The brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia delivered a mortal blow to our democracy.
In the immediate aftermath of the assassination, the Prime Minister was big on words but short on action. His bravado of “leaving no stone unturned” to solve the murder quickly turned out to be doublespeak, the very opposite of what he promised.
From the word go, the man he allowed to lead police investigations had not one, but two, conflicts of interest and could never serve justice impartially. Not only is he married to a government minister, he also sits on the FIAU board, our embarrassing anti-money laundering agency that still refuses to take action against the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and minister Konrad Mizzi despite catching them in money-laundering activities.
In order to have this lead investigator removed, Daphne’s family was forced to battle it out in court. A few days ago the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the family, as was obvious from the start. But it took one year to get there. In the meantime, no one will ever know the full extent to which the murder investigation may have been compromised.
A group of journalists from across Europe teamed up to form the Daphne Project and made disturbing revelations about Chris Cardona, the minister who has yet to prove that he was not in a German brothel while on official duties. The revelations, which connected Cardona to one of the accused in Daphne’s murder, should have led to his interrogation and dismissal, at least until the matter is cleared. Nothing happened.
Ask yourself: in which other democracy in the world would this happen in any murder investigation, let alone such a high-profile case?
The government’s shamelessly disrespectful behaviour towards the slain journalist beggars belief.
It flatly refused a request by the family for an independent inquiry. It refused to give straight answers to three successive rule of law missions of the European Parliament to Malta, treating inquisitive MEPs with contempt.
It eggs on online hate groups to vilify Daphne. It allows taxpayer-paid cronies to insult her with total impunity. It repeatedly removes flowers and candles laid at a symbolic memorial for truth and justice. And it even wrapped the entire Great Siege monument to stamp out protests altogether.
Refusing to accept this state of affairs does not make us traitors. It makes us patriots
While we grow accustomed to this unbelievably deplorable behaviour, outsiders look on in disbelief. In the meantime, our country’s name is in tatters.
Ask yourself: which other democracy in the world would treat a slain journalist with such contempt?
A systematic government-led campaign has been under way to discredit Daphne’s investigative journalism and whitewash corruption at the highest level.
The Prime Minister’s outrageous manipulation of the Egrant inquiry report which he published only in part, is just one example. His solemn promises to publish the full report have been repeatedly broken – he wants us to rely on his spin to form an opinion.
But no amount of spin can whitewash the truth. Daphne’s revelations exposing Keith Schembri and Mizzi with secret companies in Panama were 100 per cent true.
Not only. Earlier this year, new shocking revelations exposed why they had opened them. They were planning to channel monthly payments of $150,000 from 17 Black, a Dubai-based company linked to the Muscat’s pet project, the LNG power station. In my book, there can only be one explanation for these payments: corruption.
Ask yourself: in which other democracy in the world are people exposed in the Panama Papers still in office?
Despite these damning revelations the Prime Minister stood by his two men and refused to remove them. With his irresponsible behaviour, he has become complicit. His inaction was only matched by a spectacular failure of all competent authorities to bring the pair to justice; from the police to the Attorney General to the FIAU.
The obstruction of justice is so brazen that the Prime Minister and his friends are still resisting in court a request for a magisterial inquiry that I filed over a year ago to investigate the Panama Papers. If they were innocent, they would welcome an inquiry as an opportunity to clear their names.
Meanwhile, the three are still running our country. Holding on to power has become a necessity to protect themselves from justice.
Ask yourself: which other democracy is run by a Prime Minister whose very own chief of staff was repeatedly exposed in money-laundering activities?
You know the answers. In no other democracy do these things happen with impunity. This is why our democracy is mortally wounded. This is why we are living in a fake democracy.
We are a proud European nation. We do not deserve this. Refusing to accept this state of affairs does not make us traitors. It makes us patriots.
Do not look the other way. Barack Obama recently reminded us that the biggest threat to democracy is indifference. He is right.
We all share a historic responsibility to save our democracy from being killed in this way.
Simon Busuttil is former leader ofthe Opposition.