Alienating middle of the road voters

Robert Abela is correct when he says that not every misdemeanour should lead to an individual’s perpetual exclusion from politics.

Indeed, there have been many instances in Malta’s recent political history of politicians who erred or were implicated in situations, sometimes not of their doing, that impinged on their political life and who were rehabilitated by their respective parties.

Charles Mangion had resigned as minister in the short-lived Labour administration of 1996 after an administrative blip saw a prisoner who was serving a jail term for drug trafficking being released a few weeks earlier. Although not entirely of his doing, Mangion shouldered political responsibility, especially in view of the Labour Party’s strong position in the run-up to the 1996 election against drug trafficking.

The incident was embarrassing for the Labour government but the manner by which Mangion handled the situation was admirable. He remained an MP for the rest of that short legislature and in 2003 went on to become deputy leader of the Labour Party.

He paid the price for ‘his’ misdemeanour but his political career did not have to sink.

There was also the incident involving Chris Said, who resigned from parliamentary secretary in 2010 after the court ordered the police to take criminal action against him for perjury. The case had been a fickle one involving testimony he had given in a child custody case after he had passed on the client to another lawyer. Said had testified in court that a judge had awarded custody to his client during an evening sitting when in actual fact the court decree had been issued in camera during an afternoon sitting. The mistake had no bearing on the outcome of the child custody case and Said had been testifying from memory on something that happened several years earlier when he was a practicing lawyer.

Nonetheless, the father of the child had persisted in filing a court challenge against Said, which led a judge to order police action over perjury. Said was cleared of any wrongdoing and was reinstated in Cabinet.

Once again, in this case, Said had shouldered responsibility since he understood that government could not have a minister under criminal investigation even if the claimed wrongdoing was nothing more than a memory lapse that had absolutely no impact on the facts and outcome of the case.

Said was not cavalier about the whole issue and accepted the inevitability of resignation. It was the price he paid for a ‘stupid’ misdemeanour that should have never led to criminal action. Once again, his political career did not have to sink.

These two examples clearly show that not every misdemeanour should lead to perpetual exclusion from politics, which brings us to Robert Abela’s latest trend.

In a week of decisions, the Prime Minister has opened his arms, paving the way for Justyne Caruana’s and Rosianne Cutajar’s return to the Labour Party.

Caruana resigned from minister in December 2021 after an ethics probe confirmed what MaltaToday had reported about a direct order she awarded to an intimate friend for the compilation of a report. Serious questions arose about the friend’s competence to compile such a report and the ethics probe found serious breaches that also led to the resignation of permanent secretary Frank Fabri.

Caruana’s misdemeanour was directly linked to her job as minister and yet, despite the damning findings, she never showed any remorse. On the contrary, she decided to file court action against the Standards Commissioner.

To this day, Caruana still protests her innocence as if she did nothing wrong, which is why, Abela’s decision to reach out jars. Has Caruana really learnt from her mistake? Can she be trusted again with public office?

In Rosianne Cutajar’s case, the Prime Minister has completely overlooked a very recent report compiled by the National Audit Office that revealed how the consultancy job she was given at the Institute for Tourism Studies in 2019 was abusive.

Cutajar has not accepted the findings and struck a defiant tone. She has shown no regret for her actions and we seriously doubt whether she has learnt her lesson as the Prime Minister has suggested.

At the very least, Caruana and Cutajar should own up to their mistakes and apologise to the public but it does not seem they will be doing anything of the sort any time soon.

Given the circumstances, there seems to be little justification for the return of Caruana and Cutajar within the Labour fold at this particular juncture.

Irrespective of his denial, the Prime Minister is lowering the bar to placate pockets of anger among the party’s grassroots. But in so doing he risks undermining his own credibility and alienating middle of the road voters.