TMIS Editorial: Political repression
The way the Prime Minister reacted to a request for a magisterial inquiry has taken us closer, much closer, to political repression.Last Sunday, we were told that a request had been made for a magisterial inquiry into what was described as a Gozo rac
The way the Prime Minister reacted to a request for a magisterial inquiry has taken us closer, much closer, to political repression.
Last Sunday, we were told that a request had been made for a magisterial inquiry into what was described as a Gozo racket involving Minister Clint Camilleri and his wife.
Yes, Clint Camilleri again, the one who should have resigned after, together with Clayton Bartolo, he was found to have abused ethical standards when a consultancy job was given to Bartolo's wife although she did not have the necessary qualifications. And the one whose ministry, just this past week, was criticised by the National Audit Office for how it handled a major roadworks project in Nadur, which went €10.5 million over budget.
The fresh allegations made in the request for a magisterial inquiry were that Camilleri and his wife Deborah, head of the Gozo section of Transport Malta, were embroiled in a racket involving favourable mooring spaces in Mgarr Harbour.
PM Robert Abela's reaction to this was similar to what happens in authoritarian countries.
We already know that we live in a nation where the rule of law leaves so much to be desired. We already know that good governance is not something that we can be proud of. We already know that some of the country's institutions fail to live up to their duties and those that do function properly have their powers limited or reports ignored.
But there are some tools that can be used in the fight against all that is wrong, and one of them is magisterial inquiries, which carry out an independent and unbiased investigation, and which can lead to further legal action.
It was a magisterial inquiry, just to give one example, that led to criminal charges being brought against former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and three of his colleagues on the Cabinet, Konrad Mizzi, Edward Scicluna and Chris Fearne in connection with the infamous hospitals deal, about which the police just twiddled their thumbs.
We all remember how Abela had lambasted that particular inquiry and its timing, which had then already exposed a Prime Minister who was afraid of the truth.
Now, in the wake of another possible inquiry which could be politically damaging, Abela's outburst on social media uncovers a Prime Minister who has lost the plot in trying to defend Camilleri, making us all wonder why Abela is going to such lengths to protect the Gozo Minister with the danger of coming crashing down with him - as had happened to Muscat after he had sheltered Mizzi and Keith Schembri for years. Abela is where he is because his predecessor was not lucid in his assessment of those next to him, and Abela now risks the same fate.
Abela's statement that the idea behind a magisterial inquiry is to send a woman with two children in prison flies in the face of our justice system. What is the PM saying here? That anyone who has children should not be prosecuted and possibly sent to prison for criminal activity?
All those who are accused in court are someone's son or daughter, and many of them have children too. So is the PM saying that, if someone has children, they should not be taken to court? Or is he, conversely, implying that, since the woman in question is a minister's wife she should not be prosecuted?
He also said that "a line has been crossed". So for the PM, the line is crossed when someone asks for an inquiry, not when one of his ministers is allegedly involved in some kind of wrongdoing. That's a warped way of thinking.
But the worst was still to come, as Abela wrote that he had instructed the Minister of Justice to finalise a reform on magisterial inquiries to stop "this abuse". Again, for the PM the abuse is requesting an inquiry, not his ministers' potential misconduct.
What the PM is requesting the Justice Minister to do is to present a reform aimed to curb one of the few tools available to seek the truth when the authorities responsible - and by this we mean the police - fail to take action.
Instead of insisting that the police should do their full duties, and instead of making such inquiries more easily accessible and enabling magistrates to perform their task faster for the truth to be established more quickly, Abela wants to curtail this possibility.
We do not yet know how the government is planning to change the law.
What we know is that Prime Minister Abela, from what he said, is aiming to impose restrictions on magisterial inquiries.
Rather that wanting to know the truth, Abela wants to keep it hidden.
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