As political rhetoric reached ever higher crescendos yesterday, Valletta was treated to a little bit of comic relief from Zaren Bonnici, known as Zaren tal-Ajkla.
Zaren took to his cherry picker and address the small, yet slightly amused crowd that gathered to hear him lash out at the government, the opposition and Alternattiva Demokratika. Hovering above the crowd, and doing the occasional 360 degree turn, Zaren ripped into the current status quo, he made for some refreshing Sunday comic relief.
The truth of it all is that it is actually so tragic. So here we are, on a God given Sunday, listening to Zaren’s political message, while on the other hand, we have the opposition ripping into the Prime Minister for continuing to shelter Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s own Chief of Staff for their holdings in Panama. In his own Sunday event, the Prime Minister did not even refer to the Panama issue directly.
The Prime Minister was one of those who chanted the Ivory Tower mantra to the previous government. Yet, things have gone full circle, and he is the one that has now barricaded himself in an Ivory Tower, covered his ears and screamed as loud as he could, trying to drown out the baying calls for his left and right hand men’s resignations.
You could even use Malta’s current political situation for a script up for a black humour political satire. Does the Prime Minister think that this is just going to go away? For nigh on two months, the PanamaPapers have dominated the local news scenario. This will not be forgotten, and the can of worms looks set to be prised open even further in the coming weeks as more details are made public about the leaks.
The Prime Minister says he will wait for the outcome of the audits of Mizzi and Schembri before taking any action against them. But aside from being told that the audits (in an opaque and shady jurisdiction at that) are being carried out, the general public has heard nothing. It is a complete blackout and the matter was even completely ignored by the Prime Minister during last Monday’s no confidence debate in parliament.
It really is getting to the point where you have to wonder whether Malta is some weird little parallel universe that has completely different rules, norms and standards of behaviour. Sometimes, it’s even enough to make you wonder whether the laws of physics even apply here. The opposition leader also pleaded to the police and the tax department to launch their own investigations into the Panama holdings, but that is not looking like it is likely to happen, especially given the situation of current Police Commissioner Michael Cassar, who looks set to be the fourth Police Commissioner to leave the Corps in Labour’s two-and-a-half year tenure. Pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming.
This is the new normal in Malta. It seems that every day, there is a new scandal. Every day there is something new and major. The government preaches that the economy is doing well and that we have advanced so much in tolerance and civil rights. We have. But we also need peace of mind and serenity, knowing that the people who lead this country are doing so with a sense of civic correctness. Things have certainly gone pear (or is that banana) shaped. Malta needs to go back to being normal, because whatever this is, it sure ain’t normal.