Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola said that the Prime Minister’s timing to release the conclusions of an inquiry report this week on the death of Malian migrant while in the custody of the Detention Service in June 2012 was a vendetta. 

He said that Dr Muscat should have issued the conclusions right away and not as a pay-back to the Opposition for pressuring him to remove Minister Mallia. He did say however that it is good the conclusions have finally been issued when they were supposed to have been issued back then. 

Prof Cassola was speaking during AD’s annual general meeting held at Osborne Hotel in Valletta, this morning.

The report in question also highlighted the sorry state of the detention structures at the time. However, Prof Cassola felt that the report’s conclusions having been issued now was done to deviate public attention from the horrific shooting incident.

While stating that at times some people tried to demotivate AD by saying that it has no voice in parliament, he said that this had the opposite effect on the party since it gave AD and him more strength than ever and the party has kept going for a good 25 years. AD is this year celebrating 25 years since its inception.

He said that despite the fact that it was not elected to parliament, AD was still the party to have been the first to raise pertinent issues which now have been or are about to be transformed into law, referring to the civil unions bill, the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use, party financing and the Whistleblowers’ Act, among others.

Prof Cassola also highlighted that a political adversary of AD, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, pointed out during the debate in parliament tied to party financing, that AD brought about an environmental conscience in the 25 years it has been here and raised awareness on accountability and transparency issues.

Prof Cassola said that the party still has a lot to offer, mainly referring to the fact that there needs to be a culture instilled whereby “political responsibility is shouldered by politicians since Malta has a culture of everything goes, which has to stop”.

He referred to former Minister Manuel Mallia’s case, and said that Dr Muscat waited to the very end to see if he has a way out to exonerate Dr Mallia but in the end had to give in to the public’s opinion.

Prof Cassola mentioned the fact that a number of former ministers, current ministers or MPs who had enough good reason to resign, did not.

He started off with former PN minister Austin Gatt, who,. Prof Cassola pointed out, employed a chairman at Enemalta, referring to Tancred Tabone, who ended up at the heart of the oil scandal. Didn’t the then minister feel he had to resign at the time for having appointed Mr Tabone, he asked, and a chairman, he added, is not a driver of a minister.

He also hit out at Dr Muscat for having appointed the business partner of his wife as a Malta Enterprise representative in New York while Mrs Muscat and the ME representative continue to conduct their costume jewellery business. He also highlighted the fact that PL MP Luciano Busuttil failed to resign after he was accused of interfering in a local council tender bid.

On Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, Prof Cassola said that the minister tried to make out as if nothing happened when he did not stick to the new power station timeframes, dubbing the minister as ‘Konrad in Wonderland’. “He was warned many a time that the timeframes established are unreal, but the minister continued to claim that works are on track when in actual fact, they weren’t,” Prof Cassola continued.

The Greens chairman also pointed out that former PN prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami had said that the Marsa power station would close in the year 2000 but to this day is still running.

“Our party has been dubbed a tree-hugging party and given all sorts of names, but votes are increasing as time goes by.

“We are not a voice in the desert like some say we are; both parties, when they both served in the Opposition one time or other, emphasised on political responsibility but then tend to have forgotten about political responsibility when elected to govern,” he said.

Turning to PN leader Simon Busuttil and his party, Prof Cassola said that Dr Busuttil made a fatal mistake when he undermined the credibility of three former judges who were assigned to compile a report on the shooting incident involving the former driver of ex-minister Mallia.

He said it is not as if the three former judges had their image tainted in the course of their career and there was no reason whatsoever to hit out at them.

Prof Cassola urged the prime minister to release the conclusions of two inquiry reports "which were kept under the carpet by Dr Mallia and happened under his watch", referring to the case of an individual who assaulted police officers in Zabbar, the charges of which were filed against the aggressor were dropped, and the case of a wrongly jailed man, Darryl Luke Borg. 

He also called on Dr Muscat to publish the report on the migrant recue delay where 400 asylum seekers lost their lives.