A couple of days ago, I met an acquaintance of mine who works as a financier in the Belgian capital. I spoke to him about the current issue of ministerial investments in the Panamagate affair. He told me quite clearly that if these investments were registered for tax purposes (something that was evidently not done here or done late), they were quite legal. He did add the proviso however, that if he were to be involved in politics, he would never open such accounts in a tax haven, as it would give the impression, whether true or false is another thing, that one was trying to avoid paying taxes and worse of all, there would be no way of verifying the facts if one claimed otherwise.
I think that this issue has hijacked the political agenda of the country long enough now. The government is stuck on it, the Opposition is stuck on it and the whole civil service is stuck on it and it is time to move on now. The only way to move on is for the Prime Minister to do what those involved will not do and that is for him to ask them to resign. The major reason for the resignation of Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri is that they were imprudent, they were irrational decisions to be taken for the post they occupied and their irrationality and lack of practical reason has thrown a long shadow on the working of the government and the whole country which also has its own financial service to safeguard. The Prime Minister has defended these persons as people who deliver, which I have no doubt they did and can still do, but if in political life the virtue of prudence, the foremost of cardinal virtues, is missing then one may say that they acted with a lack of virtue which means that they have opened the route to acting unwisely, recklessly, indiscreetly and in an ill-advised manner for the positions they occupy. They have cast a shadow on their workings and the working of the whole government and they ought to resign or be forced to resign.
The opposite of being virtuous in public life is being unvirtuous, not to say vicious. Nobody, not even high ministerial or personal assistant posts should be allowed to be occupied by individuals who manifest these traits as they give the idea of an arrogant and possibly corrupt demeanour which may or may not reflect on the rest of their colleagues and country. A demeanour that one could say could be catchy and give a bad example or inducement to people further down. People have been demoted for less! Nobody is indispensable and as somebody I know used to say, although everyone is important, nobody is indispensable and therefore what needs to be done should to be done.
It is about time that the country moved on to other things but the responsibility for this lies with the persons concerned and with the Prime Minister. If they fail to lift their responsibility he should lift his, otherwise imprudence is knocking at his door as well. Their colleagues and the country at large, has manifested its view that they ought to go and go they should, for the common good of all. There is life after politics after all and the good news for them would be that they can then open as many trusts as they wish, although they must still declare them for income tax purposes, otherwise it would be not only imprudent but also illegal!
What in fact has happened in the supposed reshuffle on Thursday is that everything has remained the same with the two persons under heavy criticism still in their ministerial and secretarial posts, with the Prime Minister completely avoiding responsibility. Minister Mizzi is now an ad hoc minister rather than a statutory one, but still a member of Cabinet! It is a slap in the face for reason and democratic accountability. It is simply a game of musical chairs. If the state is not strong in the face of corruption and gross imprudence, it will lose trust. In the equation for clean government, trust is everything. Malta Taghna LOL!