Caruana's not quite five minutes of shame
- Enough to show the millions of viewers the true face of the man who for the past 13 years has ruled Gibraltar in a reign increasingly dominated by favours and fear.
- Enough to confirm to the international community that, despite its links with Britain - a home of modern democracy - the Rock has become as undemocratic as any Third World dictatorship.
- Enough for audiences in Britain and Gibraltar to see the pitiful performance of a bully getting his come-upance. (Few will forget the pathetic posturing as the gesturing hands met, fingertips pressed together as though restraining himself from strangling an interviewer who had the temerity to get the better of him - and all of this accompanied by the false amiableness of the trademark Caruanan crocodile smile.)
- Enough to reveal the egotistical arrogance of the autocrat and dictator for whose presence in No 6 the voters of Gibraltar have only themselves to blame.
- Enough to show the Whitehall Mandarins that, in recent years at least, they have been backing the wrong horse in the Gibraltar Stakes
- Enough to convince those voters who had not yet realised it, what a pathetically pompous ass occupies the throne at No 6.
- Enough time for the presenter to reveal - and the bumbling politician to confirm - that he exercises his own dictator-style form of Press censorship.
International Harm
The damage those four minutes of ‘air time' did to Gibraltar's reputation is incalculable; however Gibraltar has endured sieges and decades of Spanish slanders and will survive the international harm of this serious disservice by its Chief Minister. But will Caruana survive? That's the question that thinking minds on Main Street and elsewhere are asking in the wake of the debacle.
Paradoxically, it's this sort of performance - in which a leader's faults and flaws are laid bare - that influences the attitudes of the international finance community far more than all the optimistic speeches to City or political audiences on a string of Gibraltar Days in London.
And the revelations of a Chief Minister going off the rails could not have come at a worse time, for they arise as investors and their local financial advisers - along with Opposition politicians and even senior GSD party officials - have begun to wonder why so much secrecy has surrounded the agreements to share tax information which the Government has signed with a string of countries including the United Sates and Britain.
The agreements were called for internationally and their acceptance and implementation by the Government was inevitable - yet, apparently, some local advisers and administrators knew nothing of the agreements (which will vitally affect their business relations with some clients) until told about them by the clients themselves.
There was no need for shame or secrecy. Yet Caruana - a man who trumpets achievements and developments at every opportunity - has chosen to remain silent. Why?
Unnecessary Secrecy
At the best of times secrecy over official "arrangements" undermines investor confidence, and even greater harm is done when that secrecy is seemingly unnecessary.
Ironically, any fall-out from Caruana's revelations of himself and his admissions of media manipulation will damage what could be described as one of the few success stories of the Chief Minister's four-term reign - the growth of the finance centre and the attraction to the Rock of a string of internet and on-line gaming companies which have contributed through tax `arrangements and licences to Government revenue and created a significant job market.
But does Caruana actually deserve the credit for this? Far from it. The then Minister of Trade & Industry Peter Montegriffo (who was also Caruana's Deputy Chief Minister for as long as he could stand it...and then quit) created a solid and workable foundation on the ground already prepared by the previous, Bossano Government. And it was Montegriffo who, almost single-handed brought the bulk of the major gaming companies to the Rock and whose continued relations with these major players holds their loyalty to Gibraltar as a place from which to operate. And when Montegriffo left Government, it was his replacement as Minister Keith Azopoardi who continued the good work.
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