Indelicate and thoroughly tactless questions

A Labour MP, Luciano Busuttil, made a bad slip when he put a couple of most tactless questions about Libyan frozen assets in Malta and that country’s attitude towards the island’s offshore oil exploration rights. In normal parlance, the MP put his foot in it, which is why his own party was so quick to dissociate itself from Dr Busuttil’s questions.

Yes, as Dr Busuttil said, this is a free country and, yes, Labourites should not be scared to ask questions. But there are questions and questions and the ones put by the Labour MP are most indelicate and embarrassing at this point in time.

Writing on his Facebook group page, Dr Busuttil asked: “Should we just hand them (the €377 million in frozen assets) back or should we think about the Maltese who lost everything? Should we, before handing them back, assure ourselves that our oil drilling rights will be finally respected by the new Libyan government?”

Putting such questions when the country is still in so much flux and when the conflict is not yet over is most indelicate and highly inappropriate. With good reason, the Nationalist Party found Dr Busuttil’s questions especially worrying because he is the party’s European Affairs spokesman. The Labour MP tried to wriggle out of the blunder by saying that these were merely questions. However, the implications of the questions suggest crass insensitiveness to the Libyan people’s plight. A gaffe in a similar vein was that made some time ago by Joseph Cuschieri when he suggested that Malta should refrain from helping Greece in its bailout if it did not help Malta get its sixth seat in the European Parliament.

Dr Busuttil seemed to have realised the rashness of his questions as, when he was contacted for clarification, he was reported saying: “God forbid we arrive at a stage where we threaten neighbouring countries in this way.” Well, that is exactly what his questions implied. His next logical step is to apologise.

Malta was treated badly by the Gaddafi regime insofar as the island’s oil exploration efforts are concerned but right at this point in time all thoughts ought to be concentrated on Libya’s future, on its prospects of building a new country.

If the National Transitional Council manages to put the country in the right direction and succeeds in ushering in democracy through free elections, as it has promised to do within two years, the country and its people stand to experience a new beginning.

The country would definitely need help and guidance in its rebuilding programme. Malta has been doing its bit as a link in the humanitarian chain, and this is as it should be, not out of self-interest but as an expression of solidarity with a neighbouring country that in times of need helped Malta too. Of course, Malta should also be alert to grasp new business opportunities as they arise once the country starts to find its feet after the conflict. All countries that already had a commercial interest in the country before the uprising will be doing that.

The shock of the atrocities committed by people that supported the Gaddafi regime – and they have committed many atrocities – will not go away but the people who have contributed to the fall of the tyrant and whom Muammar Gaddafi called rats and cockroaches must now be looking forward, harbouring great hopes and aspirations, for a time of reconstruction and a return to normal life.