Article published in the Malta Independent on Tuesday 26 November 2019
Make no mistake about it. We are in the midst of the country’s worst ever Constitutional crisis. And this crises was triggered by none other than our Prime Minister himself.
On Tuesday, Muscat publicly took over the investigation of a political assassination of a journalist who was uncovering his own government’s dirty secrets. A clear sign, if any were further needed, of the complete take-over of our institutions.
Furthermore, he prematurely announced the negotiation of a Presidential pardon with a person described to have acted as a “middleman” in the assassination in exchange for information, before his interrogation was yet ready and before the terms of the pardon were agreed and granted. Deliberately or not, with that announcement Muscat alerted those involved in the assassination that the noose was tightening.
The day after, the primary “person of interest” was arrested as he tried to make his way out of the country. This “person of interest” happens to be one of the owner’s of a powerstation commissioned by Muscat’s government, and which was the main electoral promise on which this government was elected. This same “person of interest” had been found out to be the owner of the infamous 17 Black, a Dubai-based company which was planning to funnel, or might still be funneling, €5,000 a day to Muscat’s own Chief-of-Staff Keith Schembri and one of his Ministers, Konrad Mizzi. No investigations were triggered when this was uncovered. No instution did its job.
To compound matters, “this person of interest” has himself asked for a Presidential pardon to give information on others involved. The day after, Muscat’s own Party Deputy Leader was interrogated by the Police on this same assassination. The following day, at least three staff from his Secreteriat were also interrogated.
We now have a situation where three persons have already asked for a Presidential pardon in exchange for information: Vincent Muscat (il-Koħħu), the “middleman”, and Yorgen Fenech. Joseph Muscat, apparently with full knowledge of what is being uncovered in the interrogations, has the sole discretion to decide who gets pardoned, on what terms and for what information.
His conflict of interest is clear and obvious. Justice cannot remotely be seen to be done if he retains his position. The man whose Ministers and Chief-of-Staff are directly linked and implicated, who spent 6 years defending their every deed and misdemanour, cannot be trusted with taking the proper decisions about who of them gets to face justice.
There is no proper resolution to this matter except for Joseph Muscat’s resignation. It is the only way we can hope for proper justice to be served and the full truth to be uncovered.
And justice cannot stop only with the bribed. We need to also have a look at the bribers. Because politicians are not corrupt on their own. There are also those who corrupt them.
That’s why this movement, including people from all walks of life and from various political parties, which is being formed and getting stronger, will not stop when the people behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination get their punishment. We will neither stop when the corrupt and bribed politicians go to jail. We will neither stop when political responsibility is assumed. We will neither stop when we get a new Prime Minister or a different Party in government. Because this time, we are not after changing the brand or the image of whoever is in power.
We no longer want to fine-tune the system, or even to reform the system. We now need to break the system
The system where politicians are subservient to the oligarchs who finance their campaigns. The system where political parties are at the mercy of big businesses who keep them afloat. The system where a few elites believe they have a divine right to run the country no matter who’s in power.
All this needs to end. We will not stop until it does. And we will not let anyone tell us that it cannot be done, that that’s what Malta is, that we have to learn live with it.
We have already seen where “living with it” has led us. To the murder of one of our own.
And we will never allow Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blood to have been spilt in vain. The least we can do, is to let it water our hope for a better Malta, a normal and European Malta, a new Malta. The Malta she hoped to live in and died fighting for.
This time, we will not stop until we finish what she started.
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