It all started at the end of last October when Nationalist MP Dr Jason Azzopardi was being interviewed by Andrew Azzopardi on 103 Malta's Heart.  

In that interview – and I am quoting from a Malta Independent report entitled “Cabinet member named in Vince Muscat pardon request” – Azzopardi said that a Cabinet member “who is not a lawyer” has been named by Vince Muscat known as il-Kohhu, as having a connection with a crime that was committed some years ago. 

Vince Muscat il-Kohhu at the time was being accused of assassinating Daphne Caruana Galizia. He has of course, in the meantime, admitted to the charges. 

After being repeatedly challenged to name this “Minister who is not a lawyer”, Jason Azzopardi backtracked and the matter seemingly stopped there.

Fast forward to this month and Jason Azzopardi, wearing his hat as a parte-civile lawyer appearing on behalf of the Caruana Galizia family, was questioning Vince Muscat il-Kohhu in Court in the murder case. During that questioning by Dr Azzopardi, Vince Muscat was reported to have briefly mentioned a “big job”, allegedly involving an incumbent Minister. 

At that moment, Dr Azzopardi had all the opportunity in the world to ask the next obvious question: what is the name of this Minister? Yet, he did not ask this question. Any other person would have posed the question. But Azzopardi, strangely enough, did not do that. He held back. 

Why on Earth is that?  What reason would there be for Jason Azzopardi, who loves press attention as much as visiting sacred tombs, to refrain from asking this million dollar question? 

Then it turned out that Vince Muscat il-Kohhu was subsequently asked by the Police to give out this Minister's name. He refused.   

How strange, I thought. It must be a strange and unhappy coincidence that Azzopardi held back from asking the question and that Vince Muscat held back from giving an answer practically in the same bracket of time. I am absolutely confident that all this is nothing but a mere coincidence. It would not cross my mind, not in a million years, that Azzopardi, a respectable gentleman whose saintly manners, in the house and outside of it, are second to none, and Muscat, a self-confessed criminal, are directly or indirectly co-ordinating strategy on questions and answers at least on this point. 

What reason would there be for an honourable gentleman such as Azzopardi to indulge in such unacceptable behavior, if it were true?  And I am sure that it is not true. After all, Dr Azzopardi’s sole quest and aim through all his years of impeccable public service, as his former party leader would undoubtedly attest, has always been that of finding the truth and nothing else. 

But then again, another question comes to mind. Does Dr Azzopardi know the name of this “big job Minister”?  If he knows the name, I am sure that – respectable and honest as he is in the quest for truth – he would utter it without delay. And if he does not know the name, why then did he not ask for it in Court? 

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Prime Minister Robert Abela was spot on in his Parliamentary speech last Wednesday. He was clear in his message, confident in his approach and very convincing to the people who were following on TV and social media. 

Dr Abela explained the work that was done by Labour to improve the standard of living of all Maltese citizens. What has been done prior to the pandemic and during Covid-19 is nothing short of impressive. The Government intervened swiftly and efficiently to save lives, safeguard the national healthcare system and bolster the economy in challenging times. 

In the process, thousands of jobs were saved and aid in the form of financial assistance running into hundreds of million is being given week in, week out.  Elsewhere around the globe we are seeing the direct effect of lack of assistance from the part of the Government. In Malta it is a different story because we had a diligent Labour Government which in the last eight years improved public finances and was able to help and intervene when the pandemic arose. 

The answer to the question of who do the people want to guide them forward in the post-Covid-19 period and beyond is, I believe, straightforward. People trust Robert Abela and the Labour Government to not only take us back, as expeditiously as possible, to how we were before the global malady changed our lives, but to build back better, to become a better version than we were.  We have exciting and ambitious plans for this country and we are eager to provide a better future to everyone. 

Labour does not take any lessons either from the Nationalist Party on matters of rule of law. This is because of two reasons. Firstly, Labour in the last eight years has vastly improved the institutional composition of our country: we have implemented laws introducing Whistleblower protection, regulating party financing, striking off of prescription on corruption by politicians, creating Parliamentary committees on public appointments, establishing the Commissioner for Standards, seeing to improvement in the matter of appointment of Judges and Magistrates, introducing new freedoms in media and artistic expression, legislating in favour of more accountability by the Judiciary in line with European best-practices and finalizing a separation in the dual functions of the Attorney General, to name a few and the first which come to mind. 

Prime Minister Abela has built on these important improvements by, for instance by changing the manner of appointment of the Commissioner of Police,  the Chief Justice, the President of Malta and he improved further the manner of appointment of Members of the Judiciary, bringing Malta more in line with the suggestions of the Venice Commission. 

A second reason why we do not take lessons on matter of rule of law from the Nationalist Party is because the Nationalist Party is simply not in a position to do so. 

This is the same party which, under its watch at the helm of the country, saw the issuing of a nolle prosequi by the then Attorney General in favour of disgraced Commissioner of Police (who also occupied the role of Head of the Security Services) following very damning conclusions by a Magisterial Inquiry against him on serious matters relating to alleged sexual offences against someone else. This nolle prosequi effectively blocked any action against the former Commissioner of Police even though he was indicted by a Magisterial Inquiry. 

This is also the same Party which gave a blanket pardon to Zeppi l-Hafi, which then turned out to be useless, and another one to that ghastly drug trafficker Francisco de Assis Queiroz.     

We are committed as a Government to keep working hard to provide a better future to all citizens.