Sacred cows no more

Yesterday, while 75% of the island was shaking its booty to what a handful of MTV-made millionaires imagine is ‘music’, I managed to catch the tail-end to Bondi+.

The topic du jour was the Olympic ticket distribution saga that erupted last week. For those who have been hibernating and missed it, no less a media house than The Sunday Times of London is accusing judge Farrugia Sacco of, let’s see how to put this, trading Olympic ticket sales in a manner that’s not quite kosher. Just input the judge’s name in the search facility of this website and you will get details of the whole debacle.

And a debacle it is, with the parties involved in the whole story totally against any kind of investigating and seemingly less than eager to clear their names. The Malta Olympic Committee (MOC) went on record “regretting” and “deploring” Justice Minister Chris Said’s decision. The decision involved no condemnation, mind you, but simply stated that a formal investigation will be launched.

I found the MOC’s reaction - coupled with the judge’s rather cavalier brushing off of the media in a way that is meant to suggest we’re all making a fuss out of nothing – extremely worrying.

It’s almost as if the message that is being conveyed here is that this country has no business investigating allegations of wrong-doing by members of the judiciary. Which, of course, completely goes against all tenets of the rule of law.

A fine world we’d live in if we were to assume that people in high positions are simply “too mature” and “too responsible” to succumb to any wrong doing. History has shown us just how naive such a sentiment would be.

The only way innocence or guilt can ever be verified is through the proper legal channels. This applies whether the alleged wrong-doing has been committed by a judge or by a street-sweeper.

Anything else would smack of the opposite of democracy.