These past months have been the start of an annus horribilis for our country. Despite government’s desperate wish to sweep everything under a carpet, the consequences of the Panama Papers affair have left our country’s reputation in tatters and have painfully gouged known and accepted standards of accountability, transparency and good governance.

The rot has not only been uncovered but is spreading fast and has left our Prime Minister trapped between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

The Prime Minister’s raging granny behaviour during the May 1 Workers’ Day manifestation was confirmation of the current state of this government. Malta is currently being run by a government which has been implicated in one of the biggest international scandals ever.

Away from the debate as to whether the opening of trusts, accounts and other such financial vehicles is legal or not, the fact remains that the intent here was premeditated, unethical, immoral and downright insulting to Malta and its people. The end result of a drawn-out reaction from the government’s side peppered with no less than two parliamentary motions of no confidence (which saw no support assembled from the honourable and respected gentlemen and ladies on the government’s side) is a distinct feeling of uneasiness with our premiership and the future of our country in the days to come.

The whole saga has uncovered a lot of secrets and raised a number of justifiable suspicions. The Prime Minister’s apparent powerlessness to stymie the domino effect of this scandal has now given rise to at least two dangerously significant potential situations. First of all, the Prime Minister has completely lost the moral right to lead his government. He has managed to undermine his very own sense of authority within his parliamentary group with his decision to retain his chief of staff and Minister Konrad Mizzi.

For from now onwards, which minister or parliamentary secretary in the current administration can honestly say that he or she stands to the Prime Minister’s accountability when the very same has lent his protection to the protagonists in the Panama Papers scandal?

Pray do tell, which minister or parliamentary secretary will feel that due diligence is required of them when the Prime Minister has made it so blatantly obvious that he is comfortable with endorsing gross disdain to transparency and good governance? The saga has all the ingredients for promoting abuse from now till the next election.

The whole saga has uncovered a lot of secrets and has raised a number of justifiable suspicions

The second crucial aspect to consider is that Muscat’s failure to take the right decision in respect of Mizzi and Schembri will mean that, suspicions already aroused, the issue will be further instigated whenever government enters into some major financial deal. Having Mizzi apologise to the public will simply not placate a justifiably suspicious electorate.

If Mizzi felt that his actions were serious enough for him to step down from the Labour Party’s deputy leadership role, then he should have been man enough to step down from his ministerial role saving his government and his country a lot of grief and embarrassment.

But he has not and probably will not and so the buck stops with the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister is so caught up in his cosy world that he is unable to see the negative impact that this whole episode has had and will have on our country, then he is simply not fit for purpose.

And so the quest for a new prime minister has started. Malta is simply crying out for a principled statesman to lead the country. A prime minister who is unfettered to make the right choices and decisions for the benefit of the country and its citizens.

The general election is still 22 months away and as a nation we simply cannot afford to spend this time in political limbo. Last time at the polls, the Labour Party showed that it was able to present an alternative which the electorate democratically chose.

The same Labour Party should now bear the responsibility of ensuring that Malta doesn’t languish any further and therefore address the obligation it has with the electorate for unfulfilled pledges of meritocracy, transparency and accountability.

Failing to do this will mean that the Labour Party blesses the current situation and thus the final choices rest on voters to make come election day. It would be a veritable pity for our country to have to wait that long for trust and confidence to be restored in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Caroline Galea is a Nationalist Party candidate on the sixth district.

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