NEWS ANALYSIS: Marja Tiura’s Via Dolorosa

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By Jaakko Hautamäki
     
      Controversy has surrounded MP Marja Tiura (Nat. Coalition Party), controversial businessman Arto Merisalo, and Centre Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen for nearly two years. The three were nevertheless moving peacefully toward the Easter holidays until Thursday, when an issue of the weekly magazine Apu appeared, in which Tiura said that the Centre had asked her quite audaciously to defect to the Centre Party in the midst of government formation talks in 2007.
      That was the start of a strange he-said-she-said Via Dolorosa, or Way of Suffering, for those involved as well as for many on the sidelines, who could just shake their heads in wonder.
      Korhonen and Merisalo rushed to declare that the events were quite the opposite of what had been said in the interview. According to them, Tiura, who had felt rejected by her party, had offered to defect to the Centre.
     
According to tradition, the Via Dolorosa is the route by which Jesus was taken to be crucified. Those who focus on the Christian side of Easter might see this as an extreme analogy, which Tiura used when she described her worldly defection issues on her website: “Today is Good Friday. He said then, Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
      Tiura also took up Purgatory and being a woman: “I also pondered if this could be possible if a male MP were involved. Would the public Purgatory be the same if some woman were to volunteer as an agent to a man who has been changing parties, as it were.”
      By this she meant that someone else - Arto Merisalo - had proposed a defection on Tiura’s behalf, but by no means according to Tiura’s wishes, or at her initiative.
     
During the Easter weekend Tiura made more statements on her blog, but gave no actual interviews. She is in the habit of reading to journalists statements that have been written in advance, or to repeat the same sentences again and again.
      The sentences are often quite vivid, with considerable drama included. Often it was not quite clear what the connection was between the statements and the actual issue at hand. One example was the answer, according to which “Judas was also an apostle”.
      Helsingin Sanomat spoke to National Coalition Party government negotiator who claimed to have heard about Tiura’s intentions to defect during the government formation talks. The source, who spoke of Tiura’s “defiance” toward the National Coalition Party, claimed that Tiura’s frustration was caused by her disappointment at not getting a ministerial appointment. For an MP elected to a third term, who had brought the party a massive number of votes, the disappointment was tremendous.
      However, Merisalo said that he had recorded his calls with politicians, but not with the front line of politicians. Tiura is not in the front line. At present, Merisalo is pondering with his lawyer whether or not to make his evidence public.
     
In the midst of it all Merisalo and Tiura were engaged in at least one-sided correspondence. This is evidenced by e-mail messages from Merisalo to Tiura, which Helsingin Sanomat has obtained.
      In them, Merisalo states how he could have made Tiura’s life difficult by making public notes and tapes of dozens of conversations he has had with Tiura. Merisalo says that he had heard that the interview with Apu was given out of fear that the defection toward the Centre would have come out shortly before the elections, and that it would have been revealed by Merisalo. Merisalo says in an e-mail that he felt that the thought was paranoid, because he would have had nothing to gain from it.
      The message also goes through the attitudes that Merisalo and others in Tiura’s circle had toward the MP as a person. Tiura apparently found the tone of the message to be threatening, especially as Merisalo was at great pains in the letter to state that he can confirm his own version of events with the help of tapes, notes, and witnesses.
     
Tiura contented herself with calling for the publication of the tapes - preferably unedited, so that the matter might be laid to a rest.
      Merisalo spoke about his problems with his former friend, mentioning the Anna Tapio School, flight tickets, buying furniture, and most recently, the story in Apu.
      Easter is over, but the mess remains.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.4.2010


Previously in HS International Edition:
  MP Marja Tiura steps down as deputy chair of National Coalition Party Parliamentary group (7.4.2010)
  National Coalition Party MP Marja Tiura discusses claims of threatened defection with Parliamentary group leaders (6.4.2010)
  Centre Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen: “Tiura sought to switch to Centre Party camp” (1.4.2010)
  Police suspect MP Marja Tiura of taking a bribe (3.12.2009)

JAAKKO HAUTAMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
jaakko.hautamaki@hs.fi