The PN had long been claiming that Sai Mizzi is earning €13,000 a month for work she is supposed to be doing in China. Mizzi herself explained to journalists that this was untrue. She is, she said, earning over €3,000 a month.

Following the publication of her contract, we can see that she is actually earning over €13,000 a month – around €13,326, and that’s based on very conservative estimates on items like allowances for children’s education, telephone expenses, flights reimbursements (business class), fully paid residence, etc.

We, Maltese taxpayers, are paying for her house (in China), her children's education and expenses, her car, her petrol, her driver, her doctor, her dentist, and much more. However, we now know that she is paying for her own sheets and pillows. How restrained and frugal of her.

Evidently, the PN’s claims about her earnings were mistaken. Whereas, since to earn over €13,000 is also to earn over €3000, Sai Mizzi wasn’t lying, was she?

In fact, the whole story has been most unfortunate. A racist press pack – ‘racist’ is Mizzi’s gentle term – kept chasing her for questions, insisting for it as they would for no other person.

The progressive Muscat government – which would obviously never so much as utter a word to foment racism – defended her as much as it could. It denied the repeated, vulgar, money-obsessed requests of this newspaper, which were based on a clear abuse of the right to make freedom of information requests.

When the Government finally tabled Mizzi’s contract in Parliament, we could all see for ourselves how shoddy were the claims about Mizzi’s €13,000 per month salary.

In fact, we could see the whole story afresh. It was very, very far from the story of a crony Government awarding an unprecedentedly high salary to a minister’s wife, recruited without an open call for applications, and who has been untraceable in China, with no published address or contact details, for the better part of a year.

No, no, no. It is the story of a damsel in distress at the claims of a racist Opposition and rude questions by a section of the press. Luckily, the damsel has had both a knight in shining armour and a glittering, spotless prince.

It’s unclear if the damsel is Chinese or Maltese. She did acquire Maltese citizenship some years ago. She is, or should be, representing Maltese interests. Indeed, the Government insists on comparing her role to an ambassador’s (even though we already have an ambassador to China. So what is he doing? It is customary, these days, for ambassadors to focus on investment as well as other things).

However, Mizzi herself seems to consider herself Chinese. Why else would she call the questions for information about her contract to be racist?

It would be racist, of course, to ask her to clear that one up. Just like it was to ask exactly where she was, and why there were no published contact details (there still aren’t), in case a Maltese businessman wished to get in touch with her.

Luckily, Mizzi has a knight in shining armour, the Prime Minister, who valiantly protects her. First, he made sure that not all journalists would have access to her but only selected ones.

Then, he published her contract, with pomp and self-righteousness. He said that it’s comparable to what other ambassadors have got. We’ll have to take his word for it. Luckily, he never lies.

We need to take him at his word because some of the allowances can only be guessed at. We need to take him at his word because some of the perks don’t look at all like those that ambassadors would receive.

Not the travel allowance, for example. Nor the fact that Mizzi is being paid at the married rate even though her husband is the energy minister, when married rates are meant for accompanying spouses.

Indeed, we need to take Joseph Muscat at his chivalrous word as to why Mizzi is being put on a par with ambassadors at all. Let alone compared with the Permanent Representative to the European Union, with the much greater workload and responsibility (and a large staff representing the interests and expertise of every Maltese ministerial portfolio).

Finally, let’s not forget the Prince, the damsel’s husband, Konrad Mizzi. He has said all along that he has deliberately kept a distance between himself and the questions about his wife’s appointment and salary. Oh boy, he certainly has.

When he tabled his income and assets in Parliament, he did not table his wife’s income and assets – unlike Minister Chris Cardona. However, despite the enforced distance, he is happy to let her be paid at the married rate. No shame on him. At all.

Shame only on those that believe that he, his wife and the Government still have questions to answer.

Claudette Buttigieg MP – [email protected], twitter: @ButClaudette