Sunday, 1st November 2009 - 12:30CET
Mistra case might have been a decoy - Joseph Muscat
The Mistra case might have been leaked by people in the Nationalist Party as a decoy to deviate the people’s attention from other matters, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Addressing the annual general meeting of the party’s Msida branch, Dr Muscat referred to the court decision on the case last week which exonerated two Mepa officials and said that the PL respected that decision.
It respected the court’s decision in the same way that it respected the Malta Environment and Planning Authority auditor’s report which had gone into detail on this case and which had concluded that the permit should never have been considered because it breached all environmental principles.
Dr Muscat pointed out that the court noted that it was normal for Mepa board members to meet politicians on individual applications.
He said he was not amazed that the Prime Minister, who did not see anything wrong in his Finance Minister breaching the code of ethics, saw nothing wrong in this.
The Labour leader referred to an international report which he said placed Malta in the 89th position when it came to equality. The country had been 71st in 2006 and although it was true that the number of countries being considered in the study had increased, it was also true that other countries were progressing much faster than Malta.
This classification placed Malta at the bottom of the EU list and behind Vietnam and Kazakhstan worldwide.
On the budget, Dr Muscat said the country needed a responsible budget which fought the rising cost of living, which people could not keep up with.
Moreover, certain declarations being made by the prime minister just before the budget and the start of the Christmas period were undermining the chances of economic recovery.
In saying that the electricity prices would rise again, for example, the prime minister was showing he did not understand how the economic mentality worked. He was also rendering the private sector less competitive.
The opposition, Dr Muscat said, had given the government a way out with one of its proposals given during its meeting at Zabbar last week.
The Labour leader spoke on the Cirkewwa quay saying this had been coming for 13 years, €18.5 million were spent and there was still nothing to show for it. The minister was now saying it would be completed in 2012. Had this been in the private sector the people in charge would have been sacked.
Dr Muscat referred to a declaration by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech in the PN parliamentary group relating to the police. Saying he was not repeating what was said because it was libellous, Dr Muscat hoped the case would be dealt with efficiently and fairly.
On the issue of the black dust which plagued several localities in the south and central parts of the island, the Labour leader said that the government seemed to forget that the Minister had told parliament in 2000 that Enemalta had already started taking action to resolve matters. In 2001, the minister had said that as soon as it was known that this dust was coming out of Marsa power station the government took immediate action to solve the problem.
Enemalta, Dr Muscat said, was now saying it had a plan, what was it? What was Mepa doing? Where was the dust coming from if not the power station?
As the minister responsible for Mepa, the Prime Minister should give the authority a deadline by when it should come up with its conclusions and propose action which should be taken to protect the people who were suffering from such inconvenience.
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Comments
Regarding gonziPN having visions and plans how can you explain after Gonzi had promissed a surplus instead of a deficit by year 2010, in 2009 his estmates went wrong by at least €70 million to a €355 million deficit.
Don't come up with the recession excuse according to far sighted Gonzi he said that it would hardly touch us, 10 months on he's speaking from the other side of his mouth.
This story reminds me of similar ones in the USA, where the Republican Party used spying ( watergate against the opposition) and also when again, the Republican Party invented and filmed stories, to spin them on Networks few hours before the elections. Indeed, if the two Mepa people were unjustly arraigned by PN officials to absorb the rage and anger of honest Nationalists and Labourites, then the PN has lost not only his social consciousness, but like Geothe's Faust, sold his soul to the highest bidder!
if the subject is not serious enough I would see your comment as a farce.
how can the government have visions and plans if all he has is a big fat large deficit created by himself? just take off your blue glasses for a while and start seeing things in the correct way.
the vision 2015 was rubbished by people within the PN itself and the reason was very simple. You cannot do a long term plan in such an unpredictable economic scenario.
It is NOT the government asking the LP for any ideas. I am referring to the voters out there that they ought to be informed of what Labour's plans are, how much they cost and how much the taxes will rise in order to finance them, whether they are workable and whether they are worthy of a vote at the next election. So get it right will you?
The government has a vision and plans how to get there, the LP doesn't . The present government plan takes us to 2015, where are Joseph's plans he boasted so much about, writing his 15 year dream on EU time? I suppose once he did the editing, he ended up with one short remark, "U fenn naf jien?"
For real all right!
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando says Joe Saliba should be ashamed of the way he treated him in the aftermath of the Mistra case.
