PERSONAL STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF TG LEADER MARLENE HASSAN NAHON MP
The responses from Government to legitimate criticisms are becoming simply unacceptable, and reveal a worrying lack of self awareness and control in those responsible.
Despite having been trying my best to avoid inconsequential mud-slinging matches, I find myself inevitably compelled to defend my good name with regards the shameful press response from Government on the issue of the St Mary’s School rental deal.
Firstly, I would like to state my belief that vile personal attacks such as this one should NOT BE METED OUT ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT OF GIBRALTAR. This is a statement based on opinions and value judgements on me as a person, which constitute an inherently electoralist, partisan attack on me and my party. This is a party political statement and should therefore be packaged as a party press statement, not a Government press release. Furthermore, it is my personal opinion that this statement displays a baseness and a lack of moral quality that is simply unworthy of the GoG letterhead, which represents all Gibraltarians.
Secondly I would like to stress that this is a response to a Together Gibraltar PR in which the party simply reminded Minister John Cortes of the definition of the term “conflict of interest,” a concept which, judging by a GBC interview on the matter (quoted in the PR), the Minister clearly did not understand. The PR then went on to ask for further information on the deal of the St Mary’s School rental, and expressed doubts on the value for the taxpayer of said deal. It was not a personal attack on anybody. It was not even a rejection of the deal, per se. It was a reminder of what conflict of interest means, no more, no less.
And it is clearly the case that the concept of conflict of interest is not particularly well understood by many in this administration, as this is not the only deal that that has favoured associates or close contacts of members of Government and has slipped through without adequate scrutiny. The Government also rents out property belonging to the family of another Minister, Albert Isola, who (by the way) never expressed any issues with the fact that his family business purchased prime real estate at a very favourable rate from the ‘Butcher of Hama’ Rifaat Al-Assad, who had had his assets seized and frozen pretty much everywhere else in the world.
This issue was questioned by me in Parliament and by TG publicly, with absolutely no consequences.
Just to make this crystal clear, I derive ZERO benefit from the law firm Hassans. My father’s partnership was dissolved around 1992, and the firm has since then been run by my cousin James Levy with great success, but without the involvement of my nuclear family. My father’s estate, which was managed by my mother until a couple of years ago when she became unwell with Alzheimer’s (at which point I began to represent her at meetings) continues to have some dealings with James Levy (the individual) in relation to rental of a couple of her properties.
I have absolutely no connection with, or interest in, the law firm Hassans. My father founded the firm, yes, but that happened 80 years ago and his partnership was dissolved almost 30 years ago.
A further measure of how much of a stretch of the imagination these insinuations are is The PR’s use of the word “eponymously”, which means, literally, by name. Does that mean that all people with the same surnames are connected and consequently responsible for each other’s dealings?
Most importantly, I am not the Chief Minister of Gibraltar and do not control what deals Government gets into, like he does. What the Government PR is insinuating is, quite frankly, disgusting, and only for pointing out something that is undeniably true; that a CM who is a partner of the firm Hassans is conflicted when making deals with said company on behalf of the people of Gibraltar.
The Government is lashing out indiscriminately, making unjustified personal attacks every time anyone tries to subject them to any form of scrutiny - as they have done with me, with Henry Pinna and with the Community Care Action Group representatives, among others. They are loading the political debate with so much venom and aggression that it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to get involved and this is bringing great harm to our democracy.
The Government saw fit to remind me of the definition of the word hypocrisy. I take this reminder on board. I have never pretended to know it all, nor do I shy away from the fact that I am always learning and developing as a politician, but what I will not accept is that they question my integrity on these unfair and dishonest grounds. As much as I disagree with the insinuation that I am hypocritical, I would like to remind Government that Parliaments around the world (including our own) are full of hypocrites. It is a terrible flaw, but it doesn’t appear to be a disqualifying factor (at this stage I could remind members of Government of many gaffs and contradictions, but I’ll leave that for another day).
On the other hand, conflicts of interest are the gateway to corruption, and no politician should ever be allowed to get away with that.