I am following with great interest what The Malta Independent on Sunday has revealed about the visa scam and the thousands of euros that allegedly were received by Neville Gafa.
The issue of visas had already been in the news in the past but for one reason or another, it got swept under the carpet. The irony of it all is that this episode was first revealed by the Malta Labour Party. Back then, Labour even named the individuals who pocketed the money from the sale of visas in Libya. After one of the persons involved was presumably instrumental in the release of a Maltese hostage in Libya, the visa scam scandal was laid to rest.
This time round, new names and details are being mentioned in The Malta Independent. Though the protagonists may be different, the old stories are destined to re-surface.
No one in his right senses actually believes the statements released by the police on the subject, and the way the police is acting beggars belief. The force is giving the impression that it is far more concerned in protecting the abuse than in establishing the truth behind this whole affair.
Indeed, this story is proof again of the enormous power the police holds over our judicial system. It decides who is to be prosecuted and who is to be acquitted. Not even our magistrates have such power. Magistrates’ proceedings are governed by a set of rules and procedures that are there to ensure that justice is being served and rightly so. The procedures governing the local police force are all arbitrary and dictated from the powers that be. This is a serious threat to our democracy. The way this case has evolved so far is going to further shame the office of the Attorney General.
However, what has surfaced so far in the media gives the impression that the police too has no free rein in the matter. Neville Gafa is a person of trust, working at Castile where the PM has his offices. So far all government’s attempts to convince the man in the street that ‘all is right in the state of Denmark’ has failed miserably.
Il-Mument carried an article on the panic that ensued at the highest level within Castile following this scam becoming public knowledge. One cannot help but compare the difference in the mode of governing when former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was confronted with a similar media revelation about the famous oil scandal! On that occasion the police was given a free hand to investigate and court proceedings were instituted. The case is still ongoing.
Nonetheless, what is most disconcerting is that when accusations are levelled against civil servants in the media, those involved are suspended or put on reduced hours. These civil servants then have a long struggle before them to clear their name. There are civil servants who are still on half pay because of accusations made against them in the media. In the case of this last visa scam, we have a person of trust, whose job tenure is not one of a civil servant who, instead of having his job terminated, is being protected by the powers that be. Why do we have two weights and two measures?
As more information gets into print, the more am I convinced that the Whistle-blower’s Act was conveniently passed simply to frame the husband of the ex-Nationalist Minister Giovanna Debono. In Debono’s case, the whistle-blower only spoke up because allegedly he was not paid for the works carried out. The obvious conclusion is that had he been paid, he would not have denounced any wrongdoing. This is not the spirit of the Whistle-blower’s Act!
Unfortunately, most of the media is referring to Mr Khalid M. Ibrahim Ben Nasan who revealed the visa scam as a whistle-blower. But are we really faced with a whistle-blower case here?
I am sure that our politicians know that a whistle-blower has to be a government employee or someone giving a service to the government or working with a related institution belonging to the Government. This person becomes a whistle blower when he unveils any wrongdoing. In the case of this visa scam, the person revealing all this information is clearly a Libyan national who is in no way linked to the government. No formal contract was ever signed between him and any government department or employee.
This account shows that Malta did not need a Whistler-blower’s Act to have individuals denounce corruption. But more importantly, this whole saga is showing that the Whistle-blower’s Act was either a gimmick or was passed by our Parliament to protect those who are corrupt.
Ben Nasan does and did not need the protection of Whistle-blower’s Act to denounce wrongdoing. However, instead of protecting Ben Nasan, as it is morally bound to do, our government is seeking to discredit the man by resorting to its pro-Labour media. I am sure that he is being helped by spin doctors and other media professionals who are doing their utmost to discredit Ben Nasan. Simultaneously, Government is putting pressure on certain sections of the free press to stop any more explosive information being aired in the media.
In its efforts to discredit Ben Nasan, the pro-government media has now fallen into ridicule. Following professional advice, the pro-government media is calling Khalid M. Ibrahim Ben Nasan Syrian, even though he is a Libyan national and carries a Libyan passport. His father is Libyan but his mother is Syrian. Therefore, why does nationality matter in this case? By raking up the issue of nationality, the pro-government media ended up falling into the racist trap. Syrians have already protested with one particular media against this type of nationality argument.
Yet, the saga of misinformation continues. Habib Mohammed Al-Amin is being presented by government friendly media as the chargé d’affaires at the Libyan Embassy. In truth, the real chargé d’affaires is Hussein Musrati, whom the Maltese Government is dragging its feet in recognizing him as the sole representative of the Libyan Government representative in Malta.
What has yet to reach the media is that the person who was instrumental in airing this case, Mr Ivan Grech Mintoff, has been approached by someone very close to Castile and offered a good job on government payroll. As a true gentleman, he declined outright.
The Nationalist Party is once again repeating the mistake it made in the case of Giovanna Debono’s husband. Even if the visa scam is a different tale, the NP is showing that it does not know how or have the gumption to openly attack, as an Opposition should do, in this case revealed by Ben Nasan. It is clear now that, in the case of Debono, the police have problems with presenting evidence in court. In the case of the visa scam, the police have all the evidence it needs but is failing to act.
This government has a tendency that when it ends up with its back to the wall, it starts digging up stories of alleged past abuses by GonziPN. In the case of Ben Nasan, this whole policy has failed abysmally. This puts the onus on the Opposition. While the party in Government has inerrant reasons to hide information, the Opposition should have all the good reasons to expose it.