In four days’ time, campaigning will come to an end and by this time next week the country will be waiting for the result.
This is therefore a great opportunity to provide a round-up of the incredible events through which our country has gone in the past year. I want to stress the point that this is no ordinary election and that the cynics who say that “the two main parties are equally bad” are pandering to a lie – a very dangerous lie.
What’s at stake?
It’s been a year since the Panama Papers became public. We have learnt that a senior Government Minister and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff had set up companies in the Central American nation known for its secrecy and non-cooperation with authorities in other countries. The potential for tax evasion and, worse, laundering proceeds from crime and corruption are immense and, by itself, would constitute very strong grounds for resignation or outright dismissal.
We also know of a third company owned by someone whose name is so sensitive that it couldn’t be given on Skype. Email was good enough to make mention of the name of a senior Government Minister and the PM’s Chief of Staff so you’ll have to think of someone higher than that.
We have learnt, since then, that reports from the Financial Intelligence Audit Unit (FIAU) recommending the police investigate and prosecute were ignored. The European Parliament’s PANA committee, investigating the matter, was given unsatisfactory answers by the Minister in question and was completely cold-shouldered by the PM’s Chief of Staff. And we have also had a whistleblower who has put a name to the owner of the third secret company.
In a year
Throughout all this time the Opposition has been asking the Prime Minister to take immediate action to mitigate the massive risk to its reputation that Malta is facing. But Muscat has done did little more than tinker with job descriptions.
It took a year until the heat was turned up high enough for him to call for a magisterial inquiry. And before the content of that inquiry – or indeed the time required for a serious inquiry to be carried out – the PM decided to call an election. He called the election so early in order that the conclusions of the enquiry would be published after the results of the election are known and certainly because he sensed a haemorrhage of votes which, if not treated immediately, would annihilate his 36,000 strong majority.
Pressuring the Judiciary
Now, you may think that in all this, Joseph Muscat is as innocent as a lamb. But even then, at the very least, he is guilty of having let his political loyalties take precedence and priority over the national interest. And I say that well-aware that the talent pool around Muscat is very, very limited.
Muscat’s comments about the magistrate inquiring into the Egrant case have not been taken lightly by the Chamber of Advocates. What does Muscat expect: a sham exercise that breezily whitewashes everything? This is yet another case of two weights and two measures. Before the last election he made his deputy, Angelo Farrugia, resign for similar comments about a magistrate. But then, as the Italians would put it: chi commanda fa la laegge.
From Russia with love
Who could have known that a lighter moment in this campaign would have come in the last week? An online publication carried the news that the British MI6 and the USA’s CIA had considered – and even informed the Maltese Government accordingly – that the Egrant whistleblower was a case of Russian interference over visa liberalisation for Ukrainians and the refusal to refuel one Russian ship on its way to Syria.
As I write, the defcon level of the threat has already gone from ‘actual’ to ‘potential’ – but not before it launched a thousand memes. The proposition is to be dismissed offhand: the Russians are not so daft as to not realise that these efforts would only result in putting in power a pro-Western, pro-EU government led by Simon Busuttil.
The last lap
But there is one lesson to be learnt here, which is that politicians who own secret financial structures abroad make themselves – and the country – vulnerable. We become potential targets for blackmail and misinformation whether by other countries or individuals. As a country we do not gain anything from these unnecessary risks. The way we vote on 3 June will determine if we want to stay exposed or not.
So think well during this week – there is much at stake. Our country’s reputation has taken a hit and risks falling further. The least we can do is change the people who are its public face to people who can inspire trust.