WE WERE overjoyed to see the unlikable former foreign minister and AKEL defector, Yiorgos Lillikas back in the political spotlight. Nobody knows how long the pontificating Paphite will be able to hog the limelight, but we can only hope it will be no longer than the last time an opportunity presented itself, because he is sufferable only in small doses.
The latest opportunity was provided by the attorney-general who decided to take legal action against Yiorgos over decisions he had taken as commerce and industry minister in the Ethnarch’s government in 2003. Before he was made foreign minister, forging strategic alliances with big powers and turning the screw on the Turks, he honed his diplomatic skills by haggling with cow farmers.
At commerce he had apparently agreed to give a state subsidy to some cow farmers’ association, without having the approval of the Council of Ministers. The cow farmers were not paid the compensation Lillikas had promised them for dumping huge quantities of milk, and sued the government demanding €1.8 million.
The AG argued that the there was no written agreement or decision by the Council of Ministers to compensate the farmers and if Lillikas made a verbal agreement with them, he had he exceeded his powers and should take personal responsibility. The AG filed a law-suit against Lillikas for exceeding his powers in order to prove the government had no obligation to pay the compensation demanded.
True, a legal dispute with greedy cow farmers over milk dumping is not the stuff of heroic comebacks, but the mega-ambitious Yiorkos is desperate enough to grab any opportunity for public exposure
THANKS to the cow farmers, Yiorkos became the front page lead story in Thursday’s Phil and was on most newspaper front pages on Friday as well, not to mention his appearances on TV and radio shows. I hope he sent a private thank-you note to the AG for the giving him the opportunity to play the innocent victim of the nasty conniving commie government.
But I think he messed up his big chance by overplaying his victimhood, making out that he was the target of the “vengeful” comrade. For a guy who supposedly works as a communications strategist – when he is not saving the Republic from foreign perils – his publicity stunts are crudely primitive, coming with a ‘Made in Paphos’ tag.
He poetically labelled the AG’s move as the “criminalisation of political life” and claimed that he was being persecuted by the government which, guided by “vindictive motives”, wanted his “political gagging”. The AG had taken instructions from the comrade who wanted to destroy him.
He was even more expansive in his comments to Phil claiming the government had “a mechanism for imposing silence”, but of course this would never work on the heroic and fearless warrior from Panayia. “If this is the case, it would have no effect, whatsoever, on me,” he declared defiantly. “I would never be driven to abstention or silence.”
The great communications strategist again overplayed his hand, selling himself as a Nelson Mandela figure putting up courageous resistance to the equivalent of the apartheid regime, regardless of the personal consequences.
THE REALITY is that Yiorgos has fallen victim to his inflated ego rather than to the incompetent Tof government, which would fail to silence a man in a coma.
The idea that the government would want to ‘politically gag’ Lillikas is based on the dubious assumption that he is so powerful and influential that he is causing damage to comrade Tof.
Yet the uppity Paphite has been in the political wilderness for more than three years, organising the odd seminar, in the hope of attracting some public attention, and issuing political announcements, which are buried on the inside pages of the papers that nobody reads. He occasionally talks on the Lazarus radio show, but nobody pays any attention.
So why would the government want to silence someone that nobody is listening to even on the rare occasions he expresses a public view? I could understand it wanting to silence Averof, Ethnarch Junior, Kassinis, Koulias, the Fuhrer, but why a man who causes no harm to its image?
SPEAKING of silencing politicians, the government would be performing a public service if it found a way to politically gag Omirou, Garoyian and Perdikis who are driving us crazy with their pompous, self-righteous political sermonising. Our mental health would further improve if it also silenced some irritatingly sanctimonious Akelites like Damianou, Loucaides, Andros and, of course, Tof himself, but that is unlikely.
AFTER that short commercial break we return to the persecuted Paphite, who also believed that apart from silencing him, legal action taken against him was aimed at thwarting any plans he had for the presidential elections. “So will you be standing in the elections?” asked a radio presenter, on hearing this.
Yiorkos declined to answer, saying he had made a mistake in bringing up the presidential elections, but it is obvious that he had set his sights on standing in 2013, presumably as the Church candidate. His Cyprob ideas have the full approval of his fellow-Paphite, the Archbishop (another worthy target for political gagging) and all that remains is for Chrys to persuade a couple of the smaller parties to back his candidacy.
IF HE STANDS, he can certainly rely on the support of our leading daily Phil that historically enjoys very close and lucrative ties with the Church.
Phil not only broke the story of the legal action but it also bought the myth of the presidential Paphite’s political persecution, running outraged, breast-beating comments and opinion pieces against the government, which it claimed, was behind the AG’s decision. The issue “adversely affects the whole political system and institutions”.
It also endorsed the views of the socialist windbag Omirou who argued that the decision “poisons political life” and “creates an extremely dangerous precedent”. Lillikas was the first “former minister to ever be dragged to court to pay compensations for a decision he took while he was minister”, one column-writer lamented.
