I do not know Cyrus Engerer personally, although he is from Sliema and I have a good knowledge of the people there. The impression I have is that he is a nice guy (am I wrong?) But the truth is that he made a serious mistake, committed a criminal offence and was sentenced to imprisonment for it. It is unpleasant calling him a criminal, but technically that is what he is. He had no choice but to withdraw his candidature for the European Parliament election, although this should have been done by the Prime Minister. Instead Joseph Muscat hailed him as a hero and a soldier of steel. Are we going off our rockers?

The Labour Party has harboured criminals for many years during its existence, but these were of the violent type. Now that party harbours and hails a criminal of a different nature. A person who vindictively distributes lewd photographs of his former lover to the latter’s employers. The fact that his former lover has forgiven him is beside the point. There is a judgment of the Court of Appeal.

But what is scandalous is that this person is retained by the Labour Government in a number of public posts. Not only, but the PM and Ministers support him and continue to push him forward. He should resign from all public positions, or else be removed. According to Article 54(1)(f) of the Constitution of Malta (the highest law of the land), no person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives (the highest institution of the land) if he is under a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which has been suspended.

This should serve as a benchmark for qualification to or disqualification from any public position. Instead Mr Engerer gets hugs, kisses and applauding, clearly orchestrated, at Labour Party gatherings. Further, he is forgiven for making a mistake and pushed for a second chance. Of course, everyone who has erred should be given a second chance (or further chances for that matter), but not in the public service (please note the small “p”) capacity. Joseph Muscat and his Party have continued to lose credibility and recognition of their moral standards, if any.

Local Councils were introduced many years ago now. The Labour Party refused to recognise them and for some time did not field any candidates, although we had had the farce of “indipendenti” (independents) who were Labour candidates anyway. They eventually came round to it and reluctantly started contesting as a Party – and did quite well too. We then had the introduction of administrative committees for hamlets, as opposed to towns and villages. This was another Nationalist reform in the right direction. For, just to mention an example, how can the Swieqi Local Council adequately represent or even understand the interests of the residents of Madliena?

But these committees seem to have given the Labour Party another opportunity to shun “local government”.

 When one views the list of candidates for the upcoming Administrative Committee elections, it is clear the Labour Party is not interested. We see that the number of candidates put forward are some 50% of those put forward by the Nationalist Party. And I ask: is Labour genuinely interested in local councils or committees? Or is it going back to the beginning? Or, worse still, are we reverting to a total centralisation of  government, where our Prime Minister seems to decide everything alone, as we had in the seventies and eighties?Food for thought. Truly, Local Councils have had their problems, often with a lot of internal bickering (what we call “band club politics”), but besides those despicable wardens they have largely performed well

On an international level, we seem to be going back to the bad old days of Soviet power (so its not only Labour). Vladimir Putin, dictator just like any other of some of his predecessors, has declared that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy or catastrophe of the 20th century; or words to that effect. And with Russian interference in Ukraine and, now Moldova, he is clearly trying to remedy that. All former Soviet Union member states have citizens who are still drawn by the Soviet influence. The Union’s dismemberment is still too close for the proper development of a separate and independent nationalistic spirit and a sense of belonging to the now independent states. My fear, and that of many (certainly Europe and the rest of the democratic world) is that there is a Russian attempt to rekindle  the basis of a Soviet Union and subsequently a new Cold War. We must beware. Putin’s ambitions know no limits.