In the morning after news broke that the former Pilatus Bank chairman Sayed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad had been taken into custody in the United States on charges that he funnelled over $115 million from Venezuela to Iran, journalists naturally turned to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna to ask what action the Maltese government would be taking after that.
The minister’s reply was: “Come on, will you be asking me such questions this morning?”
Journalists also approached him and even sent him questions in the afternoon and the evening. However, no better answer than his “come on” was forthcoming.
During a debate I had with Alfred Sant on TV chat show Xarabank a fortnight ago, the Labour MEP, who heads the Labour delegation, had a very similar response.
For at least six or seven times, his retort to the endless list of corruption allegations I mentioned up a simple “Oh, come on”.
This rhetoric is no simple slip of the tongue or coincidence. It is exactly the attitude this Labour administration adopts and wishes to instill in the public.
A nonchalance that is meant to silently suppress criticism and protestors – as well as the genuinely concerned Labour voter – by stressing that what is happening on our shores is run of the mill.
This dangerous political line was gleefully picked up by Martin Scicluna, who is still using his weekly rant in the local press to act as the unofficial public defender of everything Joseph Muscat.
Show us the proof, Scicluna cried.
He would not realise or admit it if that proof walked right up to his house, knocked, walked in and sat itself in his living room.
That Keith Schembri received €100,000 from Brian Tonna, who had received funds from the sale of Maltese passports to three Russian citizens is fact (Mr Schembri insists it was the repayment of a loan).
That Nexia BT gave instructions to Pilatus Bank for the setting up of accounts for Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, informing them the accounts were to receive €1 million a year, is fact.
That Mizzi claimed to have cash balances in excess of €300,000 when he had less than €100,000 is fact.
That Orion Engineering Group, the local agent for the LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk, deposited an unwarranted and unjustified $200,000 sum into the Dubai company 17 Black, is fact.
And that Mizzi and Schembri were to receive €150,000 a month from 17 Black into their secret Panama funds is also fact.
What we need is our country back
Scicluna should note that it is not David Casa saying this. It is not Ana Gomes, the Socialist MEP, whom he attacks when convenient. It is not the Civil Society Network, Awturi, Occupy Justice or Reżistenza pointing this out.
It is hard evidence which states all this. E-mails, signed documents, showing that the corruption we spoke of before is very much real and true. And it is still ongoing.
There is no partisan politics which is leading us to this point, as Scicluna tries to imply.
It is simply the greed, malicious nature of the few controlling the government and every useful resource it has that has led us to this situation.
In his last nonsensical article on the Times of Malta, Scicluna did have an epiphany of sorts, when he wrote that “tangible proof of wrongdoing, not politics, is one of the basic precepts of the rule of law”.
Precisely. Tangible proof. Scicluna seems to keep himself incredibly well updated on current events and it seems impossible that he would have missed every single item of tangible proof that has come out in the news, both locally and internationally.
Let’s call a spade a spade. We no longer need further evidence to realise what Mizzi and Schembri have truly been up to.
We do not need any more proof that Muscat is willing to run Malta’s reputation into the ground before he takes any action against his right- and left-hand men.
What we need is our country back.
A normal, functioning nation with actual rule of law. Where everyone is equal and justice applies to all. We do not need to hear Owen Bonnici or Muscat say it, we need them to enforce it.
It seems this genuine concern continues to fall on deaf ears.
What we built and what we stand for is being slowly obliterated so taxpayer-funded criminals can remain happy.
David Casa is a Nationalist MEP.