parliamentary office.

The press conference was held just a few minutes after Cachia

Caruana sent his resignation letter.

In his letter, Cachia Caruana said: “I have long believed that a person who becomes an issue becomes a liability, no matter the extent of their positive contribution or the truth or otherwise of the accusations against them, or the motivation for those accusations.

“It is because of this long-held view that, as you know, it was my wish to resign immediately the Opposition motion against me was brought before parliament, but the imperative towards duty

compelled me to stay as long as required to answer questions from Parliament’s Foreign and European Affairs Committee.”

Cachia Caruana explained that since 2004 he has served Malta “loyally” as its first Permanent Representative to the European Union. “I have always represented our nation’s interests with the utmost dedication. Whether I have served my country well is ultimately for others to decide.

“It is unfortunate that the outcome of this motion was at the outset predicated on a collusion of interests that are, ultimately,

personal and which had little or nothing to do with the contents of the motion itself.”

He hinted at a collusion between Labour and the two Nationalist MPs Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond Mugliett . He explained that this outcome was immediately apparent from the line of questioning taken during sittings of the Parliamentary Foreign and European affairs committee, and “most especially from one or two speeches in parliament this evening. I realise that it was a fait accompli, with the outcome assured even before the motion

was presented.”

“My decades of work in politics and related fields have taught me that it is naive to assume that the principles of correctness and decency will not, occasionally, be corrupted. While righteousness will, ultimately, prevail, it does not necessarily do so in the short term, to order, or in ways that may be immediately evident.”

Cachia Caruana concluded his letter by declaring his loyalty to the Prime Minister saying: “While I remain at your disposal, in the circumstances it is my wish that you will accept this resignation.”

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Who is this Richard person, anyway?

Ironically, though the loss of Richard Cachia Caruana arguably hits government harder than the recent loss of the home affairs minister, surveys reveal that fewer people are familiar with his role in government. MATTHEW VELLA sheds light on the dark prince of the Nationalist Party FOR 30 years, Richard Cachia Caruana has quietly militated behind the scenes of the Nationalist party and the governments it led between 1987 and the present: rising inexorably o become the unquestioned power behind the throne for both Prime Ministre Eddie Fenech Adami’s and his successor Lawrence Gonzi.

And yet according to the results of a MaltaToday survey, published last Sunday, few people seem aware of the precise role played

by Cachia Caruana in the inner workings of both the Nationalist party and the government over the past 30 years. Most know him only as ‘RCC’ – a disembodied and largely shadowy figure working behind the seat of government.

And though all seem to concur – including his many political enemies that RCC’s role was a crucial one to the functions of government on both local and international stage, the prospect of this ‘eminence grise’ being forced out of office through a parliamentary motion did not seem to excite either interest or curiosity among Nationalist and Labour voters alike… until it actually happened, and the party in government was left to pick up the pieces of a clearly unexpected cataclysm.

Now, faced with the sudden loss of what many consider a vital part of the machinery of the ‘GonziPN’ administration, there seems to a suddenly renewed interest in the mysterious figure who was forced to resign in yesterday’s parliamentary session.

As always, this question can only be partly answered by the biographical facts: which, for what they are worth, are the following.

A Life in the Day

Born in 1955, the grandson of the 11th Baron of Ghariexem and Tabia, Cachia Caruana was educated at St Edward’s College – where his father was headmaster for several years – graduating in economics from the University of Malta and obtaining his Master’s in marketing from the London School of Business Studies in 1979.

Before ‘graduating’ to politics –working on the PN’s electoral campaigns in both 1981 and 1987. Later he served as a director at Gallup Malta, now known as Misco..

But it was his relationship with Eddie Fenech Adami – cemented in the 1980s, and formalised when appointed the PM’s personal assistant (muscling out the incumbent John Camilleri in the process) that marked the beginning of a meteoric career within the public service.

