Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said this evening that he had shouldered his reponsibility when he uncovered the government’s deceit and cover up attempt after the Gzira shooting incident.

Speaking in Parliament, Dr Busuttil said the truth would not have come out if it was not for the PN. “Muscat was extremely angry today, and attacked me personally. He was angry because we told the truth.”

The PN Leader said the Prime Minister is resorting to bullying tactics and blackmail. “I have news for the Prime Minister. I am not scared of your threats. The Opposition is not scared of you. We have a duty towards the people and we will honour it.”

The government is being ridiculed over the way it handled the incident. The PN Leader said the incident was the result of a culture of ‘anything goes’ which was introduced in March 2013.

“This is what happens when someone like Cyrus Engerer is condemned by the courts one day and publicly hugged by the Prime Minister the next. It is what happens when the PM does not correct his own MPs, like Luciano Busuttil and Helena Dalli. If we had not uncovered this latest scandal, the government would have also covered for Manuel Mallia.”

Dr Muscat, however, had acted differently with others, such as with Speaker Anglu Farrugia, on whom Muscat had committed political murder.” Dr Busuttil said the government’s first instinct, like that of Super One journalists, was to hide the truth and manipulate it.

The PN media, he said, did not manipulate the phone recordings. They were published as soon as they came in and were not edited. On the other hand the Prime Minister only issued one edited clip which suited him. The PN and the independent media had uncovered a huge scandal and showed people how far this government’s manipulation attempts reached.

Dr Busuttil said the Prime Minister was calling on him to shoulder the political responsibility for criticising the inquiry but Dr Muscat had himself criticised a member of the judiciary when he said he did not have confidence in Judge Albert Manche, who was leading an inquiry on Cyrus Engerer. How was this different?  “We refused to take part in all of this because this was your mess and it was your job to clean it up. We did not need an inquiry to tell us that Sheehan fired at the car. We knew that on the night of the incident.”

The Opposition Leader said Dr Muscat admitted that on the night of the incident he spoke to Gavin Gulia, Kurt Farrugia and Manuel Mallia but wants everyone to believe he did not know that the shots fired by Sheehan were not warning shots. “The police commissioner, those in the control room, the RIU, the investigators on site, Manuel Mallia, Kurt Farrugia and the Maltese people knew they were not warning shots but you claim that you did not know because you went to sleep. Wake up and smell the coffee.”

The Prime Minister abdicated his responsibilities instead of taking the necessary decisions. He has showed everyone how weak he is. He removed Mallia against his will and only did so because he bowed his head to the pressure piled on him by the Opposition and the people. “You only acted when the pressure was too big to handle. You did not want to sack him and tried to avoid doing it. If Manuel Mallia had to resign over an incorrect statement then should the person who wrote it not also resign? Should Kurt Farrugia, who works in your office, not also shoulder his responsibility?”

Joseph Muscat did not shoulder any responsibility and was asking the PN Leader to do just that. But Dr Busuttil said he had shouldered his own responsibility when he uncovered the truth that the Prime Minister had tried to hide.

“Not even your MPs believe you,” said Dr Busuttil, referring to Marlene Farrugia’s claim that this was the beginning of the end of the Labour movement.  

All the Opposition wants is to live in a normal country. Dr Muscat said the PN is aware of its past errors, for which it has paid a heavy price, but he is determined to rebuild the opposition on the value of truth.

Shadow Home Affairs minister Jason Azzopardi said that yesterday, for the first time, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat admitted that he made contact with Minister Manuel Mallia, among others, on the night of the shooting.

Dr Azzopardi said that there is a lie in there somewhere. “Dr Muscat said that Mallia called him that night so there are two possibilities. Either Mallia told him the truth and the Prime Minister went to sleep nonetheless or if Mallia lied, then the next morning the PM got to know the truth and then did not take any action. He allowed a minister to lie on something which is of national interest and took three weeks to take a final decision.”

He said that the PM ended up being in the tragic situation of being Mallia’s defence lawyer. “Maybe the PM was hoping that it would all die down. The majority of people had no faith in Mallia and yesterday he did what he was supposed to do three weeks late. It is a right royal mess,” he said.

