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Opinion • March 28 2004

From Republic to Monarchy

Why is everyone so surprised that Eddie Fenech Adami is to be President. Everything including the person who has replaced him has been planned to the last detail by Eddie himself and his ever-faithful acolytes.
Do I agree with Eddie erasing the Republic and transforming it into a Monarchy?
Well, Monarchs never give a hoot what the people think. What I do know is that Gonzi’s lieutenants are unhappy with Eddie’s decision to move to San Anton Gardens.
Dr Gonzi will not admit it, but it appears that he has no option but to agree to the crowning of Eddie.
Pierre Portelli’s article in the Times calling for Eddie not to stand as President was certainly significant.
What one of the most faithful and ruthless captains, has to say about Eddie, I interpret as relevant to the thinking in the Gonzi camp.
Mr Portelli, a political schemer by all means, probably believes that with Eddie as President, Lawrence Gonzi will not be able to walk that extra mile as Prime Minister.
I recall very vividly the time the Nationalists lost the national election in 1996. Mr Portelli was there expressing his unadulterated view that it was time for Eddie to go. There were others who thought the same.
Eddie’s bad judgement reached a pinnacle when he continued to respond in the way he did when it came to the Zeppi l-Hafi fiasco.
In another country with a dynamic opposition, headed by a credible leadership there would have been a concerted onslaught on the government’s right to govern.
Eddie Fenech Adami committed another error, that is, of allowing the country to be effectively run by his personal assistant Richard Cachia Caruana - a man who acts like a nervous Baron.
Mr Cachia Caruana possesses great intellect and technical expertise but is uncomfortable with running a consultative sort of government.
By promoting his personal assistant to basically the greaser of every political machination, Eddie Fenech Adami abdicated his role as Prime Minister and was content enough with the role of a father figure. A sort of retired Monarch.
Eddie Fenech Adami will not be a bad Monarch, but then it is not a good or bad Monarch that this nation is calling out for, but a democratic choice that is representative of the widest views and aspirations of the citizens of this nation, once a republic. On the other side of the world they call these kind of Monarchs, Presidents.

Joe Azzopardi’s home-cooked tele-voting surveys about ‘who do you think should be this or that’ are turning out to be a nasty joke. Mr untouchable who accuses everyone of being agenda driven wishes to ram down our throats that Eddie should be President, just the same way he wanted Gonzi to be the next Prime Minister. The big difference between Xarabank and the rest of the media, is that Mr Azzopardi, unlike the commercially independent and private media, is on a television station funded by the tax payer and has no God given right to set his own personal agenda.

I do not know what will happen to the Labour party, but from the looks of it, Alfred Sant is here to stay. Whether he wins the next election or not is too early to say. But nothing is impossible.
If Alfred Sant does win the next election then I would gladly miss my weekly popcorn treat at the movies to watch the swearing in of Alfred Sant by His Excellency Dr Eddie Fenech Adami.

Inspired perhaps by the writings of so many other columnists, I would like to do my little civic duty and raise my concern at the way our government ministers are slowly but surely detaching themselves from reality. A report in one of the dailies talked of public land being taken up and closed off by selfish individuals. Old forts, huts, country paths, valleys and the shoreline are just some examples.
Since Gozo minister Giovanna Debono appears to be on my list of favourite ministers, I would like to point out the way the Roman temple at Wardija point has been literally run over by an illegal bird trapping site. I plead with her to intervene with the Gozo police to ask them to prosecute the man who literally built and destroyed part of this temple. Okay, Giovanna I am waiting.

 

 

 





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