From his role as prime minister’s assistant to chief EU negotiator and finally permanent representative to the European Union, Cachia Caruana became embedded in the collective psyche as some ‘dark prince’ of the Nationalist government: too intelligent and politically astute for Labour’s good, managing to retain both a low profile and an influential grip on Maltese politics both locally and abroad, rendering him indispensable to the PN during successive electoral victories.

It has to be said that much of his success in leading Malta’s EU negotiations, and then safeguarding the national interest inside the COREPER meetings he has with counterparts from the EU-27, goes relatively unnoticed. Even the PfP reactivation, which now threatens to become his downfall, is proof of his mastery of the political and diplomatic game.

And yet – as highlighted in Jeffrey Pulli-

cino Orlando’s speech yesterday - critics have found his demeanour to be elitist, haughty and disparaging of others in his service. Some anecdotes will recall a short-tempered episode (angry outbursts delivered in the English language, of course); others reveal more insidious traits.

A former chauffeur had revealed that Cachia Caruana was not in Brussels to attend the funeral of his chauffeur Armand Aché, who suffered a stroke while on the job outside the European Council building. According to whistleblower Michel Demol, it was only on the eve of Aché’s death that Cachia Caruana finally paid the semiparalysed chauffeur the one visit at his home in Jettes, accompanied by Cachia Caruana’s parents on visit to Brussels. “Since Armand often drove the perm rep’s parents in Brussels, they wanted to pay him a visit.

The next day Armand took his life,” Demol said. “The worst thing is that the perm rep did not come to his funeral.”

In the press, Cachia Caruana’s is always a cameo role, punctuating the otherwise drab political drama.

Newspapers like MaltaToday have enjoyed documenting his affairs (down to photographing his swimming pool being built at his Mdina residence over an area officially classified as having archaeological importance).

Other journalists more partial to the government of the day were happy to spin the agenda or gate-keeping as they were directed to, perhaps during one of the meetings he would hold at the Westin Dragonara’s lobby, where he is known to hold court.

He could strike fear in the hearts of employees. On assignment to a European Council meeting in Greece in 2003, I remember seasoned reporters taunting a kindly employee of the Malta-EU Information Centre that they would “tell him off” to Richard over some hitch in the day’s proceedings. I had only started out in the trade, but I could sense fear when I saw it.

But even this had its limits: the Times’ senior deputy editor Roger Mifsud remembers Cachia Caruana as “an unscrupulous bully”.

As news editor, Mifsud was brought in contact frequently with Cachia Caruana after 1987. “He did not like me when he came to know me, because I did not hold him in awe. Nor did I like him for his spurious patrician ways,” Mifsud wrote in a frank letter to the Malta Independent.

He particularly recalls a “nasty incident” in which Cachia Caruana took a Times reporter aside and asked him to convey a message to him: “We know who acts as editor of The Times on Mondays [Mifsud sat in for the editor

at the start of the week] and who is tucking away in discreet, not-at-all prominent corners, the news reports on the deliberations of the Cabinet.”

Mifsud said the “obvious attempt at intimidation” made him bristle. He wrote to Eddie Fenech Adami, telling him that his longa manus “did not know how to properly use this overweening power he had”. The letter was never acknowledged.

Labour finds his presence on the Cabinet table particularly odious. Cachia Caruana is the only non-minister to be invited by the Prime Minster to sit on meetings. Their current offensive focuses on how he successfully overturned what was Labour’s unconditional withdrawal from NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1996, to a “suspension of participation” allowing Malta to ‘reactivate’ its PfP membership in 2008, so that the government can sit in on EU-NATO meetings; but most seriously, without seeking parliamentary consent for its reactivation.

Other MPs and ministers privately bemoan the hold he can have on policy, and of course campaign strategy. Cachia Caruana has refuted the notion that he orders ministers around: “The notion is beyond ridiculous,” he had told The Times. “Not even the Prime Minister should order ministers around. I imagine the last person to try that was Dom Mintoff.”

