During his opening address at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting last Friday, the Prime Minister spoke about his satisfaction in having been able to host a meeting which was focusing on women and their rights, on the need for good governance and the eradication of corruption, and on the importance of the financial regulation of political parties through, for instance, the law he was pioneering on the financing of political parties.
As he stood pontificating to all and sundry, no doubt all the Commonwealth heads sitting behind him, including Queen Elizabeth, must have thought they were fine words indeed.
He did, however, stop short of informing them that notwithstanding his fine words, in his day-to-day administration of this country he was doing the complete opposite. It was clearly a case of do as I say, not as I do.
On the championing of women’s rights, he did not tell them that only last week, a member of his own side of the House stood up in the highest institution of the land, reduced it to a humiliating level and threatened another MP that he would smash her face in – what style and decorum!
And what’s worse, the Prime Minister did not inform the heads of government that he had not rebuked or condemned this despicable behaviour in the House, that he did and said nothing. He did not inform them that his own minister in charge of women’s rights said that women should really shut up and stop complaining because if they speak out they should not be surprised if they get beaten up – or words to that effect. And neither did he inform them that in the face of this insulting, barbaric and uncivilised behaviour, non of his MPs had the guts to speak up for what is right – spineless, the whole lot of them.
On the need for good governance and the eradication of corruption, he did not tell them that he had sanctioned a most suspect deal – that instead of throwing out a tenant who refused to pay his rent to the government, he had sanctioned the payment of €4.2 million; he did not tell them that his parliamentary secretary responsible for government property has not yet explained why it is that the Maltese taxpayer has paid over €3 million to an individual for half a house in Valletta worth a couple of hundred thousand.
He did not tell them that he has refused to show the people’s representatives in Parliament the contracts through which we have sold our electricity generation plant to a foreign entity and through which we have been bound to purchase electricity at an exorbitantly high rate from an entity building a power station that we do not need, following trips to the most democratic countries of all – Azerbaijan.
He did not tell them that without any form of discussion or tender he decided to give our virgin land and historic buildings overlooking a yacht marina to a Jordanian land developer on the pretext of building a sub-standard university; he did not tell them that he dismantled the armed forces, replaced properly qualified and fully trained officers by people without the necessary experience while attempting to remove their right of redress before the Ombudsman who has now severely rebuked the government for its lack of transparency.
Can the situation get worse than this? I have no doubt it can and it will
He did not tell the Commonwealth heads of government that the Maltese taxpayer has been paying a woman who happens to be the wife of one of his ministers, €13,000 per month for the past two-and-a-half years for supposedly being Malta’s consul in Shanghai, and who does not even have a telephone line.
He did not tell them how over the past months, thousands of residency permits have been issued in very suspect circumstances, and how a former Labour Party treasurer has now been indicted with fraud in connection with the issuing of such permits; he did not tell them how during the past nine months his government has sanctioned the granting of 7,000 Schengen Area entry visas to Algerians who do not even stop over in Malta!
He did not tell them of these and other prime examples of the lack of good governance and the absolute fuelling of institutionalised corruption in record time.
On the need on observance of regulations by political parties, the Prime Minister did not tell the Commonwealth heads of government that he only tabled the law relating to the financing of parties after Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister gave Joseph Muscat as leader of the Labour Party a present in the form of Australia Hall worth €12 million.
Given the above, you need to have some cheek, don’t you think, to stand up and pretend to be a champion of women’s rights, of good governance and transparency, and of correct political party practices.
Can the situation get worse than this? I have no doubt it can and it will – but we can all do something about it. We can all expose this government for what it really and truly is – hypocritical – and by working towards ensuring that at the next general election we vote for a party that can give us back our sense of national pride, our sense of right and wrong and a sense of correct behaviour from top to bottom – and that party is the one led by Simon Busuttil.
Ann Fenech is the president of the Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party.