It was botched by the government right from the start.

The way it handled the shooting at a car by the driver of Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia was the perfect exercise in mismanagement of a difficult situation.

Other governments around the world should take note of what occurred in Malta these past three weeks and do the opposite in a similar situation.

It all started when the press statement was issued two and a half hours after the incident took place and ended with the way the minister was kicked out of office. In between, we had one error of judgment after another by a prime minister who lost the plot in the face of a crisis. We're told he went to sleep as the situation was developing. Thank God Lawrence Gonzi remained awake in the Libya crisis.

That it took three weeks for the obvious decision to be made is only to be blamed on a prime minister who was reluctant to make up his mind, perhaps hoping that the matter would have been swept under the carpet. He under-estimated the power of the media, and given his journalistic background this mistake is even greater.

And, even when he did what was ultimately inevitable after the conclusion of the inquiry, giving Mallia the option to resign rather than having the courage to immediately remove him from office was not the right way. It was useless to say afterwards that "it was either a resignation or a removal". The PM should have told him to pack up without offering the other alternative.

As for Mallia, he should have done the honourable thing and resign - if not immediately after the incident, at least when on Monday night the PM made it clear that he should go. He did not, forcing the PM's hand. Trying to stay on when you're not wanted is not an admirable gesture. The only interpretation I can give to this is that if he had resigned, Mallia would have admitted guilt. That he was dismissed means that he still believes he did nothing wrong.

There are countless other instances when bad decisions were taken. The minutes immediately after the incident were an example of what a police investigation should not be. What we know now from the exchanges that took place on the phone is evidence of how unprepared the force is to deal with these situations. The delayed arraignment of the minister's driver on charges of attempted murder - possibly what the PM was referring to when he spoke of a force that protects its own - was another blow to the people's trust.

If there's one good thing the PM said at Castille on Tuesday is that the confidence in the force has been severely dented. And he was being kind. It must be a record for the police force to have had three commissioners in 18 months.

The OPM statement that was issued on the night of the incident was an outright misrepresentation of what had actually taken place, and the press conference that was held a day later by the minister did little to erase the doubts that had built by then, just 12 hours later.

The more time passed, the more the government was at a loss trying to plug the holes and the pressure kept piling up, not least by a Nationalist Party that pounced on the incident to highlight the government's indecision and inefficiency. It moved a no-confidence motion in the minister when the Prime Minister continued to defend Mallia in his budget speech (another mistake by the PM), and then used its media to bring out shocking details that left everybody - to use Marlene Farrugia's words - "speechless".

The Prime Minister would have appeared to be much stronger if he had told the minister to move out soon after the incident. It would have earned him admiration and it would have served him well in political terms.

As things happened, his credibility has plummeted. The government - and the prime minister in particular - emerges bruised and battered from this episode.