Lawrence Gonzi is the trump card, the big gun of the Nationalist Party. In this he has taken one of his predecessor’s roles. Eddie Fenech Adami was shielded from petty squabbles but was rolled out for a devastating broadside when the situation was deemed to merit his intervention. Gonzi appears to be more EFA than EFA ever was. Following his prominence in the General Elections, the party changing to GonziPN for the event, Lawrence Gonzi has kept out of the limelight. The EP elections have come and gone with him taking a much reduced role. The technique is meant to preserve his aura for the major event in four years’ time.
Still, we have all witnessed his previous forays: suddenly snarling at an opponent in disproportionate response in order to eliminate all further resistance or throwing his mantle over a colleague or minister who seems to be having the worst of it in an exchange with his critics. Such was his task in responding to the news of Tonio Fenech’s flight to football with Joe Gasan on George Fenech’s private jet. The Prime Minister had been informed beforehand and had approved of what turns out to be a blatant violation of the Code of Ethics for Cabinet Ministers. In that case the Prime Minister went out on a limb for Tonio Fenech. He took a risk by appearing to be granting some sort of papal dispensation from the rules of public morality causing a double scandal but laying his own credibility as a bulwark to Tonio Fenech’s.
In this latest case, coming so soon after the first and once more involving the names of Fenech’s football cronies, the Prime Minister has been less than forthcoming. A statement issued by his office attempts to reduce the matter to the dimensions of a private dispute about quantities and amounts.
The Prime Minister has not snarled this time. Nor has he sallied forth in defence of his faithful servant. The laconic response speaks reams about the manner in which the OPM is assessing the present situation: too hot to handle in the usual bluff manner. It tells of uncertainty and hesitation.
Charles Magro, the boss of a relatively small firm of turnkey contractors, claims to be owed the not astronomic amount of around €20,000. It would be suicidal of him to end up in the eye of a political storm over it if he had any other choice. It would be utterly irrational of him to fabricate the claim that the works he carried out at Fenech’s home were described as “a favour” to the Minister by JPM Brothers who contracted for them with Magro, in return for Fenech’s efforts to sell off to Joe Gasan and George Fenech their title to the Jerma Palace Hotel.
The flight to football could not be denied. It was absolved. The present allegation can never be absolved and, true or not, it must be denied. It has been denied by Tonio Fenech in person and through his lawyers in a judicial protest served on everyone who made reference to the affair in public.
Not so the Prime Minister. The statement issued by his office refers to the matter as a civil dispute and no more when even the thickest reader must recognise it to be far more. The allegation made is of the most serious nature, striking at the heart of Tonio Fenech’s integrity. Just as his vehement response can be taken for granted, the Prime Minister feeble dodge seems ominous.
However before attributing the Prime Minister’s precautionary hands-off response as indicative of Fenech’s guilt or credibility deficit we should also note yet another unfortunate circumstance. The Prime Minister, in shielding Fenech just a few days ago, had to face the outraged reaction of some of his backbenchers who claimed that two weights and two measures had been employed. John Dalli had been disavowed without compunction. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando now rehabilitating himself by dint of sheer obstinacy had little time for the kid glove treatment meted out to Fenech when he has been facing the wolves alone for more than a year. Even if the Prime Minister were convinced of Fenech’s chances of coming out of this mess unscathed, he may be reluctant to help him along so soon and in the face of such resentment.
Gonzi’s silence must cost him dearly. Fenech will be hard to replace not only as the boy wonder of public finance but also part of his political bodyguard, a crucial bulwark of Gonzi’s fortress within the PN.
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