I confess that when I heard that minister the Hon. Owen Bonnici was having a dalliance with “a lady not his wife”, I was slightly surprised.  I didn’t have any real reason for this but I thought it was out of character, not that I know the lad to any great depth. 

Not that I care, either, of course, what the dear fellow wishes to do in his private life is up to him: he can work his way through the entire chorus line if he so pleases, it’s no skin off my nose. 

But that’s as long as this life-style doesn’t spill into his public life, the one for which I, along with you, pay him to act with probity and circumspection.  That’s not to say he can’t have a bit on the side, or ten bits on any side he wants, or that he can’t shack up permanently with anyone he likes, or become a serial philanderer, for that matter. 

The limit is reached when the chosen life-style causes the politician concerned to go out-with the strictly personal and become an accomplice in some act or omission that is unacceptable.  

The limit is reached when the chosen life-style causes the politician concerned to go out-with the strictly personal and become an accomplice in some act or omission that is unacceptable.

I’m afraid that Dr the Hon. Owen Bonnici, Minister of Justice and Culture, to give him his full resplendent title, has now done just that.   

His current squeeze, one Janice Bartolo, a One TV (call them Super One, they haven’t changed) on Sunday decided that her calling as a journalist was subservient to her political allegiances.  

To be fair to to the fair lady, when one is employed by a political station, the line between journalistic integrity and partisan blindness tends to be a bit difficult to discern and perhaps one may attribute Bartolo’s eager cross-over to the dark side to a bit of mental confusion on her part. 

Was she there as a Labour Party activist, peddling Premier Joseph’s increasingly hysterical defence of his indefensible position, or was she there to report on what was going on, including reactions to the stench of corruption that is coming out of Castille?

Ms Bartolo was seen and heard asking people present for the national protest against corruption whether the “shame on you” cries towards that fan of Panama Hats and New Zealand Lamb, Konrad Husband of Sai Mizzi, should not also be directed towards Dr Anne Fenech.  

In so doing, Ms Bartolo abandoned any pretence at journalism and became, pure and simple, a Labour activist, in fact, an agent provocateur, for all that her provocation didn’t have the results her manipulators dearly wanted.  

To be clear: It is a downright lie, put out by the Labour Party with the obvious approval of Premier Joe, that Dr Fenech “has a Panamanian company”. 

The only connection with the Mizzi/Schembri scandal is geographical.  Dr Fenech’s firm, apparently, back in 2003, had acted for a client that had set up a Panamanian company.

This does not mean that Dr Fenech, in stark contrast to Premier Joe’s right and left hands, had a Panamanian company herself, by any stretch of the imagination.  

It would be tantamount to calling Ms Bartolo’s boyfriend a murderer were he ever to defend a murderer in court as a lawyer.  

No-one with a shred of decency considers that those billboards have any merit whatsoever: they are simply a brash lie.

That’s unless you’re a malicious, scheming, desperate, apologist who resorts to provocative and unethical behaviour to prop up your ailing party.   Ms Bartolo’s behaviour was indefensible and she should be censured by her peers, though I’m not holding my breath waiting for this to happen. 

The line being put out by Premier Joe and his Labour Party is nothing better than a lie and Ms Bartolo, by repeating it, made herself a liar along with them,

And by defending her, for all the world like a teenager sticking up for his girlfriend in the schoolyard, Owen Bonnici put himself in the same frame.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.