The Labour leader’s insistence that a high-ranking government official should resign for phoning the Police Commissioner about allegations that arrests were politically motivated showed he would not have acted on such serious claims, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said.
Dr Gonzi insisted that his chief of staff, Edgar Galea Curmi, had done the right thing by calling Police Commissioner John Rizzo after Sliema deputy mayor Cyrus Engerer – who last month switched from the Nationalist Party to Labour – suggested that the arrest of his father could have been politically motivated.
Mr Galea Curmi realised that the allegations were serious, especially given that they came a few days after Mr Engerer’s defection, Dr Gonzi said. “He did the right thing to take immediate action by informing the police... It was his sacrosanct duty to make the Police Commissioner aware of such an allegation... The criticism by Joseph Muscat shows he cannot distinguish between good and bad. It shows that, had Dr Muscat known of such allegations, he would not have acted upon them,” Dr Gonzi said in an interview on Radio 101. Mr Engerer switched party allegiance on July 15 citing irreconcilable differences with the Prime Minister over the divorce issue. Almost immediately, he became an active member of the Labour Party. A few days later, the police arrested his father over drug possession. Mr Engerer then approached his godfather - Mr Galea Curmi - and asked whether his father’s arrest was politically motivated. Mr Galea Curmi called the Police Commissioner to meet Mr Engerer’s lawyer and assure him the case was not politically motivated by explaining the sequence of events. The police last week filed charges against Cyrus Engerer for circulating pornographic material.
Dr Gonzi criticised the PL for trying to take political advantage from the issue. He said the party was slowly becoming a political refuge that took in people who had some form of disagreement with the PN and included individuals who had now won a government tender.
Speaking about recent unemployment figures, Dr Gonzi said data released by the National Statistics Office showed that the rate of unemployment had dropped and there were now 6,200 people without a job. Since Malta joined the EU, in 2004, there had been a 17,000 increase in full-time employment and a drop of 6,000 people who worked with the government. This meant that fewer taxes were going towards paying salaries of government employees. EU statistics released a few months ago showed that Malta had the sixth lowest inflation rate in the eurozone. Dr Gonzi pointed out that Malta was at a disadvantage because it relied heavily on imports. Giving an example, he said that while Maltese newspapers were produced in Malta, the paper they were printed on was imported. He said he recently attended the launch of the new premises of Progress Press, printers of The Times and The Sunday Times, and saw large rooms filled with imported paper.
He likened the company to a phoenix with an interesting history. It had been burnt down by Labour Party thugs (in 1979) but managed to rise and take flight again. “The PL still did not make a categorical declaration that such acts were shameful,” Dr Gonzi said, adding that some of the thugs of the past were still part of the party.