Our country is facing a constitutional crisis of mammoth proportions. Perhaps the most serious test to our democracy since independence. It is a time for those who love our country to stand up and be counted. It is a time for all of us to look beyond partisan politics and defend what is right, defend justice, defend the rule of law.
What is at the heart of this crisis? Simply put, members and ex-members of the executive arm of government are being charged with criminal activity of the highest order. The accused include Joseph Muscat, a former prime minister; Edward Scicluna, the sitting governor of the Central Bank and former finance minister; Chris Fearne, the sitting deputy prime minister and former health minister; Alfred Camilleri, ex permanent secretary and chairperson of the Malta National Orchestra; John Rapa, ex permanent secretary; and Ronald Mizzi, permanent secretary.
Charges relate to their role in granting the hospital concession agreement, an agreement which has been slammed in successive court judgments and by the auditor general.
That this concession agreement was a murder most foul committed on our nation is today without doubt. All that remains to be proven is who committed that murder.
The persons listed above are among those indicted in carrying out this crime. Our justice system affords them the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. They will do so in a court of law like any other accused.
Robert Abela wants their fate to be decided in the upcoming European Parliament elections. He wants this trial to happen in the streets rather than in the courts. He wants to derail the wheels of justice by turning this criminal case into a political one.
This is an affront to the principles of democracy. It is a threat to rule of law.
I want to appeal to sitting MPs on the government’s side to stop Abela from taking our country down this route.
Labour MPs have a duty, a duty enshrined in their oath of office, to protect the constitution. Their oath is not to protect Muscat or any of the accused. The accused’s rights will be protected by the system that protects all accused. That system does not include the protection of the prime minister.
Robert Abela wants this trial to happen in the streets rather than in the courts- Mario de Marco
I appeal to Labour MPs to use their good sense and be on the side of righteousness. I had made the same appeal, many times, to Scicluna then minister of finance. On May 3, 2020, in a Talking Point entitled ‘Only himself to blame’, I wrote the following: “But this truth will not remain hidden. And Scicluna last week failed to grasp the last opportunity he had to be on the right side in this affair. When things go down, he will have only himself to blame.”
Is there not one Labour MP who is prepared to stand up and say enough is enough? Is it not enough to have a murder planned in the Office of the Prime Minister? Is not enough to have billions of our taxpayers’ money given to crooked companies with kickbacks distributed to the connected few? Is it not enough to have ministers set up secret financial structures to funnel ill-gotten gains?
Is it not enough to have our nation’s health infrastructure and service suffer because of corruption running into hundreds of millions of euros? Is it not enough to have two courts accuse the government of fraud? What more do you need to detach yourself from the people who allegedly committed these crimes? Are your eyes so tinted with partisan politics that you forgot your oath of office, your socialist principles and the common good?
Malta needs both political parties to unite and fight this web of organised crime. It needs both sides of the House to show that nothing and nobody will be allowed to harm the national interest.
It needs all of us, united and in one voice, to say that we will fight with all our might against those who steal from our nation’s wealth.
A magistrate, acting without fear or favour, has conducted an extensive investigation and delivered her judgement. Abela is trying to make her the villain of this story while protecting those who now stand accused.
The country does not need bogus villains. It does not need Don Quixote’s windmills. What we need is to show unity and maturity as we go through one of the most difficult periods of our nation.
The sitting government MPs and those who wield any form of power in the Labour Party have a role to play. They can follow Abela’s nefarious plan and try and derail justice or they can stand up and be counted.
Sooner, rather than later, we will all be judged. Just like Scicluna.
Mario de Marco is the Nationalist Party’s spokesperson on tourism.