In any other country the announcement that 226 kg of cannabis being kept under security at an army base had gone missing would have had people out on the streets in no time at all.
You would expect it from an African country, from Mexico, maybe from Sicily.
But not in Malta.
This was all over again the Netflix series Money Heist replacing Malta for Spain. And drugs for money.
Over the past months I have been pointing out at the low level of spend on defence and arguing this must be increased. But frankly I had no idea the situation in the armed forces was so bad.
This is what you get with mass political promotions and the lowering of entry requirements. And the sidelining of so many valid officers and persons.
If further investigations show this was an all-Maltese affair and carried out within the armed forces, we are in a really bad way.
226 kg is a huge amount in the Maltese context as was also shown in the installation put up in the ground floor of parliament by two enterprising MPs from the Nationalist side, including one who had been criticized by me some weeks back.
It was only on Thursday that the party in Opposition announced it would be holding a protest on Sunday 9 March, at least two weeks after the heist. And the protest inexplicably is not about the heist only.
The news shocked the country. The drugs were meant to be safe inside an army barracks and guarded round the clock. Is nowhere safe?
Demands for an immediate debate on the heist were turned down by the Speaker
Those who tuned in on the parliament channel were treated to an extended session of shouting interrupted by no less than five suspensions and a solid wall of shouting and noise.
The sitting, and the successive one the next day, quickly attracted viewers as could be gauged from streets and condominiums where people soon tuned in to see what the noise was all about.
Were they better informed at the end? Hardly. If there was one example how a parliamentary sitting should not be conducted, this was a prime example.
The Speaker seems to find it comfortable that he ups and withdraws. Every time he does that is an admission of failure as we would say about a teacher facing a disruptive class who chooses to leave the class instead of imposing discipline.
And another thing. People my age remember how Eddie had erupted in mid-speech when the Brigadier had abusively entered the precincts of the House and verbally whipped him out.
In this case the Opposition did not even ask that the members of the Prime Minister's security detail that entered the House through the Strangers' Gallery be named and punished.
It is indicative that the case was hushed up and not even mentioned in the Opposition news bulletin that followed.
If the Opposition does not respect itself, how can it expect others to respect it?
Nor is it right to allow the current mass demonization of former minister Jason Azzopardi go on unchallenged. First they unseated him, and now they let Labour demonize him. That's how it started with Daphne.
In other days an image of Dr Azzopardi as Pope Pius XII was created to make fun of him. This is no longer funny. If only the PN front bench had half the guts of Dr Azzopardi.
It was only at the press briefing by the Commissioner of Police that the public began to get details of the investigations into this heist.
Because the prime minister came armed with a piece of paper regarding the wrong pardon given to Queiroz so many years ago and no clear facts about the here and now.
Then came the announcement that arrests had been made and that part at least of the stolen drugs had been recovered.
Till Thursday only 85 kgs had been recovered which is only around 30% of the stolen drugs. What about the rest? And can the prime minister be credible when he boasts so much about the recovery of a minor part of the heist?
Setting up three inquiries does not inspire confidence knowing how these things are done. Not even if they were more.
One perceives in all this the PM mania to keep everything under his control and to ride any horse within reach. But the only result of this is the proliferation of bad situations that infect each other.
Which is why his defence of the Minister for Internal Affairs is so shortsighted, especially when the head of the army has been suspended
Even Alfred Sant is telling him this.
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