Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/739032
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2016 26 Letters Chums, buddies, mates, but also comrades. The trouble with Labour is having to cringe at those revelations which put Al- fred Sant's credibility in question, such as the Bondiplus eye-opener of who Labour's travelling partners were at a meeting with Maltacom's new owners in Dubai back in June. Sant says, rightly, that government is shackled by its "friends of friends" net- works, the old boy clique who in the last 20 years have lapped up all the political appointments, the chairmanships, the handsome salaries, and scholarships for their privileged offspring. It's a sad cycle of history. One of the first things that Alfred Sant's leadership brought in 1992 was a clean sweep of the apparatchiks and hangers-on who ben- efited from widespread corruption in the 80s Labour government. So long as New Labour was a spotless bunch, it could take a swipe at the Nationalists over the myriad appointments of family members, confi- dants and chums, and that was the easiest campaign of all. Now it's Labour's turn for a slice of the pie as the election draws nearer, which is why people like Denis Baldacchino, Carmelo Penza, Ray Vella, and Patrick Dalli – the trusted businessmen who accompanied the Labour delegation to meet the Dubai property giants taking over Ricasoli – will most probably be claiming their valued friendship very shortly. They are indeed, amongst the closest of all businessmen and building developers to the Labour party. Ray Vella had a hand in building Labour's new headquarters in Hamrun. Both he and Denis Baldacchino are shareholders in Medina Construction Services and El-Ikhlas, whose directors include Charles Buhagiar, the Labour MP and architect. Together with Patrick Dalli and Carmelo Penza, Baldacchino formed Unita Group Holdings, a now defunct company which grouped their construction firms Penza Construction, Rite-Mix, CJP Tarmac and Tal-Maghtab Construction. The company secretary was none other than former Wardija lawyer Patrick Spiteri. Dalli, the husband of Labour MP Helena Dalli, is also involved in extensive business interests, including Elcar De- velopments together with Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion. Through his company Pada, he is also involved in CJP Tarmac and Roads Group International. So you can be pardoned if you couldn't see through all the construction dust when Sant was pontificating over the congealed network of friends' friends toasting their contracts and appointments. The question is, why all the fuss about the Nationalist coterie of "hbieb tal-hbieb" when history is about to repeat itself anyway? Do we be- lieve that a Maltese government will never be held to ransom by the people whose wealth keeps the party machine alive? Too much has changed since Sant's mercurial rise in 1992. Too many National- ists have enriched themselves over 20 years of government. Too many Labourites have been denied jobs and other treasures from the government booty – Sant himself told Lou Bondì on Tuesday that a future Labour government would sort out the injustices suffered by Labourites (he mentioned scholarships, but of course there's jobs and the cushy chairmanships). Even on that, there's a bitter lesson learnt for Sant who, despite the goodwill of having kept JR Grima at the helm of the civil service in 1996, feels he should not have to be so kind to people who do not share the same politi- cal vision. Understandable, alas. The truth is that Maltese politics is de- fined by the interests of the wealthy friends of friends, and they have to be cut out. The sad part is that there's nothing heartening about the promises of meritocracy from Labour, whose many voters are demanding a slice of the pie. In a sense, Alfred Sant's harping on Nationalist cliques betrays the anxiety of any politician who fears his party will still ignore any modest attempts at meritocracy and instead reward their long-suffering voters. Once meritocracy becomes a cultural trait, and Maltese politics no longer re- mains enamoured of building contractors and their limestone empires, friends of friends will become less influential even in a small nation as Malta. It's not entirely wishful thinking. Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. News – 14 October, 2006 Labour's own friends of friends means little can change in Maltese politics Untrue allegations on Malta boxing fight With respect to your story 'Scott Dixon's boxing gala cancelled after Swedish promoter 'runs off ' with event money' of 27 Septem- ber, I would like to declare that I took no money, nor left Malta. I am innocent of these charges. There were no ticket sales. The only tickets sold were by Scott Dixon and Ramona McArthur, who gave away 170 VIP tickets to boxers to sell, instead of paying them for the fight. They are not famous fighters so they should not even get paid. I have not sold one ticket, and have tickets left and a screenshot of online sales by Shows Hap- pening. When they gave away 170 VIP tickets the budget totally crashed. And there were 710 seats instead of 1,200 that were in the budget. Scott Dixon was the one who asked me to be Co-promoter for the event, and I saw a chance to show of some of Team Jerry Salo's fighters and artists. Dixon himself was supposed to feature on Friday in a fight against Steffen Sparborth for the World Boxing Union (WBU) Middleweight Championship, in what was supposed to be the last match of his long and successful