What an obscene and obnoxious sight, seeing our government ministers and parliamentary secretaries handing over thousands of Maltese liri claiming they were given by “hbieb tal-Partit”. They lined our TV screens and handed the money over to the “determined and decided” (sic) Prime Minister we have been saddled with and who had promised us a different way of doing politics! Who can assure all and sundry that these liri had not come from our national coffers? What transparency is there in this kind of funding? Isn’t it propitious that they have often been dubbed to be working in the interests of the “hbieb tal-hbieb” networks?

When is the Ombudsman, or any other kind of authority going to investigate this improper way of funding political parties? Isn’t it high time the money they earn and how it is spent is audited by an independent authority to ensure that there is no tinge of corruption money in the preposterous fund-raising marathons!? Surely, the money bosses who passed over such a considerable amount of cash would want something in return, perhaps a direct tender from one Minister and a promise of future direct tenders from the shadow Minister, a minister-in-waiting.

On the other hand, the Labour Party’s claim of having received “il-ftit minghand il-hafna” should not impress us at all until they show evidence that there was no money boss who phoned in a considerable number of times, knowing that he will be repaid in the future as his phone number would have been registered for his infinite kindness. Besides, if we were to take Labour’s Lm74,000 and divide it by Lm3, that would make approximately 25,000 contributors and that is significantly a small proportion of those who gave them first preference in any general election!

Saviour Sammut

SAFI