PM chooses to go down slippery path

Less than three months after his party was swept to power by one of the largest majorities on record, Joseph Muscat is leading his party down a slippery path that could eventually well lead him to losing much of the support he has won.

Accusing a former Nationalist minister of undermining the country and of incitement is a serious charge. But, besides the intrinsic gravity of the accusation, it is its implications that are most worrying. The former minister who is in Labour’s direct line of fire is Tonio Fenech, who has already been involved in nasty skirmishes with Labour over a gift of a clock.

Mr Fenech is vehemently denying Dr Muscat’s accusations, saying that in meetings with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund, he had only defended Malta’s banking system and the financial situation.

He admitted noting that the Government did not seem as committed as the previous one to rein in the deficit. But in Parliament Dr Muscat lashed out at Mr Fenech, claiming that the former minister had undermined the country and resorted to incitement in his meeting with the IMF delegation.

The Prime Minister was censured by the Speaker for his choice of words and, on its part, the PN called the accusations grave and extraordinary. As if all this were not enough, the finance ministry has also joined in, arguing that statements made by the former minister about Malta’s public finances and their implication as regards the excessive deficit procedure at a time when the issue was being negotiated with the European Commission were irresponsible.

More than that, the statement said: “Tonio Fenech’s irresponsible claims can only weaken the country’s position at the negotiating table at a crucial stage of the process, and go against the national interest.”

Both the comments by the Prime Minister and the statement by the finance ministry are misplaced for neither the IMF nor the European Commission need Mr Fenech to tell them what the real situation about the economy is.

The IMF and the Commission may call for opinions and views, but they do not decide on the basis of what a former minister says or writes.

What is most worrying is that the kind of language used by the Prime Minister and the finance ministry throws Malta back to the times of the socialist government of Dom Mintoff, as was hinted by Mr Fenech in his reaction to Dr Muscat’s claims in Parliament. In those days, criticising the government was equated with acting against the national interest ­– something no one should seek to do.

Crusades were launched against people criticising the Mintoff government, and the incitement against them was intolerable.

The country does not need to go down that road again, and Dr Muscat must quickly take a step back and declare that it is not his intention to stir up that kind of language.

His government has already done enough harm as it is through highly controversial appointments, throwing to the wind the pledges of meritocracy he made so enthusiastically during the election campaign.

Most intriguing too is that the Prime Minister’s injudicious use of words has come about when the ink has not yet dried on an agreement his party and the PN reached to hold an open-agenda meeting every two months in a bid to take the sting out of politics.

The Prime Minister has erred badly.