On Sunday Joseph Muscat struck the humblest tone he has mustered throughout his term as Prime Minister to date (having little choice), acknowledging mistakes have been made in relation to the shooting incident involving Manuel Mallia’s driver.
He is not wrong there. During this ugly episode, which was unnecessarily stretched out for some three weeks, revelation has followed revelation, calamity has followed calamity, and the public has been left confused – as well as bemused – as to what is happening.
Dr Muscat could have avoided a great deal of this had he acted promptly from the start and sacked the minister – who not just presided over this mess but played a part in it – as well as the police commissioner who, even in the three-way phone call which involved the Prime Minister’s communications chief, was at the very least ambiguous with the information he put forward.
As a result, there have been more questions than answers. Dr Mallia was either evasive or unforgivably silent, and in the wake of the report’s findings should not have been given the cop-out option to resign. A strong Prime Minister would have just sacked him, while it did not make sense for the acting police commissioner to be labelled unprofessional and then be retained in a senior capacity.
The report handed over yesterday by the three retired judges appointed by the Prime Minister to investigate and draw conclusions on the incident – and to deal with accusations of an attempted cover up – is intended to draw a line under the issue. But while it finally brought about a political conclusion that should have been reached weeks ago, the reverberations of this scandal will not go away any time soon.
In the meantime, the PN yesterday continued to release audio recordings of the conversations that took place between the minister’s driver, who is also a policeman, and police headquarters on the night of the incident. Paul Sheehan’s gung-ho manner and the ease with which he was prepared to use the gun entrusted to him by the State is spine-chilling. However, the manner in which the Opposition party acted as journalists was bizarre.
Simon Busuttil has been correct to argue that this information should have been forthcoming at an earlier stage. But the Opposition leader was wrong to allow his party to act in this manner, particularly as the initial transcript they released had either reached them in an incomplete format or else had been doctored. This risked compromising their strong political position.
Yet, given the bigger picture, this is not the most important issue. It does not even come in the top three. The most significant matter – and this is precisely why Dr Muscat was wrong to drag his feet – is public confidence in our forces of law and order, which have received a severe body blow in recent weeks, and even people’s regard for politicians who have not been transparent when they most needed to be.
The government will not recover from this issue quickly. Indeed, it may never recover fully at all until people are satisfied that they have been told the whole truth about the incident and everything that took place afterwards.
Time will tell whether the report published so ridiculously late last night will go some way to doing this. But in itself it is not enough. The Prime Minister must come forward with a full and frank explanation as well as giving assurance in the clearest possible terms – backed by actions – that he is going to put it right.