With malice, aforethought

The publication of the so-called Vitals inquiry online by MaltaToday was the sort of courageous act that people in the media are sometimes called upon to do – publish information that according to law should not be made public.

Indeed, it was the last nail in the coffin of integrity that died during the time Joseph Muscat was prime minister.

I am not writing about whether those who are accused are guilty according to the laws of Malta – that is for the Courts to decide. But those in politics – especially prime ministers – have to reply to the court of public opinion.

One can say that public opinion is fickle – witness the screaming geriatrics that went to show their support for Joseph Muscat (but not for any other accused) last Tuesday. They have every right to say that the moon is made of cheese, of course.

But in the mind of the normal Maltese citizen, there is no doubt that the so-called privatisation of the management of three Maltese hospitals was a piece of corruption with malice aforethought, the like of which Malta has never experienced.

This is not a simple case of some politician dipping his finger in the honeypot when someone is ‘helped’ to get a public contract. Public contracts call for goods or services that the country needs.

Did the country need the privatisation that the Vitals/Steward contract contemplated? Were there any studies that showed that such a privatisation will render the three hospitals more efficient and less expensive? Who decided that this was the way forward to improve our health services? Privatisation is perhaps the wrong term in this case as it implies that the government and the private contractor share the risks involved. In this case the risk was all lumped on the State with Vitals/Steward hardly risking anything at all.

Who decided that this was the right – and more economical – way to improve our health services? It certainly was not. It is now obvious that the country was saddled with a contract that it did not need, designed solely to enrich politicians and their friends. The buck stops with the politicians, including the prime minister.

Joseph Muscat is not an immature idiot who naively allowed what was going on ‘behind his back’. Even if he was not personally involved in the design of the concept, at some point he must have realised what was happening and shut his eyes. This is the most ‘innocent’ version of Muscat’s involvement. It is undoubtedly damning in the court of public opinion. Many believe that his involvement was much more, precisely because many consider him to be an intelligent person, not an idiot.

The building up of a complicated network of people and companies – in Malta and abroad – was no mere probability. Is there any doubt that there was a master ‘architect’ who designed this network? This network was created not only to invent ways how some of the money that Vitals/Steward would be receiving ends up in the coffers of obscure companies away from Malta. More than that: The involvement of the Maltese company Technoline assured a different stream of income from the sales of medical equipment to the hospitals run by Vitals/Steward. The story is incredibly complicated, verging on being too clever by half.

The problem now is the institutions that should have followed up the Magistrate’s inquiry. Both the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General have practically refused to do so – which was their duty to do. They just decided to accept the Magistrate’s report and turn it into an accusation. What the people repesenting these two will be doing in Court could be of interest. They could even undermine the whole case by lack of determination to follow the Magistrate’s findings. The prosecution could be weak and ineffective! Will that happen? Pleasures yet to come, I suppose.

I pity those who went to show their ‘support’ in front of the law court last Tuesday. It seems they are not able to remove all obvious biases from their brain and think clearly. They hardly knew what they were supporting. Those who lead them by the nose should know better.

I do not pretend to be superior to others and I understand why and how emotions run high, making it impossible for some to distinguish right from wrong.

This is not something peculiar to Malta as such phenomenons are found all over the world. Otherwise how does Donald Trump have a good chance to become the US President again? Many corrupt and crazy politicians have a lot of public support in this world we inhabit. A list of such people would be long and boring.

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Scicluna being silly

I do not think that Edward Scicluna is just a silly idiot, even though he often acts like one. Replying to the many calls for his resignation from his current post of Governor of the Central Bank, he managed to be sillier than usual by asserting that no government, Opposition or NGO can ask him to resign.

According to him, there is a real difference between a governor and a minister. A minister’s position is the prerogative of the Prime Minister. You see he is a governor of a Central Bank in a European system governed by a European Treaty and the statute of the European Central Bank and so it is they who have to decide. This means he will only lose his job if he is fired by the European Central Bank. Such a humiliation is possible, and apparently he is ready to risk it!

In Malta we live in a democracy and everyone has the right to ask him to resign. Scicluna seems to be unaware of this basic fact.

In fact, I join the chorus asking for his resignation, even though I cannot fire him.

He confuses someone asking for his resignation with someone who has the power to kick him off the seat he sits upon and the monthly salary that seat commands.

Compare this attitude to that of his co-accused, Chris Fearne.

Fearne chose the way that his integrity led him to follow. He resigned from his post, even though he declared his innocence and even though the Prime Minister did not fire him.

Even in this mess, one can easily sort out the wheat from the chaff.