Sometime, somehow, the black dust issue might be resolved although from what the PM told the House during his concluding remarks at the tail end of the marathon budget debate we seem to be back to square one – almost ruling out the source without having moved an inch closer towards identifying it!

It was indeed pathetic to read that in a freshly minted report by Mepa, coincidentally (!!) presented to the PM on the same day that the budget debate ended, one of their ‘best’ recommendations was that ‘Mepa will also attempt to analyse statistically the data from its (air quality) stations in order to identify any possible trends...’. This exercise should have been carried out ages ago, well before the Opposition started ringing the alarm bells!

Meanwhile we had the far from reassuring statement by Minister Gatt today week that the Marsa power station does not only not have filters on its chimneys to collect soot but uses electrostatic precipitators. Simply because according to him there was no legal requirement for Enemalta to install the filters, and it had no plans to do so.

I hope that in a forthcoming parliamentary reply to a PQ of mine we will establish how many precipitators Enemalta actually has, how long they have been installed and how many stoppages they have experienced. Particularly since one of them is known to have been struck by lightning and kept out of action for virtually a whole year.

What I found intriguing was that the PM tabled among other documents the report commissioned by Minister Zammit Dimech some 10 years ago. A document which had already been laid on the table of the House then! The very same report which government first praised in the past, rubbished on the same day when we held a media conference together with regional mayors and now hyped up as having saved us from considerable sulphuric acid compared to the past.

But right now the PN is experiencing a different type of dust as both a party and a government... particularly since they seem to be so uncomfortably intertwined. The kind of dust that seems to be unable to settle. Regardless of the colour. Particularly since we are talking of political ‘dust’.

While we wish Minister Dalli every success as he goes through the motions of his confirmation process as an EU Commissioner and reiterate our appreciation of the unstinting efforts made by the soon to be outgoing Commissioner Joe Borg, I am sure that many Gonzites felt more than a fair measure of unease when they read Minister Dalli’s statements in other sections of the local media that there are numerous cases where Commissioners have returned to domestic politics based on the considerations of the moment. Frattini and Mandelson surely come to mind – instantly.

In fact the day after his announcement was made public the media focused on two main issues:

a) who his successor in Parliament could be or rather how many of the three eligible candidates on his district will throw in their nomination once the call is made;

b) but even more so the still rampant speculation as to whether Dalli was kicked upstairs or not.

Let me make it clear. John Dalli is one of the few all rounders in the House and his loss will be a big loss for the Gonzi Cabinet whatever shape it might take come next January. Apart from mastering his brief through long years on Finance and Economic Affairs as well as through his exposure with the Industry portfolio, I had always been impressed by the short stint that he served as Foreign Minister.

There was none of the Eurocentricity of Joe Borg – a far better Commissioner than the technocratic EU obsessed Minister we came to know – so much so that during his few months as Foreign Minister John Dalli had shown considerable outreach not only with the N. African terrain with which he is more than familiar but also with his direct connectivity with China, Russia and even his successful meeting with Colin Powell, an under-rated balanced performer in the GW Bush administration.

For him Foreign Affairs had assumed an economic dimension rather than remaining something relegated to the niceties of conventional old styled diplomacy. To be fair Michael Frendo would have been a successful and worthy candidate too, had he been considered seriously by Lawrence Gonzi. Something that I very much doubt if he ever did.

Malta needs such people in the digital era of globalisation.

But the core issue remains that as in most other instances Lawrence Gonzi was motivated by purely domestic considerations, in a desperate bid to get out of the way The Confessor of the Dissidents in his camp, in the hope of having an easier ride forward.

Dalli’s quote that ‘I am not a goat that follows the shepherd’ will continue to haunt the PN inner circles even after he has hopefully long settled in his new Commissioner job.

It will be interesting to see how RCC and his sympathetic media spinners will react to all this, although from some blogs riding on the back of the ex Chief Justice Saga one could detect the first poisoned arrows in the direction of the Dalli ‘family.’

It will be equally interesting to find out whether RCC will hold onto his job at DAR MALTA or else seek pastures new as has been rumoured, in the new EU Foreign Service.

There is also much speculation as to what shape the new Cabinet post-Dalli will take.

Even though Lawrence Gonzi was quick to point out that no major reshuffle will take place, because the country needed stability in this economic crisis, any ordinary political analyst and Malta watcher will soon realise that the PM must have definitely had in mind internal party stability more than anything else, as well as the governability, or risk of lack of it, in his administration.

Only time will tell whether the quick fix solution Gonzi must have already mapped out will quench the ambitions of his Young Turks or not. We might nevertheless have to wait till the beginning of the New Year to find out. But judging by a number of Nationalists I met, even party activists are already feeling uncertain about future prospects within the PN parliamentary group. No matter how much the PM is reported to have put on a brave face of ‘strong leadership’ when trying to make his acolytes fall into line during recent PG meetings.

On paper Gonzi’s position might appear stronger as a result of Dalli’s move to the Berlaymont building, but for an administration that can hardly put a foot right, this might come as too little, too late.

While I wish the SR Technics project well because of the value added I mentioned in an earlier article, the investigative articles written on the same people by Noel Grima in this newspaper provided very disturbing reading notwithstanding the ‘reassurances’ that followed in their cataclysmic wake.

At the same time that I am signing off this article I realised that what with the Dalli appointment and the sentence meted out to the former Chief Justice there were two things people were hardly talking about anymore.

The Budget itself and Smart City. Which did not even get a mention once in Budget 2010.

I wonder why? The FT has in fact not only reported that property in Dubai is likely to plummet further but also that Dubai World, the conglomerate owned by the government of the Gulf emirate has actually asked creditors for a six month ‘standstill’ on its obligations. As a banker put it the idea of a standstill is nothing short of a ‘disaster’ for confidence... something which made the cost of protection against a Dubai debt default widen by more than 100 basis points to stand at more than 400 basis points in intraday trading.

This time next year we shall be meeting again to see how many of the new promises of the Budget 2010 have been actually implemented, as well as how the Gonzi administration has managed to cope in a scenario which according to many specialists should see the EU move out of recession. At a time when our own Finance Minister also declared that even Malta should do so by the first half of the New Year.



Public Accounts Committee

I was very satisfied to note that two of my recommendations made during a recent PAC meeting were taken on board by the members present.

Particularly that the NAO Performance Audit on Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Efficiency in Malta will now evolve into an ongoing periodic review and update rather than a one off X ray exercise; and secondly that all studies referred to in the MRA report on our national energy plan will now be tabled and distributed to the members of the PAC once they are completed.