He claims that there was a movement from within the party to hound him out by turning public opinion against him.
iament.”
Dr Pullicino Orlando also says he is informed that people within the Nationalist Party had leaked the Mistra story to the Labour Party and that an internal investigation was underway.
He maintains he did nothing wrong in the infamous Mistra case, when a plot of land he owned was earmarked by a third party for development into a disco.
Dr Pullicino Orlando also says his government is going to repeat last year’s big mistake if it is about to issue higher water and electricity rates.
Read the entire interview in today’s edition of The Sunday Times.
When one starts asking what the otherside's plans are and how will it finance it , it's because one is up against the wall, has no idea where he/she is going and is a complete failure.
It is gonziPN's startegy to confuse when they ask, where will the money come from.? If gonziPN is doing such a great job with the country's finances why ask the opposition on its modus operandi. ?
If you want to know how PL will get the money first you have to vote it into government,. The PL has made enough suggestions to gonziPN how to get out of some of the mess it has created for itself and unfortunately the country. So Mr. Martinelli sve us your repaeted ad nauseum arguments.
We have been asking, praying, even begging the LP to tell us to what direction they would lead the nation. But it is nigh impossible for them to stick to a plan since the masters of U-turns make policy on the run, depending from which direction the wind happens to be blowing.
The EU? - Joseph was hell bent trying to keep Malta out, yet he was one of the first to contest for MEP, and win, thank you very much. Four years after accepting EU's lucrative salary, allowances and expense accounts, it finally dawned on him that it was a good idea, after all! How much trust does that instill in one's mind regarding Joseph?
A better direction? Where to? Please, will you tell us? The LP can't even dream let alone turn dreams into reality!
Dr. Joseph Muscat should ask the MEPA Auditor, how come the application submitted by the person who leased the land from JPO for an openair disco, by mostly levelling the ground, was refused and considered as raping Mistra and created so much fuss, when another person was given permission by Mepa to build an adjacent Pizzeria and parking area to JPO's land having a common border line.
Whilst hopeing that the Pizzeria owner will not be haunted now that the place has been operating for some time, can Joe Muscat and those NGO's who hounded the project on JPO's land until they killed it, explain to the general public why they never objected, at least publicly, on the building of the Pizzeria.
They should state also how could it be that the project on JPO's land would have raped Mistra, when next door to this land, Mistra was already raped twice, once when building the Restaurant, and than by the Pizzeria building. Please do not say that three wrongs do not make one right!
Michael Seychell
Dear GonziPN more and more people are realizing that You are Governing without proper direction leading this country to failure in every decision youre taking - it was hard for some people to open their eyes before - its becoming easier by the day for everyone to open our eyes and see that all you say and do cant be trusted anymore !! Were used to Your lies and promises now - they dont work on the people anymore!! They just work for the blue-eyed ones that are enjoying high power positions allover your departments. So let these people clap and smile in front of You whenever You make your talks - they are the ones that have stuff to loose - the chosen few while the rest of the Maltese are longing for a better direction for Malta.
When you don't have an argument to make you change the subject. What on earth does black dust have to do with the JPO case? Stick to the subject matter or say nothing!
Only than will his comments like Gonzipn 's pre- electoral promises be that little bit credible.
But the leaked facts were true.
The shameful prt is that the authorities arraigned two men, knowing fulkl well that they would be acquitted.
They did in the vain hope that people would take this acquittal to mean there was nothing at all in the whole case.
It did not work.
Now even JPO is aying that it was all DECEIT because he was talking and acting precisely as instructed. But, after all, pn is an expert in that.
Nice try Joseph.
It is more likely that the (M)LP used it as a decoy to deviate the people's attention from:
Cutting the electricity surcharge in half without telling us how to pay for high priced fuel.
Paying overtime at straight hourly rates.
To cover up all the errors the 'computer' made in their election programme.
To cover up the omissions in the same programme.
The failure to remove proposals which had already been implemented by the government.
To cover up the 'Reception Class' farce.
To make us forget calling the University students 'hamalli'.
To cover up Dr. Sant's performance at the now famous debate at the University.
To cover up the plan to reduce the students' stipends.
To cover up LP's plans to continue with subsidies even if EU rules dictate otherwise.
To cover up the policy of 'imbazwru ftit hawn u mbazwru ftit lil-hemm'
Yes, Joseph you were frightfully wrong! It was a colossal decoy by the LP!