Incredulity is the word that comes to mind whenever I go over the various reports that have emerged over the past few days on the MITTS scandal. The situation is incredible for a number of reasons. In the first place it is incredible that one of our foremost IT institutions has been ridiculed in this manner. In this day and age this should not have happened, all the more now that we are promoting Malta as a centre of excellence in this field through the Smart Island project. It is right and fair to criticise the government on this matter since it has failed us all here. The effect on users of dot.com passwords is hopefully negligible, but the government’s reticent attitude on the matter does not help whatsoever and is in itself a recipe for disaster.

I fail to understand how, on 23rd September 2008, when, according to official government declarations, nothing had happened and anything to the contrary was a pack of lies yet on 14th October 2008 we had a confirmation that over 20,000 e-mail passwords had been compromised. I would much rather have had official confirmation from the very beginning that something was amiss.

The government is attempting to write this off as a matter of no consequence. It is wrong to belittle this. It is wrong to put forward the notion that nothing has gone wrong when all dot.gov e-mails have been, potentially, hacked. Somebody, somewhere has fed us the wrong information, or fed the wrong information to the Minister concerned.

I also fail to understand the reasoning behind the nonchalant manner in which the information has been put forward in some sections of the press. I have always believed in the positive power of the press. The presence of the fourth estate is very often the only guarantee of our freedoms, which we sometimes take far too for granted. This is why the freedom of the press is fought for the world over. In Malta we have had our problems, but, by and large, we have overcome them. The only problem that persists is that of spin and outright non-reporting. This I cannot condone. Facts are facts.

Which brings us to another matter. As is normal, the Nationalist Party is trying to lump the problem on the Labour Party via Dr Alfred Sant by saying that he spilled the beans. This has been strenuously denied and, quite frankly, when it comes to the tactic of saying one thing and then doing or meaning something else, the PN are past masters! Put in different words, Sant is believable, the PN is not.

If this were Never Never Land the government’s attitude to the matter can only be termed as bad form. Many people expected better. We who support the Labour Party know that we cannot expect better from a government that has repeatedly reneged on its promises and declarations.

simonmicallefstafrace.blogspot.com