This government has made a habit of keeping mum about a number of issues and of making parliamentary statements more to dictate the agenda than for the sake of genuine transparency and good governance. Since day one of this legislature, numerous PQs have been asked of various ministers but have remained unanswered – even though in some cases long-winded replies were given by the ministers concerned.

One of the latest examples of such behaviour is the way in which Minister Chris Cardona replied to questions concerning Mrs Sai Mizzi’s employment with the government. He kept repeating that Mrs Mizzi has been employed as an envoy which, according to him, does not require any formal selection process. He did not, however, answer further questions regarding her financial package, which allegedly runs into thousands of euros. Is this is not a relevant piece of information about which parliament needs to be informed? Of course it is, especially considering that Labour made such a big issue of financial remuneration to ministers prior to the last election. Is the payment of more than €3,000 a week to the wife of a minister not a relevant issue? So why could the minister responsible for Malta Enterprise provide a decent answer? Or perhaps there is something fishy going on – as has been alleged? If Mrs Mizzi has been employed as an envoy, can the government be a little bit more forthcoming about her credentials to occupy such a well-paid position? 

And this brings us to a second subject: the employment of a Shiv Nair as a government consultant. When asked in Parliament about this subject by my colleague George Pullicino, Minister Cardona was extremely elusive. This subject was first raised by blogger and columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia. As reported by The Malta Independent, Minister Cardona has claimed that he had nothing to do with Nair’s recruitment and that he was not involved in his selection process. So it was left up to the Prime Minister to explain how someone who has been blacklisted by the World Bank has been recruited by the government as a consultant on energy and, it seems, on other subjects as well. Indeed, so far the government has not denied any of the allegations concerning this individual, including a very serious accusation that the government aims to “sell Maltese citizenship” to third country nationals and that this consultant may have some involvement in all this. The only response that the Prime Minister has given in the last few days is that he was not aware that Nair had been black listed and that this person was only given a letter of appointment. My God, and this man wants to convince us that the government will be exercising due diligence in respect of those who will be paying thousands of euros to obtain Maltese citizenship!

For God’s sake, have we gone nuts? Why should our country be associated with such individuals, information on whom seems to be withheld from us – the people’s representatives in Parliament – as well as from the people themselves? Has the government considered the negative effects such an association could have on Malta’s reputation? There are many questions that people are asking concerning the association of the Labour Party with this individual and his contacts. For transparency’s sake, the government should do its best to come clean regarding this mess. Unless its hands are tied...

For the sake of democracy

This week I am writing this column from Baku, in Azerbaijan, where I and my colleague Joe Debono Grech have been for the past few days on a mission to observe the country's presidential election on behalf of the Council of Europe.

Azerbaijan has been an independent country for just over 20 years, so we can classify it as a young democracy. Undoubtedly, after years of existing as part of the Soviet Union, its development into a normal or quasi-normal democracy would never be easy. In the run-up to the election, exponents of the opposition, as well as some members of the media, came out with allegations of undue pressure from the incumbent’s side, the jailing of dozens of political prisoners and the framing of independent journalists. The incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, decided not to participate in the election campaign but at the same time occupied a substantial amount of airtime on public television through the coverage he received as president. This raised a few eyebrows, especially since this meant that Aliyev had a substantial advantage over the other candidates. In any case, opposition in Azerbaijan remains fragmented and this was one of the reasons why Aliyev managed to win a third term with a very wide margin of 85 per cent.

Despite this, voting at the various polling stations proceeded smoothly under the watchful eyes of representatives from the various political parties and around a thousand foreign observers from organisations such as the Council of Europe, the EU and OSCE, and various diplomats. And this is exactly the point I wish to make in this column. The effort that is made by many international organisations to ensure that people in various countries make their choices freely, without threat or hindrance, is huge. Undoubtedly, in many countries – including those that are members of the Council of Europe – there is more progress to be made in this regard. Progress depends on many factors, including the sustainability of the interest of the international community in how democracy in these countries continues to evolve.

It is possible that they may never get it right, according to the standards acceptable to us in this part of Europe. However, seeing people who, up to just 20 years ago, did not even have an opportunity to cast their vote for a party or candidate of their choice, fills you with a sense of joy that is very difficult to explain.

Charlo Bonnici is Opposition spokesman for sustainable development, the environment and climate change

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