Justice Minister Owen Bonnici’s Talking Point ‘Telling a tree by its fruit’ (March 13) gives rise to legitimate reaction and deep reflection. The Party Financing Act was certainly a positive and significant step towards addressing the traditionally largely unregulated practice of funding of political parties. This law is also important particularly as it does not only regulate financing; it regulates the very legal existence of a political party and lays down specific legal requirements which any party needs to observe to be recognised as a political party.

It must be particularly challenging for the minister who piloted the Party Financing Act to have to face the undeniable fact that his own party, Labour, has been operating in nothing less than a blatant breach of the law since July 1, 2016, by which date it had to put its house in order to become fully compliant with the requirements laid down by the Act.

It not only failed inexcusably to do so (while all other political parties in existence at the time of enactment did), but it then proceeded in an unfortunate and ill-advised attempt to cover this breach of law with a clear untruth.

In a press conference just this past week, an inquiring journalist was assured that not only was the Labour Party granted provisional registration by the Electoral Commission, but that this was actually done after the commission had obtained legal advice on this matter.

The inevitable denial from the Electoral Commission arrived inexorably. The Labour Party has not and could never have been granted provisional registration as there is no provision in the Act which allows for this.

To make matters worse, the Labour Party has recently benefitted from this tandem of illegality and deceit, by failing to present the 2016 donations report, which had to be presented by March 1, 2017. All registered parties adhered to the law, except for the Labour Party.

One would have expected the minister, who justifiably claimed credit for spearheading the law, at the very least to apologise for the fact that his own party effectively harpooned the same law at the very first occasion it had to abide by it.

Much has been written and said since last week’s events.

Simon Busuttil could have gone down what many consider as the traditional route, by keeping things hushed and making some below-radar contact

The Nationalist Party has been categorical in its position on the allegations made and it has been equally categorical in its stand that it abided fully by that same law which the party in government persists in violating.

Party leader Simon Busuttil did not hesitate to publicly speak about the message he had received requesting a return of the monies paid by Db Group. He could very well have gone down what many consider as the traditional route, by keeping things hushed and making some below-radar contact to try and resolve the issue.

This is not, however, what Busuttil is all about and not what responsible leadership is about.

Responsible leadership is about doing what’s right, no matter what and certainly no matter who.

Responsible leadership also led to the referral of the ITS ‘deal’ to the Auditor General, again no matter what and no matter who.

Responsible leadership also led to the setting up of a committee to be chaired by Judge Vanni Bonello.

The minister rightly states that “politics is not about cheap words and empty rhetoric”.

After reading his article, however, and up to the time of writing, the Labour Party is still blatantly violating the law; it has still not retracted the “provisional registration” claim; it has still not published its 2016 donations report and it is still defending the transfer of 24 tumoli of prime land in the Golden Mile of Maltese upmarket tourism location for a smacking €197 million less than the Paceville Plan values it at and under a modus operandi which raises infinitely more questions than it answers, with the added public burden of €75 million needed to build an alternative ITS.

Yes, minister – people are certainly capable of telling a tree by the fruit it bears, but not only.

They are capable of making their own calculations; of drawing their own conclusions and acting accordingly.

Alex Perici Calascione is the Nationalist Party treasurer and an election candidate.

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.