Presbyters of malice

Last week a private detective was sentenced to prison for having falsified a report about alleged corrupt dealings over a major contract to deliver medical equipment to the Tal-Qroqq hospital in 2002-2004. The report would have incriminated former Finance Minister John Dalli in the alleged hanky panky. Some time after the report and its allegations surfaced within top government circles (spring to early summer 2004, apparently), Mr Dalli left his post in the Gonzi Cabinet. Since his resignation, he spoke on a number of occasions about his bitterness at having been undermined and stabbed in the back by close party colleagues.

Soon after the court sentence of last week, the PN and the government stated that the court judgment had shown as unfounded the allegations which I and other opposition spokesmen had made in Mr Dalli's regard over the hospital equipment contract. There could hardly have been a more dishonest statement.

To be sure, over the years, I have had occasion to criticise Mr Dalli, among others of his colleagues, about matters which I considered to be from scandalous to disastrous.

These matters included the AMS scandal in the early 1990s, contracts for the provision of construction material at the Tal-Qroqq hospital prior to 1996, and the Mid-Med Bank privatisation in the late 1990s. Round about the time Mr Dalli was forced to resign from Cabinet, I and others were raising issues in his regard related to dealings with the Iranian national shipping line at the Freeport, and to the purchase of travel tickets at his ministry. I still fully believe we were justified in raising all those issues.

Also with regard to the contract for the medical equipment tender at Tal-Qroqq, my colleagues had publicly raised some issues. But these emerged during a court case instituted by one of the bidders against the government, to protest the outcome of the tendering process. Their case was argued in open court by a former PN government minister.

At no stage could I refer to the false report implicating Mr Dalli by the private detective for the simple reason that, up to the end, I did not even know about its existence. Since then, it has emerged that only a very few people knew.

They included the Prime Minister who for weeks failed to inform his friend and colleague Mr Dalli about it. Yet, the latter subsequently claimed that he had been subjected to a vicious personal campaign coming from within the PN and meant to discredit him.

It eventually led to his departure from Cabinet. This was in the wake of the PN leadership contest which had seen Dr Gonzi beat Mr Dalli.

Now I have become used to the demonisation campaigns which the PN consistently runs against me. They believe that these are indispensable for them to win elections. And once again this time round, they have excelled as presbyters of malice.

The ploy was less insidious than when former PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami accused me on television, at a moment when I could not reply to his false allegation, that as chairman of a students' selection board I had vindictively prevented his son from entering the university. Later when it was "too late", he was obligated by the court of libel to pay Lm2,000 as compensation.

Today's spin about the court judgment regarding the fictitious report about the hospital equipment tender was meant to deflect attention from the real significance of what has happened. It is unlikely to be successful, however. Important issues are being raised by the former Finance Minister himself.

He claims, if I understand correctly, that the false report was the major factor, coupled to a relentless whispering campaign against him, that encouraged the Prime Minister to force Mr Dalli's resignation.

Dr Gonzi has a lot of explaining to do, even if he increasingly shows reluctance to explain. Why did he accept at face value the report by the private investigator, when on other less important matters raised about other ministers, he just brushes the evidence away?

Why did he not inform the former Finance Minister about the existence of the report so that he would have had an opportunity to clarify his position? The Prime Minister is on record as saying that the other cases being raised about Mr Dalli in 2004 (that is, the Iranian shipping company issue and the travel bookings from Mr Dalli's ministry) did not affect his judgment about his colleague.

On the other hand, the explanation could be that there was some other more serious matter than the report by the private investigator which led the Prime Minister to take conclusive action. The Times has reported the Prime Minister saying that the false report had nothing to do with the resignation.

If so, Dr Gonzi is in duty bound to give a full explanation of what the more serious matter that triggered the resignation could be. This is not an internal PN party matter. It is relevant to the proper conduct of transparency and accountability in the government's affairs.

When he became Prime Minister, Dr Gonzi promised a new style of doing politics, presumably more open and sincere.

The truth is that we are getting, from his side, more and more of the old style of politics. The image is of a government run by latter-day Borgias, and manipulated by plotters and presbyters of malice.

I have rarely been in agreement with former Finance Minister Dalli. On this occasion, I believe that he is right to expect a full and public explanation. The Prime Minster does not owe this just to his former colleague but, in the national interest, to the whole community.