Analysing the Prime Minister’s tense body language and his delivery over the past few weeks, ever since the Egrant Inc allegation rocked and shocked the nation, one can clearly notice that the man is under severe stress. Not that his counterpart is showing any signs of relief, considering how high the stakes are, for the country, for the PN and for Simon Busuttil the human being.
However, the Prime Minister has a massive load to carry on his shoulders. Away from the Egrant allegation, sustained with a magisterial inquiry in which there is an eyewitness insisting she saw and is in possession of damning documents, Joseph Muscat is firefighting a cache of facts and documented reports that show that while he was in charge, those who built him into the leader he has become have been opening secret companies and bank accounts in corrupt jurisdictions and transferring monies which, according to the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), verge on money laundering.
These grave and serious revelations which started in the Panama Papers but where further amplified in the local media by two leaked FIAU reports, one in this newspaper and the other in The Times, are reason enough to place the Prime Minister under suspicion that he is covering up for his closest allies. The evidence is more than enough to expect a Prime Minister to shoulder political responsibility and offer to resign, let alone sacking the culprits who still enjoy a desk next to his office.
The situation is untenable and even though the Prime Minister is trying his best to get re-elected in a jiffy, the crisis will not go away. As things stand the Prime Minister is betting on an uninformed chunk of the electorate to re-elect him because they are not, and can never be, trained in deciphering technical reports such as those by the FIAU and the Panama Papers. The level of stress in the Prime Minister’s face is growing every day as more and more people are growing suspicious that something must be wrong with the way the PL campaign is unfolding.
The Prime Minister is betting on the fact that many people who are not happy seeing their country bandied in bad light in the global media because of the corruption allegations, are on the other hand still reluctant to vote PN. But make no mistake, he is worried and it’s showing across his face and in his body language.
The PN-PD coalition is not as slick and well-oiled as the PL, but they have a trump card. Repeated calls from several quarters are telling them to try and be positive and dish out proposals to ease the negative perception, but that is exactly what Muscat has been hoping for to level himself with the Opposition. The Prime Minister needs some respite from the heavy baggage he chose to carry and if the PN-PD steer their ship away from the serious corruption allegations to try and be seen populist they will simply lose the plot.
Simon Busuttil said during the first days of the campaign that this is not an election about proposals but about principles. Then he moved on to dish out many proposals because he was being told to be positive. The claim for principles over proposals was another way of saying ‘Xogħol Ġustizzja Liberta’ – ‘Jobs Justice Freedom’ – the famous PN slogan from the 1987 election. That too was an election about principles but at the time it was also an election held when unemployment reached 16% and the law courts had just been ransacked by MLP tugs. So back then it was legitimate to offer proposals along with the cry for democracy, but in today’s Malta when clearly good governance has been hijacked by a few at the helm the slogan should read ‘Governanza Ġustizzja Liberta’. There’s no departing from this battle cry.