In the inquiry report which the Prime Minister commissioned to look into the Gzira shooting three weeks ago, it was found that Manuel Mallia was not part of any political cover up and that it was police officers close to his driver who had tried to sweep things under the carpet.
The Prime Minister still found that he had enough grounds to sack Mallia because a press release had been issued which was incorrect - in terms of 'warning shots' had been fired - was not corrected by the former minister despite him having been told to do so.
Mallia did not, and the PM asked for his resignation. In parliament on Wednesday night, Mallia fired back at the PM, using his lawyer skills to point the finger squarely at the OPM's communications office, saying that he had not seen, nor heard a dictation of the said press release. He went one further and said that this was not the first time that persons had issued press releases on his ministry's behalf which he had not been consulted about.
Fair enough. But everyone seems to be ignoring the real reasons why Mallia should have been sacked on the spot. The police fell directly within Manuel Mallia's remit. He was their boss. It has now been exposed that the Police Corps are corrupt. A crazed man went on a shooting spree because someone clipped a car's mirror, firing shots on Regional Road... then, the police went on to cover it up.
Not only. The Acting Police Commissioner was brought into the investigation and the man was found to have acted with gross professional negligence in the way he handled the case. The board found no malice, but we actually have a situation where the operations boss of the Police Corps just took a policeman at his word and actually used the words "Ok siehbi". What country are we living in? The man also had the wool pulled over his eyes when the police decided they would load up a bullet riddled car onto a low loader and take it to the Police Depot. The acting police commissioner (former) gave the go ahead for that to happen.
On top of all this, there was the sheer and absolute ineptitude of the police officers (bar one) in the control room who dilly-dallied, got mixed up, got it wrong and eventually managed to send members of the Rapid Intervention Unit to the scene - this after getting Marsa (tas-suwed) mixed up with Tal - Qroqq.
And those are the very real and pertinent reasons why Mallia should have been sacked without any considerations to the actual inquiry report. Here we had a minister, in charge of one of the most important portfolio's in cabinet, running a show that seems to be more akin to a slapstick comedy, than a serious Police Force. On the grounds of the way things were handled that night, the buck should have stopped firmly with Dr Mallia. Dr Muscat should have taken one look at that report and cringed in horror at the way the Police Corps was being run. Let us hope that a lesson is learned in all this. Above all else, new Police Commissioner Michael Cassar should be given the full backing to weed out the filth that has crept into the Police Corps and return it to being a serious force that is there to protect citizens, not try and frame them after having shot at and chased them in a ministerial car.