I sent an e-mail to someone last week and called it News-Zeal-End. I did that because the Konrad Mizzi media coverage seemed to be spelling the end of the Labour Party’s much-touted zeal for transparent government and was certainly undermining the morale of well-meaning Labour MPs with political principles and consciences.
And although most people with whom I came into contact seemed rather unperturbed by the implications and goings on, I could definitely sense among a percentage of the Maltese electorate – those who have the Labour’s Party’s best interests at heart – a palpable sadness, a feeling of having been let down. I felt and still feel sorry – terribly sorry – for them.
The Prime Minister’s cavalier dismissal of the issue as something he’s not remotely worried about doesn’t really wash. If the shoe were on the other foot and if we were discussing a Nationalist MP, Muscat, Mizzi et al would be clamouring for his resignation and talking about dishonesty, arrogance and lack of transparency.
And, of course, the hectoring, holier-than-thou journalism currently being practised by the Opposition and their journalists would vanish into thin air. That is perhaps the saddest part of all: it is being fuelled first and foremost – and perhaps exclusively – by partisan prejudice, not patriotism.
Back to Mizzi. There have always been too many questions surrounding his ministerial term of office. That is never a good thing. First there was the Cabinet decision to put his wife Sai – more conspicuous by her absence – on the State payroll. When you’re shelling out (and I don’t mean the Panamanian sort of shell out) €13,000 a month on a spousal salary, you’re going to have to account for every last dime.
And if you can’t? Well, then you can expect this kind of fallout from the numerous people who don’t want you there. They will – justifiably – start digging and won’t let up. You can never underestimate some people’s monomaniacal obsession with bringing you down.
So yes, that was a monumentally bad judgement call right there, and it stalked Mizzi and the Labour Party from day one. ‘Desperately Seeking Sai’ became a national pastime, akin to a soap opera. Mizzi’s personal and private family life were suddenly fair game and subject to increasing public scrutiny. The ‘his ’n’ hers’ cut of their politics suddenly got very ragged indeed. Soon they were answering ‘libelous’ allegations.
I could definitely sense among those who have the Labour’s Party’s best interests at heart a palpable sadness, a feeling of having been let down
And now, as if dealing with the extensive portfolios, ministerial trips and all the backlash wasn’t enough, we’ve now been told this cosmopolitan couple has feathered its nest in far-flung NZ, where they’ve set up a family trust that just happens to own shares in a shell-holding Panamanian company incorporated by Mossack Fonseca and Co.
I took the liberty of searching Mossack Fonseca – a law-firm based in Panama with affiliated offices in a number of different countries, including Malta. The information did not exactly inspire trust (the right kind, that is). The EU is well ahead of me on that one.
Let’s put it another way – it’s not a firm I’d want to lend my name to, especially in Mizzi’s shoes, answerable to the Maltese electorate. Mizzi says he didn’t give the whole thing much thought, placing his trust (that word again!) in the hands of advisers. That, I’m afraid, is not good enough. Although I find it hard to believe that Mizzi didn’t give the matter a second thought, it’s that he thought about it at all that worries me.
Mizzi’s volte face closure of the Panama company (Hearnville Inc) achieves very little. Why state on record that you have nothing to hide, that the company has no assets, and then do a complete U-turn? Such ‘damage-control’ always looks bad.
More crucially – would he ever have closed the company of his own volition? He ought to have let it – and the matter – die a natural death. The cynical will say that he had nothing material to lose anyway given that the company was so far dormant. And the more cynical will think his ‘advisers’ will have recommended a better concealed Caribbean ‘tax-efficient’ jurisdiction.
This kind of planning can’t possibly be justified as a family commitment. Most of us have hard-earned assets too, and many of us have children for whom we would move heaven and earth: so that is an argument, or a self-justification, that simply won’t wash. I firmly believe that politicians need to share, democratically, the everyday realities of their electorates. That is what public life means. Being chauffeured around and pampered while the rest of us rely on the island’s fractious transport and tax system is not what it should be about.
That is why politicians have got to keep their snouts out of the trough. Their focus should be on hard work and dedicated public services, not in being – or appearing to be – on the take. Because once the damage is done, it’s done. Whether Mizzi thought he could get away with it or whether he was genuinely naive and shortsighted – (I rather suspect the latter) – ceases to be important.
Whatever happens in other countries – Malta must be different. It’s high time we changed our political culture, starting from the people who ought to ‘share’ and ‘like’ this article. Most Labourites probably won’t. They’ll regard it as a slight on – or betrayal of – their party, which is a great pity and why the tribal culture continues – because our politicians can always rely on partisanship to win the day. So the circumspect and more principled PL MPs suffer in silence.
There are huge lessons to be learned here and I do hope a permanent line will now be drawn in Maltese politics. All corruption, mismanagement and breach of trust issues should henceforth be automatically blown wide open and subject to public enquiry. And why not bring in retrospective enquiries too? That’s the sort of rain (reign?) that needs to fall and what our bishops should be praying for.
michelaspiteri@gmail.com