In 1972, in his quest for global peace and stability, US President Richard Nixon did the unthinkable. He visited Moscow and Beijing and succeeded in reducing tensions with them both. Working with Leonid Brezhnev, the premier of the USSR, he drew up a treaty aimed at limiting strategic nuclear weapons.
In 1973, Nixon arrived at an accord with North Vietnam that ended America’s long and bloody involvement in the Indochina war, a conflict that had traumatised and divided America. His Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, successfully brokered disengagement agreements between Israel, Egypt and Syria.
Nixon, a highly intelligent person, achieved what none before him had done. He extricated the US from the hole into which it had sunk.
What is the point I am making here? Because despite his achievements, and they were many and deserving of praise, Nixon is chiefly remembered today for the greatest scandal to implicate a US president – the Watergate affair. Many books and a great film have covered the subject.
Its importance to us here in Malta is the uncanny parallel that it has with what is at stake in this election.
We too, in Malta, have a prime minister who can rightly boast of some excellent achievements especially in the economic and social sector. We too have a premier who won office with a landslide victory: in 1972, Nixon defeated George McGovern by one of the widest margins recorded.
We have in Malta a prime minister implicated in an ever-widening scandal of fraud and misappropriation of money on a scale that the island has never seen before
We too have in Malta a prime minister who is implicated in an ever-widening scandal of fraud and misappropriation of money on a scale that the island has never seen before. And that in the first couple of years in office and in the teeth of his promise that he would govern with transparency, meritocracy and good governance.
The Watergate investigation claimed its first scalps with the resignation of two of Nixon’s closest aides: Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman. They of course, fell on their swords to try and save the president.
In Malta, nobody, but nobody is willing to commit political suicide in the name of loyalty.
But we all know what happened: Nixon’s attempts to cover up the full facts of the Watergate affair were exposed. Facing impeachment, he resigned in August 1974.
Before that happened however, he went on television to address the nation, to tell them that:
“Justice will be pursued fairly, fully and impartially.”
“Truth should be fully brought out – no matter who is involved.”
“This Office is a sacred trust and I am determined to be worthy of that trust.”
He added: “Whatever may appear to have been the case before, whatever improper activities may yet be discovered in connection with this whole sordid affair, I want the American people, I want you to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that during my term as president, justice will be pursued fairly, fully and impartially, no matter who is involved.
“In any organisation, the man at the top must bear the responsibility. That responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office. I accept it. And I pledge to you tonight, from this office, that I will do everything in my power to ensure that the guilty are brought to justice and that such abuses are purged from our political processes in the years to come, long after I have left this office.”
His concluding remark:
“We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the Whitehouse.”
Do you want a whitewash at Castille?
On June 3, it is your responsibility to prevent it.
Josie Muscat is a Nationalist Party candidate on the second and third districts.