News | Sunday, 25 January 2009

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JPO threatens MT journalist with breach of privilege

Charlot Zahra
Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando threatened to raise a breach of privilege against a MaltaToday journalist, if the latter insisted with questions on how he intended to vote on a motion, presented by the Labour Party (PL), for the withdrawal of government funding for the underground extension of St John’s Co-Cathedral.
“I will follow how the debate in Parliament will proceed, and then I would take a decision at that stage,” was the telegraphic comment given by the Nationalist MP when contacted yesterday afternoon.
When the journalist reminded Pullicino Orlando that he had earlier spoken very strongly against this project – even calling on government to divert the funds to more deserving initiatives, such as the restoration of Fort St Elmo and St Angelo – the Nationalist MP threatened a breach of privilege.
“That is my position. If you continue asking, I will present a breach of privilege against you,” Pullicino Orlando ominously said.
Maltese law empowers parliament to act as a court – albeit without any punitive powers – when one of its members feels that his privileged status has been undermined. The most recent example is the breach of privilege raised by Labour MP Alfred Sant against Infrastructure minister Austin Gatt late last year.

The Opposition’s motion
Opposition leader Joseph Muscat yesterday presented a motion calling on the government “to immediately revoke its backing for the proposed project and, instead, to propose the identification, restoration and use of other buildings in Valletta to serve as an extension of the museum in the context of a professionally-drawn up plan for the regeneration of Valletta”.
The Opposition’s motion also demanded “broad consultation on the priorities for the use of European Union funds so that a consensus may be reached, more so since the implementation of such projects would cover more than one legislature and there needs to be continuity of purpose which would be above partisan politics”.
The Opposition’s motion noted that the Planning and Priorities Coordination (PPCD) Division of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had approved the project, which would cost some €16 million, of which some €14 million would come from EU funds.
It also noted that the presence of Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, as one of the members of the Co-Cathedral Foundation, “which presence – in the absence of a clear indication of the government priorities for the use of EU funds – creates a conflict of interest”.
Moreover, the Opposition’s motion noted the “objections to the project from the voluntary organizations that work in favour of the country’s historical, cultural and environmental heritage, among other things, due to the fact that excavation and underground construction of the extension of the Museum could be detrimental to the same Cathedral and the subterranean structures that exist underneath Valletta”.

Pullicino Orlando’s speech in Parliament
In a passionate speech in Parliament on 13 November last yearJeffrey Pullicino Orlando had similarly called on his government to divert the funds allocated for the “extravagant” underground extension of the Co-Cathedral Museum and instead divert them for the urgent restoration of Fort St Elmo.
Pullicino Orlando said he could not understand how the government was seeking €14 million in EU Structural and Cohesion Funds for the controversial St John’s project, when two forts could be restored for one third of the amount.
“It is clear that the country has to set its priorities,” Pullicino Orlando said, while calling on the Planning and Priorities Co-Ordination Division in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to re-consider the project.
The Nationalist MP also questioned how the St John’s project had been chosen for EU funding in the first place.
He called on the Foundation to find a cheaper and more viable solution, such as exhibiting part of the museum pieces in a nearby palace.
“Should the government go ahead with this project, it would be acting like a father who lets his children run about in old, torn clothes, while he buys a BMW to impress his friends,” the Nationalist MP insisted. “Given its limited resources, this country clearly needs to set its priorities.”
When the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation presented its plans for the underground extension of the Cathedral Museum by excavating the grounds underneath the Co-Cathedral, various NGOs, mainly Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar, had strongly criticised the project for its high negative on Valletta’s underlying structures.

czahra@mediatoday.com.mt

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