Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/430850
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2014 2 News An investment gone sour IN an interview published on MaltaToday in 2012 Manuel Mal- lia revealed how he was directly approached by Joseph Muscat to stand as a candidate weeks af- ter an "accidental " encounter on Christmas day in 2008 when both were with their families for lunch at a hotel restaurant. "That time we had just had our twins and as we sat with our tables practically back-to-back Muscat turned and congratulated me and my partner on the newborns… Joseph and Michelle had twins too, and an interesting conversa- tion ensued on caring for newborn twins." Subsequent to that lunch, an unexpected invitation to a New Year's Eve part y placed them at a venue where Muscat and his wife were also among the invitees. "It was shortly after midnight of New Year's eve in 2008 when Mus- cat – surrounded by a number of people – called me and told me that he wished that I would con- test the general election for the Labour Part y," he explained, add- ing that he immediately replied with a question: "do you know my background?" A question of vetting? "Yes, I do," was Muscat's answer and things stopped there until some weeks after he received a phone call from the Labour Part y to meet with Muscat, and the two established a rapport which Mal- lia described as "quite close." In hindsight the interview ex- poses a major f law in the transfor- mation of the Labour part y under Muscat's leadership into a presi- dential movement where the lead- er directly recruited candidates in the absence of a vetting process by part y structures. Part y insiders have noted that so- called star candidates like Mallia who were chosen by Muscat were not subjected to the same rigorous selection process as other candi- dates, before they were approved by the general conference. Before the election traditional labour candidates like George Vella, Leo Brincat, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Evarist Bartolo were sidelined to make room for "star candidates" on prime time TV. Mallia himself was regularly chosen to represent the part y on programmes like BondiPlus. Surely back then politicians like Mallia served as a walking advert for Muscat's inclusive movement and were thus a powerful asset For Joseph Muscat Manuel Mallia was a personal investment; a 'star candidate' whom he had directly recruited to give a face to the national movement of Labourites and ex-Nationalists. But did Muscat's gratitude for Mallia's pre-electoral role make him procrastinate in taking an inevitable decision? asks JAMES DEBONO.