Is it not hugely ironic that the newly-appointed Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has taken up his appointment just as the Prime Minister and his government have kicked in the teeth the very principles embodying the law setting up the office?

With his political morality score-sheet now completely in tatters, Joseph Muscat keeps valiantly trying to wriggle out of sticky situations by attempting to equalise wrongdoing within his government with wrongdoing allegations concerning members of the Opposition. He always keeps confusing criminal responsibility with ethics and sound moral standards.

Dr Muscat’s mind is clearly set on the long-standing tribal political binary – the government and the Opposition – and is consequently finding himself all the time trying to deflect attention from his government’s sins of omission and commission to the Opposition’s faults.

On Sunday, he was reported saying the Opposition had a choice to make: it could not ignore serious allegations of wrongdoing by some of its members while calling for resignations from the government benches. He, too, has a choice to make: either follow normal political standards or will keep losing credibility, which is not always reflected in popularity ratings.

In fact, riding high on a populist governing approach, allegations of corruption and malpractice are not denting the government in popularity polls right now. However, there will come a time when the Labour Party will be told by the electorate that enough is enough. Recent political history would be repeating itself.

Concern about the in-your-face official disregard to rectitude has been growing not only among the swathe of people who are politically dispassionate but also among highly-influential political observers abroad who have been keenly following the Malta scene following the killing, a year ago, of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The growing number of reports linking Malta to money laundering is not helping matters. Neither is the apparent inability or, worse, unwillingness of some institutions to take action.

The latest media reports on 17 Black confirmed what many suspected: the extent of the sleaze. As Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s top aide, Keith Schembri both refuse to assume political responsibility and step down at least until they are cleared or otherwise, and as Dr Muscat brazenly persists in going against political norms, the country keeps languishing in unsettled waters.

The law does not allow the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life to investigate an allegation on an act that occurred prior to the date on which the law came into force. However, the incongruity of the situation as it is developing today can hardly be starker.

While the newly-appointed commissioner sets about setting up his office to ensure ethical standards in public life, a Cabinet minister and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff – whose offshore companies have now been revealed to have been earmarked as recipients of funds from a company owned by one of the Electrogas shareholders – keep holding to their posts, with the blessing of the Prime Minister who, unbelievably, argues he would wait for the outcome of the judicial process first before taking any action.

In doing so, Dr Muscat is making a mockery of the principles that motivated his government to enact, together with the Opposition in Parliament, the law on standards in public life. What standards?

This is a Times of Malta print editorial

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