Martin Scicluna has recently made himself the prime apologist of what he calls Malta’s new normality, that is to say the huge corruption now engulfing the government of which he has become a voice.
The self-declared apologist cannot see the elephant in the room: the bribery, money laundering and criminality unearthed in Castille by none other than an institution of the State itself, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit whose reports the government is fighting tooth and nail not to be considered in cases before our courts. For Scicluna, it’s nothing to worry about; it’s all normal.
Writing on December 6 (‘Regurgitating the election’), Scicluna castigated the The Times (of London) for having said what is obvious to those who have not donned the red-tinted glasses: that Malta has become a Mafia state, as The Guardian termed the government of Malta, where those in power try to hide the alleged links between, on the one hand, the Prime Minister and his men in Castille and, on the other, the corrupt dictatorship of Azerbaijan.
The Times had described how the Maltese government is using the Attorney General to prevent the FIAU investigation reports from being presented in our courts. FIAU investigations led it to suspect that millions of euros were channelled by powerful Azerbaijanis and others through Pilatus Bank and other financial institutions in return for kickbacks on gas deals.
These gas deals involve not only Azerbaijan but also a power station that is selling electricity to the government at prices double what the government can get from the interconnector with Sicily.
The eminent British newspaper reports that Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed that the contacts between Leyla Aliyeva and Egrant - which she alleges was owned by Michelle Muscat - were not just photo opportunities but $1 million passing between Pilatus Bank accounts. (Muscat denies the allegations).
But for Scicluna, The Times is “credulous”. For the corruption apologist, what MEPs, headed by a Portuguese socialist, are saying in their reports about our Mafia state is “fake news”. The MEPs, most of whom come from ex-communist countries, Scicluna reminds us, and who fought so hard to get rid of communism, are “gullible”.
In Malta, which, according to Scicluna, is “a vibrant democracy”, the Prime Minister’s men open three secret companies in Panama as soon as he is installed in Castile. A “vibrant democracy” going down several steps at once in the corruption and freedom indices.
Scicluna tells us: “There are still courts of law and the government can still lose cases”. Unless, of course, the government fights not to have proof of its huge corruption considered in the courts, precisely what The Times reported.
This is the new normality according to his master’s voice, the Artful Dodger, leading a State where ‘there are crooks everywhere’
He declares: “The civil service functions.” This, of course, includes the whole debacle in the Police Corps where criminals are re-engaged and the Police Commissioner’s speciality is fenkati while his (now former) assistant gets drunk and takes his ‘long hours’ out on his partner.
“Freedom of expression is alive and well,” says Scicluna. Unless you areas intrepid as Caruana Galizia; then you get blasted out of existence.
Having become an apologist for the ‘Mafia’ practices and high-level corruption that are now normal in the government, Scicluna then turns very personal against myself (‘Two loose ends’, January 24) for an article I wrote in December.
He calls me “irrational” and “demented” and goes to the lengths of claiming that I’m not the author of my own articles.
He also disqualifies me from seeing the obvious truth because I happen to be the publisher of nice coffee-table books he admits he appreciates.
I won’t stoop to Scicluna’s level because the state of affairs he has become an apologist for goes much beyond his name-calling and personal vitriol. Scicluna cannot see that allegations of corruption surround several multi-million, even multi-billion, deals struck by Muscat and his closest associates. The gas power station, the very close and secret relations with Azerbaijan, the Vitals multi-billion contract, the Sadeen University of Żonqor – all reek of corruption.
But having implored one and all to vote Labour in 2013 for good governance, of all reasons, Scicluna cannot admit he was duped. On the very morrow of that election, in Castille, Muscat’s closest associates were opening Egrant, Tillgate and Hearnville in Panama in full knowledge that it was next to impossible for them to be found out.
They did not factor in Caruana Galizia and a few courageous whistleblowers.
On the other hand, they could count on the “credulous” and “gullible”, and Scicluna, to become their voice. Even Scicluna’s colleagues on the Today Public Policy Institute had to dissociate themselves from his master’s voice when Scicluna started writing that grand corruption in Castille is “fake news”.
Admitting you have been duped is very difficult because it shows that you are not as intelligent as you make yourself out to be. And that is a huge problem with Scicluna. Caruana Galizia sized him up long ago but I won’t go into that because it’s all easily available in her blog which, thankfully, is still fully accessible.
What Scicluna fails to see, in Caruana Galizia’s killing, is who paid for her killing because she had never mentioned the three accused.
What is very worrying about Scicluna is not only that he was duped by Muscat; he was even duped by Jordanian land speculator Sadeen. Scicluna was responsible for accrediting the American University of Malta after Muscat named him head of the accreditation institution.
It was obvious for all that a land speculator who never had a kindergarten, let alone a university, did not need a virgin piece of land in Żonqor facing the sea for a ‘university’. As it turns out, one room would have been enough for Sadeen who has attracted 14 students for Scicluna’s accredited ‘university’.
But that’s the new normality according to his master’s voice, the Artful Dodger, leading a State where “there are crooks everywhere”.
eddieaquilina1951@gmail.com