In case you missed it, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of our republic yesterday.
Much like a couple of months ago when we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our independence, our political class seemed to have found nothing to say about these two milestones in our recent political history. To its shame, the Nationalist Party came up with nothing more creative than a musical to celebrate the party's greatest achievement in its history, which was even bigger than that which led to accession to the EU. There was no appraisal at all of the difficulties faced by George Borg Olivier in obtaining independence, thus reinforcing the opposite myth that it was more a case of the British wanting to get rid of us than of us gaining anything.
None of our many historians and political scientists has cared to try and put the declaration of the republic in its proper context. Was it such an achievement at all? Declaring Malta to be a republic severed the historic link with the British Crown and introduced in its stead the presidency as the highest office in this minuscule State. Its first recipient, Sir Anthony Mamo, fully deserved the honour but those who succeeded him have ranged from the bad, to the mediocre to the middling.
Dom Mintoff got his 'Sitt punti' and split the Nationalist Party in the process. Five years later, Malta saw the end of the British military presence and two years later the still emerging democracy saw the party which got the least votes being returned to power, unleashing a terrible five years until a majority of votes tallied with the majority of seats and democracy was re-established.
Our political system continued to lurch from peak to trough, always confrontational, always vociferous, seldom in agreement, nurturing hatred and bile a-plenty. Is this what we have to show for these 40 years?
We have passed this week through a rollercoaster of events sparked off by an intemperate over-reaction of a policeman-driver of a minister which led to the sacking of the potent minister.
In case anybody misses the wood for the trees, this has been a traumatic week for Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who had to try and get a key minister to resign and, when this minister refused to budge, had to sack him just minutes before his successor was sworn in.
Joseph Muscat had to do this, and he had to be chained and beaten to do it, as is evident by his behaviour ever since, just like how you and I would react if we are made to do something we are very much loath to do - with all the bad grace we can muster. It is only like this that I can explain Dr Muscat's extraordinary speech in Parliament on Wednesday when he let all see how much the sacking of Manwel Mallia had cost him.
Let's leave the circumstances of Malliagate aside for a moment. Dr Mallia was a late convert to Labour, which he chose more for tactical reasons than for political passion. He was not, in style, behaviour etc, a party man. More, he was not trained in the cut and thrust of politics, as do all those who come up from local politics to national politics. Nor was he trained (a common failing this, found in many budding politicians) in the minutiae of public administration.
Dr Muscat compounded his mistake, showing how green he was (or is), by giving Dr Mallia a super ministry that surpassed any ministry in Malta's constitutional history, lumping together police, the security service and army, together with PBS.
Dr Mallia, being the criminal court lawyer he has always been, tackled his duties in much the same way he used to tackle a court case - preferring, both in Parliament and one suspects anywhere else, blistering rhetoric and argumentation rather than seeking agreement. He brought to his ministry the same confrontational approach he nurtured in the halls of justice.
That, however, did not lead to his downfall. We all know by now the details of what happened, except perhaps for details that have not been revealed, but we must focus on why at the end, much against his wishes, the Prime Minister was forced to let his minister go.
The confusion this sorry episode revealed the complicit cover-ups both within the police ranks and in the ministry and OPM levels, the inconsistencies, the abject lies and U-turns, the statement said to be issued by Mallia's ministry which we now know was not written by him (and not the first time, he says), the embellishment of truth by the Office of the Prime Minister which foundered - all these and more show the chaotic and haphazard way in which public policy is being conducted.
Had it been an ordinary administration anywhere else, it would have been contained right at the beginning and nipped in the bud. Here, it was left to grow and grow until it choked the government.
Then of course, something completely novel intervened - recordings and transcripts most probably from the police control room became public knowledge and the situation immediately escalated. I have yet to find anyone who did not listen in and who was not shocked by what he heard or read. The callous way in which the shooting at another person was received, the cosiness between the minister and the driver he affected not to know, but entrusts him to take care of his daughter.
Added to that are the multiple grave infractions of police rules of procedure at a scene of crime - which will be subject to further police prosecution, we are told - and the public became quite understandably alarmed how police officers ganged up to cover up for a colleague and threw away the rulebook. Had it not been for the hacked recordings, a man might still be in jail without having committed any offence.
It is a measure of Dr Mallia's lack of proper preparation to be a politician that he kept judging the popular mood as a court lawyer would judge the evidence, whether it proved the case or not. The prime minister, possibly with his political advisers, reacted as a politician does in the face of mounting evidence. (Dr Muscat has many times trimmed his sails and takes extreme care about public opinion - in a way, for instance, that Lawrence Gonzi and Austin Gatt simply refused to do).
It is a measure of Dr Muscat's anger, the savage way he ripped into the PN and brought up the death of a Malian in custody, three or four years after it happened and without having done anything about the case in the months he has been Prime Minister, as was his duty.
I hold no candle to the people in the security services and I also have had my run-in with them, especially in the case instituted against me a long time ago by two police officers and three correctional officers regarding a 1999 report of three Libyans arrested, detained and allegedly beaten after a girl was raped in Paceville. In that case, compilation proceedings had commenced against three police officers following allegations of beatings.
However, the three men were acquitted.
An inquiry was then held by the prison Visitors' Board on the basis of allegations of beatings and threats sustained by the three Libyan men.
The Board heard the evidence produced, including that of the medical officers, and found that the versions of the police officers, those of the correctional officers and those of the Libyans were different.
The medical evidence was compatible with the allegations made by the Libyans but the Board found that it could not rule that conclusive evidence had been produced.
Mr Justice Valenzia declared that it had effectively resulted that some incident had occurred in the prisons and that the Libyans had been beaten.
It also resulted that plaintiffs had been present during this incident, although the Board had not been able to definitively pronounce guilt. Their case against me was dismissed.
Whatever, it is also a measure of Dr Muscat's raw anger that his party saw fit to send Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to represent the party on Xarabank on Friday. Sending JPO was like waving a red rag to a bull, a sure sign that no compromise would be sought, ensuring the programme would be mayhem, which it was.
If, as Toni Abela tried to point out, sacking Dr Mallia was a measure of Dr Muscat's democratic credentials, these two subsequent events are a complete disproof: had his democratic credentials led him to sack a minister who had hit the public the wrong way, he would not, in revanche, brought up the CMB case, nor would JPO have been sent to Xarabank.
Party leaders and prime ministers live by expedients and Dr Muscat is no exception. Just as it was expedient to rope in Dr Mallia during the campaign, he also had to bow to the inevitable and sack him. Let him who is blameless cast the first stone: Lawrence Gonzi kept John Dalli and even palmed him off to Brussels when he knew so many things about him; he (and his predecessor) roped in Franco Debono and JPO himself to bolster up two fragile districts for the party.
Those who live by expedients die by expedients.
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