So Lino Spiteri – the former Mintoffian minister who writes cryptic prose and who was rehabilitated by the PN and Quisling media – thinks the whole Tonio Fenech episode is a storm in a teacup. Nice way of describing a story. Needless to say, Spiteri, who was a PN-hated figure before 1998, has his personal and perfectly valid reasons for believing that all this fuss over Tonio Fenech’s fatal flight on George Fenech’s private jet with millionaires Joe Gasan and George Fenech is normal.
I have never held hands with George Fenech. I have never had any business relationship with the Fenech family and I have never befriended the Fenech family. I wonder, though, has Lino? Does he have any reason to stand by George Fenech – the man who nearly killed us with the hysterical reassurance that he never spoke about politics and business when he had Tonio on his private jet?
So, is someone missing the point here? U George, x’ghandu x’jaqsam…? U hallina!
George has been brought up in a world where doors simply do not exist. Everywhere he moves, he finds open doors. People are always extra nice and individuals tell him what a great guy he is to his face. I am sure his latest acquaintance, Joe Saliba, the former PN secretary-general, would tell me what a super guy he is.
And he probably is a great guy, as long as you do not step on his toes, that is. Because as we all know, when someone steps on Fenech’s toes… well, here I am, trying to break with tradition.
It’s bad enough that no one has ever told George what a farce the foundation by the name of Tumas Fenech is; sponsored as it is by his companies, operating with the target of improving the professional development of the journalist.
Now ah-one. Ah-one. Ah-one, two, three! Ha-ha-ha. A foundation sponsored by big business renowned for its interests in speculation, sponsoring journalists. Does nobody see a problem with that? It’s like the porno industry sponsoring novices to become priests.
By the way, just for the record, the deputy chairman of this foundation is Lino Spiteri and the administrator is Mario Schiavone, the spokesperson for Dolores Cristina, the minister responsible for the station the Nationalists once called Xandir Dardir.
What George Fenech does not understand (or perhaps does understand) is that business and politics are intrinsically meant to be separate. Difficult to comprehend, more so if our Prime Minister believes that it is ethically acceptable for his favourite minister to flirt in the air with millionaires.
Back to Lino. Many people suffer from very short memory spans. Some have no memories at all, and our Prime Minister is one them. Most cannot even remember the phrase “is-sewwa jirbah zgur”, which was recently uttered by Joseph Muscat, and was also used by Eddie Fenech Adami in his battlecry against Dom Mintoff (when Muscat was either a toddler or still on the road to conception).
Most people will probably forget that Marisa Micallef (Leyson), specifically anointed by Gonzi himself, was one of the staunchest critics of the Labour party. The fact that she has deserted her party and embraced her former enemy is of some consequence.
And Lino Spiteri was one of the most lambasted Labour ministers, and the only reason he is given any credence today is because it suited the PN media and their Quisling followers. It was perfectly fine that a former Labour minister was throwing hand grenades at the feet of Alfred Sant at the time.
Like Joe Grima and others, he was rehabilitated and all records of his past misdeeds erased. And the same can be said for Marisa Micallef within the Labour fold.
If Lino had said nothing and kept his mouth shut about Sant he would have been relegated to the status of every Labour minister of the time – and painted as a Mintioffian bastard. What makes Lino Spiteri different from all the other Labour ministers of his time is that he can write. He is intelligent, but otherwise he was just like the old Mintoffian bunch. He styles himself as a paladin of truth but is no different from other politicians, who are very eager to sit around big business and then eulogise about what is right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to describe this colossal case of unethical behaviour in whatever fashion they please. But really, we should first ask everyone to declare his interests.
When Dom Mintoff spent weeks on the boat of the old Marsovin patron, together with other well-known businessmen such as Bertu Mizzi, there was no independent media to lambast him. The only media that felt the need – and rightly so – to criticise Mintoff’s yearly freebie in August was the PN press. But then, that was in the good old days of Dom, when Lino Spiteri was a little-loved minister.
Eddie Fenech Adami, regardless of his defects, didn’t like to see his ministers and political staff flirting with big business. He would have been able to give better advice. When he fired volleys at Bertu Mizzi for his close links with Mintoff, no one in The Times questioned his wisdom. Neither did Lino, because at the time, he was a Labour minister in a government best remembered for its disrespect for any form of political opposition.
What’s new? Today, Gonzi acts just like his predecessor, Dom Mintoff. He regards the press and media as a nuisance, as long as it is not the one managed by Adrian Hillman of The Times, or PBS of Joe Pirotta and Claire Vassallo Thake.
George Fenech announced that he got to where he did through hard work, and of this I have no doubt. But it would be appropriate to emphasize that businessmen such as George Fenech would not have got to places were it not for the benevolence of the political class of all shades and colour. His late father Tumas would understand my comment. The land at Portomaso is a case in point. Partitioned out at a pittance to George Fenech (as was the case at Tigné and Manoel Island), Fenech has been able to make massive profits thanks to the ridiculous price tagged to the public land at his disposal, and the willingness of MEPA to allow for such a high-density project.
Now, he announces that he will not be giving Christmas hampers anymore (the horror…). Which basically illustrates the mindset of some of our businessmen who cannot quite understand anything about ethics.
When I taught at a private school years ago, George Fenech would dish out lavish presents to some of the teachers. None of the teachers saw anything incorrect with this. Indeed most teachers still think that accepting presents around Christmas time is OK.
In most schools in France, Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, giving presents to teachers is an illegal act. To even suggest this here would be madness.
So as Fenech decides to save some money and not give out hampers, his mile-high buddy Tonio Fenech is trying to silence me, scare me and stop me from writing.
Well Tonio, I stand by what I said. And guess what? On this one, public opinion is on my side. Nothing will stop my big fat gob, not this time, not ever. And if you think that this story is going to go away you better start thinking about some other great idea to silence me.
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Needless to say, Spiteri, who was a PN-hated figure before 1998, has his personal and perfectly valid reasons for believing that all this fuss over Tonio Fenech’s fatal flight on George Fenech’s private jet with millionaires Joe Gasan and George Fenech is normal.