His ambition to become EU Commissioner and sit at the table of Europe’s most powerful technocrats has long been touted. In the end, it had to be Lawrence Gonzi’s rival John Dalli, to be kicked upstairs to the €200,000-ayear position. “What I wish is irrelevant,” he said when asked whether he harboured any desire to be Commissioner. “The only thing I wish to see is the Prime Minister feeling free to nominate whoever he thinks is right for the job... I am not in any way going to try and make it more difficult for him to make that decision.”

Not the power behind the throne

But Cachia Caruana has been adamant in insisting that he is not the power behind the throne. In a rare interview conceded to The Times’ correspondent in Brussels, the ambassador claimed there was “no room for a power behind the throne in our political system”.

“What you are saying is that the person on the throne is a puppet. This is offensive in the extreme, and categorically and obviously untrue,” Cachia Caruana said, insisting that he always served his bosses in the best possible way.

“I am just an employee, one with certain organisational skills and the ability to perform my job loyally and well, but still just an employee. In other words, I take orders, not give them. When people don’t like a particular decision taken in their regard, they find it easier to believe that I’m to blame, because they can’t face up to the fact that this is what the Prime Minister thinks about them or one of their proposals or requests.”

Perhaps it was his role as Eddie Fenech Adami’s ruthless enforcer that served to build the sense of animosity that his name inspires. It is a harrowing thought to consider that the attempt on his life in 1994, the Mdina stabbing that to this day remains without any reasonable motive – at least one that is acknowledged publicly – still represents the most high-profile attack on a high functionary of the State. If Cachia Caruana was Fenech Adami’s éminence grise, this attack was a heinous and aggravated lèse majesté.

Its mysterious circumstances forever cemented the perception of Cachia Caruana’s so called power. The man who stabbed him, Joseph Fenech ‘il-Hafi’ – once a bodyguard to Fenech Adami during the 1980s – was given a presidential pardon to turn State’s evidence and reveal who commissioned the hit. But the acquittal of a minor accomplice Ian Farrugia

he ambitious? Is this sanity? To whom is he accountable?”

Debono’s outbursts and Facebook status updates may lack good form, but his accusations hardly go unnoticed. In parliament, Debono has questioned Cachia Caruana’s role “in the shadows” and extraparliamentary influence, and he often brings up his St Edward’s College schooling to infer his elitist pedigree.

Debono knows Labour’s motion to see Cachia Caruana resign is a date with destiny. If the redoubtable Cachia Caruana is about to be undone by Debono, the irony of the one-seat majority he worked hard to win in 2008 now deposing him, would not go amiss.

(Charles Attard ‘iz-Zambi’, another accomplice who pleaded guilty, has since recanted while in prison), has shed doubts on Fenech’s testimony.

Fenech accused Meinrad Calleja of having commissioned the hit, ostensibly as revenge after his father Brigadier Maurice Calleja was forced to resign the command of the Armed Forces when Meinrad was convicted of drug trafficking. After his acquittal on the attempted murder charge, Calleja surmised that ‘Zeppi l-Hafi’ had carried out the attempt at the behest of others, “maybe for reasons related to pending tender contracts at the time, with the patent of Mafia-style tactics and violence”.

Calleja even claimed Fenech had told him he had a kambjala, a trump card on the Fenech Adami administration, that was his get-out-of-jail card. ver the years, Richard Cachia Caruana administered the art of politics and enforcement for his prime ministers with some necessary ruthlessness. The results were mixed, and the lingering effects are now being felt.

The choice of Dar Malta in 2004, an expensive piece of real estate right across the road from the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, became a symbol of his extravagance. His choice of consultant architect Martin Xuereb, who carried out private work for him on his Mdina residence, smacked of nepotism; taking on as legal advisor for the Dar Malta acquisition Peter Caruana Galizia (RCC said he was appointed directly by government investment arm Mimcol), was redolent of his close friendship to Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Malta Independent columnist whose poison-pen blog today represents the Nationalist Party’s unofficial media.

While he toiled in the diplomatic war-room behind the scenes, many of these acts publicly gave Cachia Caruana an unwholesome persona. But even his more astute decisions in the service of the Nationalist government and party seem to be coming back to haunt him.

When Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s rental of his private land in Mistra

for an open-air disco became the subject of a political scandal, Cachia Caruana instructed the MP to chase Alfred Sant down and take him head-on. Pullicino Orlando’s ‘martyrdom’ cost the PN an absolute majority but reelected the MP on two districts. The government’s Pyrrhic victory left Pullicino Orlando a scorned MP, being denied a ministry for the public opprobrium he had fomented against him and the party.

Cachia Caruana would not be left untouched by the problems of Gonzi’s unsettled one-seat majority. Soon after re-election, he was drawn into the controversy over the extension of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum, on whose foundation he sits. His idea to build an underground museum, a red flag to conservationist organisations, was the first opportunity for Pullicino Orlando to tell Gonzi he could not count on his vote to nullify a Labour motion against the Cathedral’s extension. Political sense led to Lawrence Gonzi pulling the plug on the project.

Cachia Caruana, self-confessed political realist that he is, knew he was in no position to provoke the MP’s ire by pushing ahead with the project. In his own words, “I lack the arrogance to expect [Gonzi] to consult me, still less demand it, despite popular notions to the contrary.”

More bad publicity came from the perception that Cachia Caruana has gate-keeping media and other journalists doing the government’s bidding.

According to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s testimony, in a libel suit Cachia Caruana instituted against Mediatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan, Daphne Caruana Galizia told him RCC had asked her to attack him in her blog soon after the 2008 re-election. The columnist has denied the claim.

Accusing him is another frequent victim of Caruana Galizia’s blog. Nationalist MP Franco Debono has used his Facebook wall to question whether Cachia Caruana’s idea for the Cathedral’s €16 million extension had harmed the government: “Is he a team player? Is he power-hungry? Is his ever satisfied? Is he an egoist? Is he a narcissist? Is

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt

Richard Cachia Caruana: a brief curriculum vitae 2008 1998 – 2004 1999 – 2003 1998 – 1997 – 1998

Malta’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Head of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat Chief Negotiator for Malta’s EU Accession negotiations Member of the Cabinet Committee on EU Affairs Director of Central Bank of Malta (also member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Council) 1996 – 1998 Senior Consultant, KPMG 1992 – 1997 Director of Air Malta plc (also various subsidiaries) 1991 – 1996 Starts attending meetings of Malta’s Cabinet of Ministers 1989 – 1992 Director at Malta External Trade Corporation: 1987 – 1996 Personal Assistant to the Prime Minister (later Head of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat) 1987 – 1992 Director, Malta Development Corporation: 1985 – 1987 Director, Press & Information Office, Campaign Manager, Partit Nazzjonalista 1983 – 1985 Managing Director, Gallup Ltd, Malta 1981 – 1982 Campaign Manager, Partit Nazzjonalista 1980 – 1981 Marketing Consultant, Maltatours (UK) Ltd 1976, 1979 – 1980 Director, National Student Travel Service (also various subsidiaries 1976 – 1978 Assistant Secretary General and Director, AIESEC International, Belgium

Education

Educated at St Edward’s College, the University of Malta and the London Business School. Member of the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing and of the UK Market Research Society. Associate Member of the UK Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Other achievements:

Has also been a member of numerous Prime Ministerial delegations to European Councils, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, the UN General Assembly as well as bilateral visits. Member of Malta’s Inter-Governmental Conference delegations in relation to the new European Constitution, at both Prime Ministerial and Ministerial levels.

Honours:

Decorations from Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Born:

Sliema, Malta, 11 February 1955

Opinion

W

maltatoday, TUESDAY, 19 JUNE 2012

Good morning Mrs Hammett, goodbye Mr Cachia Caruana

hen the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi wakes up this morning, I do not believe we can blame him for feeling rather sad and unenthusiastic about getting out of his bed and getting dressed for Valletta.

Looking at his diary he will be wondering who was that cretin who organised ‘be a prime minister for a day,’ on a Tuesday with a certain Mrs Hammett and better still to let her follow him for a day at Castille.

Poor Mrs Hammett could not have chosen a better day.

