Justyne Caruana must be given credit for what she did.

In an article she wrote for The Malta Independent a few days after she resigned, she said that it was the toughest political decision she had ever taken. By saying this, she wanted to make the decision her own, and stand by it. Her statement came after reports that she had been forced to quit by Prime Minister Robert Abela, barely four days after he had re-appointed her as Gozo Minister. Even before her appointment, there had been reports that she had been offered a different ministry, but had refused to take it up, insisting that she stay in Gozo.

Whatever the case, she left her office, and she did so not for something she had committed. She quit after her husband admitted to having travelled abroad with Yorgen Fenech, the man who is now facing charges of complicity in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Her husband, Silvio Valletta, was deputy police commissioner and had been the lead investigator in the murder case until a court ordered his removal after the family objected to his presence.

In Malta, we do not have much of a culture of resignations. Abroad, it takes the hint of a scandal for the people concerned to make way. Here, the latest examples, apart from Caruana’s, show that it takes years of public pressure for resignations to come to be, even when the signs are there for all to see. The departure of Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and Lawrence Cutajar are perfect examples of delayed resignations. The first two should have gone the day the Panama Papers were leaked, and the latter should have left soon after it became clear that the police were not doing enough to combat corruption at the highest levels.

So the fact that Caruana handed in her resignation within the first 24 hours of the story regarding her husband being made public was a sign of maturity and personal sacrifice. She left because of something her husband did. The suspicion people had that she knew that he had travelled with Fenech was enough for her to feel the need to move aside. Her position was no longer tenable, as is often said in such circumstances. But in Malta, as said earlier, it is not common for people whose position is no longer tenable to quit; so kudos to her for moving out immediately.

By doing so, she has set a benchmark, and a tough one at that, right at the start of Robert Abela’s term as Prime Minister. After her resignation, one would now expect that any other minister, or anyone else in a position of power within government structures, to do the same if faced with a similar predicament.

And, if the resignation was “forced” on Caruana, one would now also expect Abela to use the same yardstick with whoever is embroiled in some scandal. It would be unfair on Caruana if Abela allowed others to go scot-free if and when they are involved in some particular issue which embarrasses the government.

We really would not like to see a repetition of the Schembri, Mizzi and Cutajar cases.