The new Police Commissioner thinks our Prime Minister ‘has balls’ and he has gone on Facebook to publicly proclaim it.
I wouldn’t know about that but Joseph Muscat has definitely got the gall to install yet another political puppet to head the police force in times of institutional crisis instead of seeking to restore trust. His comments were simply undeserving of a very high official. The fact that the gentleman, in spite of his high-ranking role, felt the need to enlighten us about his overt political inclinations and about how he felt relieved that finally Malta has a real Prime Minister is telling of the sorry state the police corps in Malta has descended to. How can it win our respect?
For, let’s not forget, this is the fourth choice for police commissioner since Labour took office three years ago. Three years where we have seen a police corps in a free fall, losing all sense of dignity. Four commissioners under whose watch we have seen the cover up of a shoot-out by a police officer assigned to a minster on a private citizen’s car, and the attempted character assassination of one of their own, Inspector Taliana, whose personal file was leaked right from the police headquarters – a vile act that logically earned the Commissioner of Police nothing less than the ire of the Data Commissioner. At the same time an officer, Major Caruana, now assigned with the responsibility of ensuring the security of all members of the House, feels comfortable posting disparaging remarks on Facebook on members of the Opposition, so much so, that Opposition Whip David Agius has asked the Police Commissioner to relieve the officer from duties at the parliament building. This is why electing the head of the force through a two-thirds parliamentary majority as proposed by Simon Busuttil in the Nationalist Party’s Good Governance proposals, has become an urgent matter.
The big report which fails to address the big issues
The report published recently by the Principal Permanent Secretary in reaction to the Auditor General’s report of 2014 was at least as bulky. We were told that the government, contrary to what used to happen before, has taken action on 241 of the 259 original recommendations made by the Auditor General.
But the truth of the matter is that the publication of the said report at this moment in time and its title ‘Governance’ serves little more than propagandistic triumphalism attempting to conceal the government’s lack of good governance. For this report is only a reaction to the administrative shortcomings identified in the government departments by the Auditor’s General Report for 2014. It does not address the big scandals that have overshadowed all other government action. So in the grand scheme of things, the government’s reaction is relatively insignificant.
A big report it might be, but it fails to address the big scandals. It favours quantity over the quality of issues it addresses. For instance, a year later, the government fails and still provides excuses not to address the GWU’s misuse of public land. It fails to address the €4.2 million ‘bailout’ of the previous Café Premier owners, or the hedging deals with Azeri state-owned company Socar, which lost public coffers €14million. It fails to address secret companies in shady jurisdictions. It fails to address the politically dubious transfers and promotions in various government departments. And the list is just never-ending.
The way he handled questions of corruption and lack of good governance as in the case Police Commissioners Ray Zammit and Peter Paul Zammit, Labour candidate Cyrus Engerer the Old Mint Street case and Café Premier show that this government is simply rotten to the core. Good governance has gone to the dogs. No silly mistakes here.
The silly mistake of treating everyone else as stupid
Joseph Muscat would have us believe that actually owning a secret company in Panama is tantamount to providing professional advice in the financial services. This is what he is trying to do in his constant attacks on Tonio Fenech, Francis Zammit Dimech and Ann Fenech, among others. But most people have already seen through this strategy of purposely confounding the issues.
The Malta Independent editorial last Friday takes to task the Prime Minister for taking his ‘village politics to London’, that is, for treating other Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth at the Anti-Corruption Summit as if they were the faithful unquestioning listeners of One Radio. He went to London to lecture them on corruption and he assured them that he had taken action in the face of the revelations of the Panama Papers.
The influential UK newspaper The Guardian seemed to think otherwise and reminded everybody else that the Maltese Prime Minister kept two of his closest aides despite their owning companies in Panama. But does he sincerely think that everybody else but him and those around him is that stupid?