Muscat differs from Sant on Gnr Psaila recruitment

Labour leader Joseph Muscat has declared that comments made on television on Tuesday by Alfred Sant about Gunner Matthew Psaila did not reflect his own views or those of the party, and he had communicated this to the family personally.

"Dr Sant is entitled to his own views, based on his knowledge of facts and for which he alone is responsible," Dr Muscat told The Times.

The comments made by Dr Sant about the recruitment of Gunner Psaila, who later died in an AFM training exercise, raised a storm of protest and led the soldier's family to file a judicial protest calling for an apology.

Dr Sant said Gunner Psaila had joined the army without the necessary requirements, as part of the government's pre-election frenzy of jobs for votes. He said the young man did not know how to swim and still joined the army's special duties company just before the election.

The claims were denied by the government and the family.

Dr Sant said he "deeply regretted" that his comments had hurt the family concerned but stood by his remarks "in the way I said them".

"As a nation, we cannot continue to excel at organising national funerals while taking no adequate steps to prevent the recurrence of the slackness, favouritism and scandal that gives rise to them," Dr Sant said.

He said the country must finally start to take the principles of personal responsibility and the duties of political and administrative accountability seriously.

Full story in The Times