The Leader of the Opposition’s latest rallying cry is that he “intends to clean up politics in Malta once for all”. Big talk. But we have heard it all before from his predecessors.
Prior to the 1987 general election Eddie Fenech Adami had promised to “eradicate corruption from its roots”. He won that election and what did he do about corruption during all the years he was prime minister? Nothing!
When Lawrence Gonzi took over the leadership of the Nationalist Party and became prime minister, he solemnly announced: “I will give a gift to the Maltese people, a new way of conducting politics”. Instead, during his term of office, members of his Cabinet gave themselves a €500 per week pay rise behind everybody’s back. And corruption was rampant.
So who can ever feel certain that the same would not happen if Simon Busuttil ever became prime minister? Especially when he has already failed his first test when a Gozitan whistleblower went to him and informed him of works he had been asked to carry out for private individuals and clubs in Gozo – the famous ‘works for votes’ case.
Instead of sending him to the police Dr Busuttil told him he should not have continued to do that work once he knew that the PN was going to lose the election – when both Dr Busuttil and Dr Gonzi were boasting that “Gozo belonged to the PN” and that “On March 9 we vote, and on March 10 we celebrate”.
Furthermore, the PN’s recently launched loan scheme goes against Dr Busuttil’s promise of transparency and honest politics and against the spirit of the party financing law.
When the Leader of the Opposition comes to ‘walk the talk’ he inevitably stumbles very badly.