Like in any other human endeavour, in politics there are giants and pygmies. On January 14 we were treated to an ill-formed opinion by Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg. He wrote: “A few days ago, something special happened in Malta. For the first time in our history we assumed leadership of a top-tier international body – the Council of the European Union.”

Was it ignorance, lack of research, a deliberate distortion of Malta’s recent history or just an oversight?

In 1990, the late Guido de Marco, then Malta’s foreign affairs minister, was elected president of the General Assembly of the United Nations for six months. In the context of world politics the assembly is truly the most top-tier international body.

De Marco in his own inimitable style set a new path about how that particular office should be a hands-on job that brought the United Nations down to the level of people’s expectations, hence dispelling the popular belief that the assembly is just a talk shop or a showcase where those with great political muscle displayed their superiority and power.

The personal involvement of de Marco in the liberation of Kuwait was a remarkable affirmation of the importance he gave to the sovereignty of small countries, something he did too when he travelled all over Europe to persuade European Union leaders that Malta deserved to be a member with equal rights, irrespective of its size, after a Labour government decided to suspend our application for membership, a move that at the time had the full and enthusiastic backing of Joseph Muscat.

All this escaped the notice of Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg. I leave it to the readers to decide who’s the giant and who’s the pygmy in this instance.

Of course I do not write this to take away the shine from Malta’s presidency of the European Council. Both Simon Busuttil and so many others like myself worked very hard to see that Malta did not just become a member of the EU but also assumed the presidency like any other sovereign member.

Borg may be too young to remember how Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat laughed at the idea of Malta’s presidency of the European Council and also at the thought that the Maltese language would be accepted among the other official tongues of the union.

I find it absolutely incredible that our Prime Minister heavily criticised Busuttil’s open and fierce criticism of the European Commission for saying nothing about his government’s corrupt practices and the revelations in the Panama Papers.

This criticism from the mouth of a politician who pretends that he is not the establishment only served to destroy all his anti-establishment posturing. Talk about faking it! Busuttil spoke without fear, even though the European Commission is led by a politician belonging to the same political grouping as the Nationalist Party.

Corruption has already gone to a point of no return for this government and it will take a giant of a prime minister to admit it

Muscat’s assertion that Busuttil’s words and actions did not reflect the sentiment of “genuine Nationalists” certainly does not apply to me and the Nationalists I know. As for the sentiments of the Maltese people, I doubt very much whether they were particularly happy with the headlines in the international press linking Malta’s presidency with the black clouds of corruption and Muscat’s own insistence on pushing Konrad Mizzi on the European Union institutions knowing perfectly well the EU respects the sovereignty of Malta and has to accept whoever the Prime Minister chooses to represent Malta.

It takes a giant to stand up and be counted in a unique parliamentary session where European commissioners are sitting next to ministers who are embarrassed by a government led by a Prime Minister whose first priority in office at Castille was the securing of the financial future, possibly of himself and his inner circle.

Niceties are for those who want to preserve the status quo of a European Commission that behaves against the wishes of the European Parliament. If the Panama Papers and their revelations were serious enough for the EU Parliament to investigate, someone had to remind the commissioners of their omissions.

I wonder whether the EU Commission is aware that they demand an annual report from Romania and Bulgaria about the progress the countries have made in the elimination of corruption in public life since joining the EU.

Now we have Minister of Justice Owen Bonnici, no doubt using his master’s voice, telling MEPs that he represents the 28 countries of the EU and that the matter of the lack of anti-corruption efforts in Malta is a ‘local issue’. So Romania’s and Bulgaria’s corruption is an issue that demands year to year action from the EU Commission but Malta’s corruption is not.

Again I ask the readers to decide who is the giant, a politician who says it as it is to the face of distinguished visitors however unpleasant it may sound or a politician who is conditioning his supporters to accept that, provided their lives improve under Labour everything will be alright while his acolytes prop him up.

At the last election in Romania a few months ago a corrupt politician paraded under the slogan ‘do you prefer your politicians handcuffed or in power, free to give you what you want’ – the people elected him. Does that make the victor a giant? I hope it doesn’t.

Is Labour going to conjure up an electoral campaign akin to the one in Romania? Only time will tell, but time is short. Corruption has already gone to a point of no return for this government and it will take a giant of a prime minister to admit it.

This paper has always argued that the Panama Papers will not go away and it has been proved right. There is plenty of unfinished shady business. We have a right to know who really owns the Gozo hospital and the other two in Malta.

We have a right to know who owns Egrant Inc knowing full well that its conception pre-dates the last election and its delivery was achieved through the actions taken at Castille. Corruption makes pygmies of politicians.