The last thing on the PM’s mind is Mrs Hammett’s notes on compulsory parental skills - 0ne of those harebrained ideas that tickled the fancy of those who chose the poor Mrs Hammett for this exciting opportunity.

If the PM needs any skills it is ‘keeping a party together’ skills.

Prime Minister is not expected to call early elections.

But really if he continues to believe that he can make it he must be really be surrounded by the same kind of people who believe that the Titanic can still float with a gaping hole on the side.

Gonzi clearly wants to stay on, probably to inaugurate the new parliament building and other unsightly monuments.

Needless to say hanging on to power until 2013 is more important than saving his party or the interests of the country. That says more about Gonzi than our parliament.

Parliament no matter what Gonzi says is fulfilling its role and setting standards.

Gonzi’s clear astonishment at

Saviour Balzan JPO’s decision to vote against RCC left him clutching to straws. He ended up quoting Lino Spiteri, a dinosaur from the past, linked to and a legacy of the Mintoffian regime but seemingly rehabilitated because he writes some good bits in favour of RCC on the Sunday Times.

But back to Mrs Hammett, she will be politely asked to spend most of her day with a minor official at Castille as the PM walks up and down and asks himself how he got himself in such a mess.

As you all have probably realised this is the end of Cachia Caruana as Malta’s permanent representation chief in Brussels.

Lino Spiteri must be very sad for the departure of RCC, but not many others will be sorry for Richard Cachia Caruana’s departure.

JPO was far from gracious when he came to describing the history of Richard.

If this is not a fall from grace it is a serious attack on the central nervous system of the Nationalist government.

And JPO knows this.

He also knows that his own party

If this is not a fall from grace it is a serious attack on the central nervous system of the Nationalist government

tried to destroy and eliminate him.

Cachia Caruana reflects all that is good and bad with the Nationalist party. He is the great strategist, the Machiavellian chess player and the great manipulator.

He is the man who JPO said is behind most of the media attacks on himself and other PN dissidents.

That was eloquently illustrated

by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando who surprised everyone including his own Prime Minister with his amusing description of Richard Cachia Caruana and the woman blogger that two weeks before had been torn to bits by Franco Debono – who now has turned to a spineless backbencher supported by only 4% of the PN electorate.

JPO said that there was nothing personal in his speech but he said this as he metaphorically undressed the cardinal.

What JPO said about Cachia Caruana was just the tip of the iceberg but he delivered it with perseverance and the tenacity of someone who cannot forget what happened to him in 2008.

In other words, JPO underlined how he was used by RCC before the 2008 election and then dumped.

JPO, it is clear, was underestimated by those who depended on his first count votes to win the 2008 election by a mere 1,600 votes.

Afterwards there was a clear attempt to eradicate him from the political scene.

And one of the most unsophisticated ways of doing this was the use of the queen of blogs and her band of sycophants.

JPO pointed his fingers at RCC

for being behind these vile attacks.

As he spoke it was clear that he would be voting with the Labour motion.

There was courage in his delivery. But JPO has waited for this moment. As RCC’s friend Charles Demicoli would say, JPO knew that revenge is best served cold. Unlike many others who have been decimated by the bile brigade over the years and have no voice or pen, JPO had parliamentary privilege and a one seat majority in his hands to exact his sweet revenge.

Many will now argue that we have lost the sterling services of Richard Cachia Caruana.

For someone who has been around for over 25 years, I guess it is about time we realise that the world has plenty of talent available. And talent that comes without the Machiavellian streak and potency that has dominated his style of politics and politicking.

Not many people will ask about the Wikileaks story and the reason for the motion. JPO made it very clear that he had acted behind parliament’s back. But this was a secondary issue.

The Prime Minister has accepted RCC’s resignation but asked him to stay on until a substitute would be found.

Yes, I am sure the Prime Minister believes everyone is indispensable and replaceable.

I am sure he does.

His biggest problem is that he believes that he is not irreplaceable and not infallible.

And with RCC out of the way, it will become increasingly more difficult for the PM to be told of his errant ways.