boxing career. But Dixon is banned from box- ing after not doing a drug test after losing his last fight. And the fight on 30th September was not sanctioned by any organisation. So this fight is not legal. When I met my lawyer, he recommended that I cancel the event from my end. While Dixon said his team invested €10,000 as seed money for the event, it would be nice to see where this money came from, because noth- ing was paid for posters and tick- ets. So where did this money go? I got invoices for €17,500 for the Hilton conference centre, which Dixon said was free; and my team in Sweden paid for all the flights for Swedish fighters. My only job was to get sponsors but nobody wanted anything to do with Scott Dixon and Ramona McArthur. Dixon did not give me any money, and I told him and McArthur that everyone had to sign for all the tickets given away so we would know where they are and how much money they have. This was not done and there was no control over cost or money. With Dixon's criminal record, no sanction from a boxing or- ganisation, banned from fighting, and money missing from previ- ous events, this got me thinking. I left Malta on 4 October after speaking to my lawyers. I have no money from that event because no tickets were sold. I really hope Scott Dixon holds this event to make things right for the people he sold tickets to. I wish them good luck, but I will not be involved in any way in this. Jerry Salo Sweden Cutting down congestion: a proposal How about a variation on the old, even-, odd-numbered- registration-plates theme? This will require constant help from broadcast media, which could prove quite a sen- sible filler to some inane TV breakfast shows. In close collaboration with the Police, they will be updat- ing the commuters on the traffic allowed to be found on the road: • Cut-off time: 5:30am. Until then the system will not have kicked in. • From 5:30 am to 6:30 am (of the same day, of course) only the evens. • From 6:30 am to 7:30 am the odds. • From 7:30 am to 8:00 am (again) the evens. • From 8:00 am to 8:30 am (again) the odds. • From 8:30 am onwards evens and odds. What about those having personalized number plates with not one single digit in sight? Read on, there's a way. Exempt: buses, ambulances, emergency services, police, cars carrying more than three passengers, like school vans, motorbikes. The time brackets would alternate on successive days. If the evens take the first time slot one day, then it's for the odds the next day. The pres- ence of so many police at these times should prove a deterrent against abuse. Of course, one will have to fine-tune, fine- tune and fine-tune even more. Should it be an utter failure, would we be losing more than we are now? Joe Genovese Birkirkara Panama inquiry should follow CapitalOne inquiry When speaking at a political activ- ity in Balzan on Sunday, October 9, in the presence of a handful of people, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stated that he would ap- point an independent board of inquiry to examine allegations that Malta Police investigations into a company Beppe Fenech Adami was involved in (Baltimore Fiduciary, which acted as a nominee company owner of CapitalOne Investment Group), were slowed down before the March 9, 2013 general election. Allow me to say that Joseph Muscat should appoint a truly independent inquiry in order to find out where money that Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi wanted to place in secret offshore Panama companies came from. Edward Torpiano Floriana Requiem to editorial independence I wonder if anyone has noticed what a strongly anti-government stance The Times of Malta has been following in its news cover- age and opinion writing recently. Even its reporting, which used to be rather staid, has turned anti- Labour. Everyone knows The Times was always anti-Labour Party, but that policy has recently been intensified. Does anyone know if The Times has expressed any misgivings about Simon Busuttil's cedoli scheme for instance? Did The Times ever doubt that the loan scheme might be misused for money laundering? Did The Times ever express an opinion about Busuttil's war against the LNG tanker, which will be instrumental in Malta producing cleaner energy? Did The Times ever wonder why the PN govern- ment rejected the Italian offer to build a gas pipeline to Malta for free? Can The Times tell us which PN policies it does not agree with, and say when it has editorialised about them? Slanted reports were never al- lowed in The Times in the past – editorially The Times was strictly anti-Labour, but in reporting it did use to try to be neutral until some years ago. That is no longer so. Anyone doubting this may just read October 4's page one report about the expected arrival of the LNG tanker. This is merely a minuscule list of The Times' efforts in its mis- sion to belittle Joseph Muscat's government and raise Simon Busuttil's profile. And the policy to undervalue Labour policies and subject them to vilification was further intensified after blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia carried an online report about The Times having weakened its anti-Labour stance prior to the 2013 election. If Caruana Galizia's intention was to cause The Times to harden its anti-Labour stance, she was certainly successful. Instead of working hard to really be a truly independent organisa- tion, The Times surrendered and resorted to the Malta Independ- ent's line of glorifying the PN, trying to outdo it in its adulation. A. Borg, Mosta