Dr Azzopardi continued: “If the Prime Minister went to sleep, as stated in the inquiry report, how could he have done so when such horrific events had just unfolded.

‘Exonerating Kurt Farrugia is interesting’

While Dr Mallia was made to shoulder responsibility, Dr Azzopardi said, Mr Farrugia was not asked to resign.

If Mallia failed to correct the DOI press release and was asked to resign as a result, why was not Farrugia asked to resign on the same basis when he failed to send a correct press release the first time around? Dr Azzopardi asked.

Internal investigation ongoing to find out who leaked recordings to PN media

Dr Azzopardi also highlighted that despite the government’s constant boasting that it introduced the Whistleblowers’ Act, there’s a massive internal investigation within the Police Force to find out who leaked the audio recordings to media.link particularly, the PN’s portal.

Dr Azzopardi said that the PN has worked so hard so that people do not fear the police after the horrible incidents which took place in the 80s, but now people are beginning to fear the police once again, same as they feared the police before 1987

PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami said until a week ago, during the budget debate, several cabinet ministers lauded Manuel Mallia on successes of the police force. A week later the Prime Minister has admitted that some policemen feel at home with criminals. This meant the government was failing both on the police and on criminality.

"In 20 months you have undone all the good work and the reputation of the police force. Mallia should have resigned on this reason alone."

Dr Fenech Adami said the Labour party had orchestrated a welcome party for Manuel Mallia under a tent in St George's square but the government ministers and MPs were now distancing themselves from him.

"In just 20 months you have destroyed the army and the police. You have brought back the politics of vindictive transfers, of lies, deceit and dishonesty. You are now reaping what you sowed, paying the price of what you did to win the election."

At one point Dr Fenech Adami turned to Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis for a comment he passed on his father, Eddie Fenech Adami. "He was the one who used to leave you speechless inside this chamber and the one who put you on the Opposition benches for 25 years."

Turning back to the shooting inqury, Beppe Fenech Adami said the PM could not have been unaware that Paul Sheehan had shot at Stephen Smith's car. "Kurt Farrugia is the Prime Minister's keychain and tells him everything. He was the one who issued the press release." On the day after the incident, Kurt Farrugia sat beside Manuel Mallia as the former Minister heaped praise on Paul Sheehan. Dr Muscat has a lot to explain.

He also referred to the part of the report which said the Prime Minister had gone to bed after speaking to Kurt Farrugia. "You cannot stop abuse, corruption and all those sharks in the PL's ranks from your bed," he told Dr Muscat.

The Prime Minister had promised to appoint the best cabinet in history but five ministers have left or been dismissed. Mallia was once described as an accident waiting to happen. "I bet there are at least five other ministers who are also a accident waiting to happen."

He appealed to the Prime Minister rid the army and police leadership of partisan politics. 

The PN’s other Deputy Leader, Mario de Marco, said everyone who heard Paul Sheehan’s phone calls with the Acting Commissioner Ray Zammit and Kurt Farrugia was could realise that the minister’s driver was more interested in looking good in the eyes of the politicians rather than doing his job.

The Gzira shooting was the culmination of the ‘anything goes’ culture introduced by this government.

Dr de Marco said the government should have let the police carry out their own investigation without interference. “The government and the police both have their own PR and the government should not have interfered in police matters.”

He said it was essentially fascist to have the army, police and public broadcasting under the same ministry. The government now seems to have corrected this mistake. The numerous transfers in the uniformed services showed that these were no longer autonomous.

The recorded phone calls showed that the aggressor is once again being treated better than the victim, once this is why people are once again losing faith in the police. 

He asked if the Prime Minister, who is not in chamber, had let the electoral victory go to his head. The electorate expected the government to tell the truth and take timely action, as promised. The shooting incident he said, will have a big impact on the way people look at the government and politicians in general. To make matters worse, people like Manuel Cuschieri are calling for a witch hunt for those who uncovered this cover up.