A lot can happen in a week. Rich men can become paupers, heroes can turn to villains and Simon Busuttil can go to the European Parliament, a place where his statesmanship has always been far more appreciated than it has been here.
In Malta, we’re still all about magic tricks and pulling rabbits and €50 tax refund cheques out of hats, and Busuttil was always a more discreet Birkin to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s ’80s Fendi logo print. I’m happy for Busuttil: he will get better chocolate, crunchier chips and people who appreciate others trying to do the right thing instead of demonising them for it.
This week has also seen a complete reshuffle in cabinet, something which I, for one, am grateful for. After Neville Gafà’s fiery red Kontinwità post and his appearance at Robert Abela’s inauguration, I feared the worst. I’m still not sure what taxpayers have been paying him for apart from photo opportunities with Keith Schembri and dubious trips to Libya. Whatever he was up to, I’m glad that, at the very least, we will no longer be footing the bill for it. I’m not sure about a few choices made for the cabinet, but change is afoot and happily many of the old guard will not be part of it. However, there is something about this slinking quietly off into the background of these formerly hot bags of air which is not sitting well with me.
Schembri’s phone, which went online earlier this week, has still to have any information extracted from its cloud
You see, for months pressure could be kept up to finally uncover the whole sordid story behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination merely because many of the suspected collaborators have been prancing around Castille like extras from a West End production. But now, as each of them gets a new job out of the public eye or falls radio- silent, there is a growing fear that this case, which has already hit so many speed bumps and stumbling blocks, will become more and more convoluted and that the more time is allowed to pass, the harder it will be to unravel the truth.
In my simple mind, there appears to be ample proof to arrest or, at the very least, question several people. Almost three weeks into 2020, it’s looking like a game of pin the tail on the donkey where the fallout guy has already been identified.
Just this week, after days of keyboard warriors calling Yorgen Fenech a fantasist, an incredulous court was told that Inspector Arnaud was basically asked to investigate himself. Schembri’s phone, which miraculously went offline around an hour and a half before his arrest and which went online earlier this week has still to have any information extracted from its cloud and, despite rumours to the contrary, Maltese investigators still haven’t accepted the FBI’s offer to help in the investigation because apparently we are doing a brilliant job all by ourselves.
In this paragraph alone, there is much to chew on and Prime Minister Robert Abela’s vow that the flowers and photos at the makeshift memorial will no longer be disposed of in the dead of night are doing little to quell the fear that some people might literally be allowed to get away with murder.
Mr Prime Minister, if you really want to impress us, please make sure that justice truly is served.