But why was this a bad thing? Is it because Lillikas is a Phil-approved bash-patriot or because his family advertising firm gives a lot of business to Phil group publications? I think the AG’s decision was commendable and sets an excellent precedent. If it stops ministers from wasting the taxpayer’s money on assistance to millionaire cow farmers, potato-growers etc, it would one of the best decisions ever taken.
And in the unlikely event the court orders Lillikas to pay out of his own pocket the €1.8 million he promised the cow-farmers, it would constitute a triumph for the taxpayer, even if it brings tears to the eyes of Phil columnists.
WAS OUR commie government behind the AG’s decision to file a legal suit against Lillikas? I suspect that the decision was taken by the AG, but he ran it past the president, who did not voice any objection. If the minister in question was an Akelite or a friend of the comrade, Tof would almost certainly have told the AG to drop the case.
It’s very difficult to feel any sympathy for Lillikas who, as spokesman and minister of the Ethnarch’s government, was constantly trying to silence his leader’s critics and opponents through intimidation. He regularly tried to gag them politically by accusing them of being foreign agents, of promoting Turkish positions and lacking patriotism.
Having been such a bully, he cannot play the victim now, let alone attain Mandelaesque martyrdom with any credibility. But we will vote for him for president, even if he is a hypocritical, publicity-seeking Paphite.
IT’S also very difficult to comprehend why the Journalists Union protested about the comrade Tof’s decision not to t
ake any hacks with him on his much-trumpeted visit to the Homer Ferrington rig last Monday. The comrade only took five TV cameramen and a photographer from Tass news agency with him.
Understandable considering this was a publicity exercise, nothing more than a photo opportunity for him. What would hacks have done if they accompanied him – investigated how deep the drill had penetrated or reported what the gas smelt like? No, according to the union it was the principle that mattered. The decision “violated citizens’ democratic right to objective, accurate and comprehensive information”.
How about a little objectivity? The hacks were moaning because they did not get a free helicopter ride to the rig and not over our right to accurate information.
NOBLE ENERGY will not be inviting the comrade back to Homer any time soon. Not after the bad luck his visit brought to the company’s share price. On Friday November 18 the Noble share price closed at a $92.54. On the next day of trading, Monday, the day that the comrade visited it fell by more than $2.50 to $89.88 and continued its downward path all week. On Friday it closed at $86.20, financial analysts attributing the week’s 7 per cent fall in price to comrade Tof’s bad luck effect.
IT IS LOOKING increasingly likely that the union bosses will swallow their pride and accept the two-year wage freeze deviously proposed 10 days ago by Kikis Kazamias. I report this with some caution, knowing what nut-cases are in charge of the unions and aware of AKEL’s populist objections to the freeze.
If Kikis pulls it off he will deserve our congratulations because he did the whole thing on his own, without consulting his comrade boss who would have vetoed the idea if he had a choice. This was why AKEL, a few hours after the announcement, expressed its opposition while the cowardly comrade refused to back the proposals in public. The threat of EU sanctions probably persuaded the comrade to listen to his minister.
It is a true mark of the prevailing lunacy that the finance minister has to resort to a conspiracy in order get the president to accept measures that any sane leader would have introduced more than a year ago. I dread to think what will happen if the wage freeze is deemed inadequate and the EU demands more deficit-reducing measures.
Another cunning Kikis conspiracy will be required.
THEN we have the economically challenged Akelites, undermining Kikis by drafting a communist five-year plan for stealing everyone’s money, and presenting it as a ‘balanced’ set of proposals for saving the economy.
The commies want to tax everyone working in the private sector as well as ‘accumulated wealth’, which is also the target of the unions. They also want to impose price-ceilings, legislate against profiteering and impose taxes on everything. The general philosophy of AKEL’s plan to steal from the rich and give to the poor public parasites was articulated by comrade Andros during the presentation of his modern-day communist manifesto.
“Maybe today, or the last three years, the economy has been going through a difficult phase and some might not be making profits, but some were making profits all these years and have accumulated wealth in one form or another and it is this wealth we must find a way to get our hands on.”
ONE OF the AKEL measures was to tax property. During discussion of the measures a comrade proposed that all property worth more than €500,000 should be taxed. Then it was decided that the amount was too low and it was raised to €1.2m. This would have exempted most public parasites from paying any tax on their accumulated wealth which consists of a big town house and a holiday home in Protaras.
This is like the ridiculous targeting of the student grant. Now, the kids of families whose combined income is higher 90 grand (the average income of a couple of public parasites is in this region) would not be eligible to a student grant. With this targeting the government has limited the grant to only 90 per cent of the population.
WE HAVE received a letter from a lawyer representing the Italian chief bassoonist of the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra. The lawyer said that his client had not favoured the Italians who had auditioned for a bassoonist vacancy in the Orchestra as our establishment had implied. The selection of the successful candidate was the responsibility of a five-member committee and although the chief bassoonist was one of the members he could in no way have made the decision on his own. We accept this and would like to apologise for suggesting that the chief bassoonist could have influenced the committee’s decision in choosing a bassoonist.
NEXT week we will be launching the ‘Yiorgos Lillikas is innocent’ campaign.
