Malta has long battled with the inability of politicians to assume and shoulder political responsibility when things have gone wrong, or when there have been strong suspicions of corruption or collusion.

Legislature after legislature, people were tainted and sometimes even condemned by investigating bodies for their behaviour. One government after another propped them up, and even defended them.

Enter Joseph Muscat and his supposedly earthquake in politics. It is true, there have been two departures from cabinet under his watch. One was the forced removal of Manuel Mallia in the wake of the Gzira shooting and leaked recordings of calls to the police depot by his driver, who was subsequently charged with attempted murder. The second was the resignation of Michael Falzon as Parliamentary Secretary for Lands, following a damning National Audit Office report on his behaviour through the whole Gaffarenagate scandal.

Dr Falzon resigned. Or was made to resign. But the undercurrents in both cases are a bit odd. In both cases, the Prime Minister has publically shown support to both MPs. On more than one occasion, he has spoken of Dr Mallia in glowing terms to the party faithful.

It’s the same with Dr Falzon. Despite the damning report, he has referred to him as a person of integrity and has even defended Dr Falzon’s performance on Xarabank the other night, which did not come across very well at all. What Xarabank and the Prime Minister avoided is the story this paper broke when Dr. Falzon accorded a quarter of a million golden handshake from Bank of Valletta even though he wasn’t entitled to any early retirement scheme offered by the bank. There goes a fine ‘person of integrity’ with a stash of shareholder’s money under his belt and crying on Xarabank that he’s technically ‘unemployed’!

And this is where we get to the crux of the argument. Dr Muscat has made it a habit of making people make way, but then offering them something else, which is potentially even more lucrative. Take Cyrus Engerer, for example. He was found guilty of distributing revenge porn of his former partner and was given a suspended prison sentence. He was told he could not stand for the MEP elections, but was then made Muscat’s personal ‘sherpa’ with a very high powered and highly paid job in Brussels.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the door is being left open for Manuel Mallia to return, possibly even with a Cabinet comeback. It is also looking very obvious that the Labour Party will change its rules to allow for sitting MPs to become deputy leader for party affairs. If that is not an open invitation for Michael Falzon, then we do not know what is.

The culture of resignations is positive. But at the same time, it is worthless if people who have shown that they do not have the moral fibre to behave ethically are given other positions by the government or the party to make up for what they have lost. That is where Alfred Sant worked miracles with Labour. If you crossed the line, you were out and there was no coming back.  

When he compromised with the late Dom Mintoff, he sure paid the price but stood by his decision till he too became redundant within the PL. He must seethe to see some of the faces that have wormed their way back into the party (and government) fold.

On a side note, we must also question why the Prime Minister has not taken action against Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg. An Ombudsman’s report concluded that Dr Borg had used devious methods to obtain a property development permit. Yet, he was not sanctioned by his boss. One must ask why. A culture of resignations would be healthy… but not when those sanctioned are given even better positions elsewhere.

On the other side of the fold, we are experiencing a strong show of leadership by Simon Busuttil in this regard. Joe Cassar was the only Cabinet Minister who gave him public support in the run up to the leadership, yet when push came to shove over the Gaffarena revelations Busuttil asked Cassar to step down. He also accepted Giovanna Debono’s resignation over her husband’s works for votes arraignment. Dr Busuttil should come clean and declare that any future PN administration under his leadership will not grant public office to any of those who betrayed the electorate’s faith in them by electing them to parliament.