Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/649887
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 MARCH 2016 9 Moreover, the party has not found a way to deal with the, "How much I wish this government to fall, but am scared of the prospect of the opposition governing" syndrome (a feel- ing expressed in the 'Brikkuni' 2012 song 'Nixtieq') among floating voters and disgruntled Labour voters. The only way for the PN to address scepticism is through binding commitments. The recently published proposals on good governance, some of which would represent a big quantum leap in the country's administration, were a step in this direction. But ultimately it will boil down to whether Busuttil will manage to project himself to the wider electorate, particu- larly to those who will never identify completely with the Nationalist Party, as a leader who can be trusted with the keys of Castille. For while some middle-of-the-road voters may come to see the PN as the "lesser evil" they may also need rock solid reassurances on issues such as civil liberties and secularisation. The lesser of two evils? The biggest problem for the PN is that since good govern- ance is the greatest shortcoming of this government, the choice for the electorate amounts to one between lesser evils. The electorate will still need a yardstick by which it can measure which party is worse. Since good governance was also a major issue before 2013, to win on this front the PN needs to convince voters that it has changed in a very short span of time. Surely the PN has little choice in making corruption its main issue, but protesting against corruption may not be the most effective way to convince sceptics who shudder at the presence of now notorious former ministers in such events. Still absent is a humble apology; a strong statement by the party leader, condemning the antics of past PN gov- ernments. Perhaps what switchers need is recognition by the party that they were right in changing government in 2013 and that the party has now listened to them. The prospect of the party being in government again may also expose the leadership to new pressures from big busi- ness and donors, which may demand stability, which is good, but also continuity in neoliberal policies, which the PN has been awkwardly confronting in opposition. Although trust in Muscat is being constantly eroded by scandals, Busuttil cannot bank on winning by default. Fene- ch Adami's gravitas and ability to say the right things at the right moment was the party's greatest asset in the 1980s, when the party managed to widen its appeal beyond the tra- ditional elites. Busuttil has so far shown an opposite tendency, to say the wrong things at the wrong moment. A slick party machine, an effective team of advisers and an ability to charm sceptics are what is lacking at the PN. Yet Busuttil's firm belief that Labour's mask was bound to fall one day, exposing its true ugly face (a view he has expressed in private since he was elected) may have been vindicated and his perseverance in holding the government to account may well be his strong- est asset. The greens in the wilderness With the PN still reeling from the 2013 drubbing and Labour paralysed by scandals, Alternattiva Demokratika should be having a field day. The fact that it has been slump- ing in the polls despite a series of scandals and widespread disillusion with the government, and a lack of trust in the opposition, is also revealing. In reality, the problem with the greens is a generational one. For after the party struck a chord before the 2013 elec- tion, the resignation of dynamic Michael Briguglio immedi- ately after the election left a gap. Moreover, the party faces competition from Muscat's Labour on civil rights issues and from Simon Busuttil's PN on good governance issues, while civil society movements have taken up environmental issues. Moreover it remains doubtful whether disgruntlement among Labour voters may ever result in defections to AD. And faced with constant scandals involving this government, some AD supporters – especially former PN voters – may once again come to perceive the PN as the "lesser evil", and thus return to the fold. In this sense AD faces a quandary: if it does not distance itself from the PN it risks alienating any potential defections from Labour, while by condemning the PN's hypocrisy it risks further alienating its voting base in PN-leaning districts and localities such as Attard and Sliema. The retrenchment of partisan allegiances after Panama may well further penalise AD, especially if the next election is increasingly perceived as a 'do or die' election by voters. Still, for AD there could still be a pool of disenchanted vot- ers who trust neither of the two major parties, but these may include many who do not support Green and progressive policies and may even include reactionaries recoiling at the betrayal of socially conservative values by the political main- stream. These voters – presently spread across the political spec- trum – may also need to be factored in future political considerations. For by tainting a social liberal agenda with cronyism, after first proposing and than aborting the push back of migrants, Muscat's Labour may well have fertilised the ground where a conservative right wing may anchor its roots. 'Shame on you': the PN gets its own back by hitting Konrad Mizzi with the phrase he made famous by saying it repeatedly to former minister Tonio Fenech. PN deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami (centre) stands in Msida where the billboard was erected. The online fightback: while Labour advances with a poster campaign focusing on former ministers from the Gonzi administration inside Simon Busuttil's parliamentary group, each with their own tainted records, the Nationalists have swiftly responded by matching up Joseph Muscat with Marco Gaffarena, whose €1.65 million compensation for an irregular expropriation cost Michael Falzon his Cabinet seat, and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, whose state-owned SOCAR will supply Malta with gas. Attack and counter-attack AN Azeri businessman who set up six holding companies with Nexia BT in February 2015, has started the process of dissolving the compa- nies. Polo enthusiast Ma- nuchehr Ahadpur Khangah, 62, filed disso- lution papers in Decem- ber 2015. The chairman of Az Group of Companies set up six different holding companies, all under a familiar musical nomen- clature – the Bach, Bee- thoven, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and Vivaldi invest- ment holding companies – falling under parent company Mulsanne In- vestments. All of them are registered in Malta. MaltaToday has estab- lished so far that Vivaldi Investment will close with a €7,023 net loss, of which €4,263 is a share- holder's loan. Tehran-born Khangah graduated from the Uni- versity of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK, specialising in highway and traffic engineering He has lived in Azerbai- jan since 1993 and is currently chairman of the Az Group of Companies, which has interests in the food, plastics, wood, and construction industries. In a leaked US cable published on Wikileaks, in which the US embas- sy in Baku profiled the most powerful families in Azerbaijan back in 2010, Khangah was said to be in business with the children of Minister of Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov. The US cable claimed that Khangah was the CEO or "front man" of a substantial portion of the Heydarov family con- glomerate. In one example, Ka- maladdin Heydarov's two sons Nijat and Tale want- ed to buy two Gulfstream jets, valued at $20 mil- lion each. Ownership of the Gulfstreams was to be shared between a Dubai- registered company Shams al Sahra, owned by the Heydarovs, and Ahadpur Khangah. "Khangah was not pre- viously known to the Embassy, but according to information from Gulf- stream appears to be a citizen of both Iran and Azerbaijan (unclear if he also holds other pass- ports). Purportedly as part of Patriot Act compli- ance, Gulfstream asked the Heydarovs for infor- mation that would con- firm the lawful sources of their wealth. "The Heydarovs pro- vided Gulfstream an overview of their family holdings, and it appears they own more business- es than any other Azer- baijani family, includ- ing companies in food canning, construction materials, concrete, as- phalt, chemicals, bricks, textiles, CD and DVD pro- duction, milk processing, tourism, gypsum materi- als, leather, agriculture, pianos, alcohol and spirits, juices, banking, insurance, and construc- tion," the US embassy cable read. Nexia's Azeri client closes Malta firms