At St John’s Co-Cathedral, in Valletta, Archbishop Charles Scicluna again waded into the political arena, in his own peculiar and refreshing way: directly.
The matter he spoke of should not really be political at all but, as much of everything else in this country, it is. He said the obvious: the police corps needs to be autonomous from all other powers of the State. The police are not there to serve a party in power but to serve all citizens and to guarantee the rule of law to everyone and in the same way.
Since 2013, the government never really found its feet in the sector. Five police commissioners and three ministers down the line, the police force remains an issue of political controversy. It reached a peak in the recent election campaign when the Nationalist Party leader said the Police Commissioner need not bother turn up for work if he gets elected to power. Simon Busuttil suffered a drubbing and Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar is still there, but so are the controversies.
Chief of them is the police handling, or non-handling, of Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit reports concerning key people in the government. An independent, autonomous police force would have taken action on those reports, even if they concerned the Prime Minister’s chief of staff. They did not and that very fact alone undermines the credibility of the corps.
The current administration, liberal as it may claim to be, is actually as socialist as they come, very central and hands-on. The way it handles the civil service and the numerous public authorities, some of which are supposedly autonomous, shows very direct involvement. The police have been handled the same way, like they were another government department, to their detriment.
The Archbishop was very supporting of the police, calling for the necessary resources that would enable them to carry out their duties in the most effective way. He thanked them for always being there to keep people’s minds at rest. He also recalled the ethics courses for police officers 20 years ago, in which he was involved. The courses emphasised human dignity and guaranteed the rule of law to everyone.
The police have a thankless job. They have to deal with problems of every kind, from murder to family quarrels, and they deserve all the support they can get. But when political issues arise that undermine their credibility, the resulting harm is enormous. They do not deserve this.
The Archbishop began his homily with reference to the Genesis story of Joseph. He used it to explain God’s mysterious ways and how he turns difficult situations into opportunities. Joseph’s story is very moving, he said, because it showed that injustice does not have the last word in the story of humanity.
That the police failed to move on the FIAU reports was a great injustice that dominated much of the electoral campaign with apparently little influence on the electorate. That does not make it less wrong or even acceptable now that the election is over. The problem remains.
The police have let the people down in this case. The Police Commissioner carries the blame for that, whether he was directly responsible or not.
No witch-hunt at the FIAU by the government will make that great failure go away. The law applies to all.