On September 22, Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri was finally arrested in connection with money laundering charges involving his auditor Brian Tonna. The latter, together with his colleague Karl Cini, was arrested too. Their assets and those of close family members and associates were frozen.
It had been over three years since allegations about the €100,000 kickback surfaced in a leaked FIAU report. The whole country was ablaze at news of the arrests.
Prime Minister Robert Abela was asked: “Don’t you think this action should have been taken at the time of the Panama papers?”
“I answer only for what happened under my administration” was the curt reply.
“Do you worry that decisions taken by Muscat with Schembri’s participation are tainted with corruption?”
Abela again: “I only answer since when I became prime minister”.
With no irony whatsoever he proclaimed: “Today nobody can criticise the institutions”. And went on to do precisely that. He criticised the magistrate who had concluded the report on Keith Schembri’s money laundering for taking too long. No shame.
Lawrence Cutajar’s feckless police force had buried the FIAU report. Attorney General Peter Grech had connived to protect Brian Tonna by advising against impounding Nexia BT’s servers.
The only reason there was an inquiry at all is Simon Busuttil, assisted by the courage of the hidden heroes who leaked the FIAU report.
Without them we would never have known – and Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini would still be fleecing us all.
How many more FIAU reports were drawn up and kept from the public? What else was investigated and not leaked? What other reports reached the police and are still hidden away?
Who else was protected by Muscat’s puppets?
What we are witnessing is not institutions that are working but state protection of a criminal gang at the highest levels of power.
“This is the country I believe in,” Abela proclaimed imperiously – a country that allows crooks to enjoy the proceeds of crime, that allows corrupt politicians to defraud their country and dupe the electorate, that persecutes truth seekers and protects criminals, that requires private citizens to request inquiries to expose the truth that the police force and the attorney general desperately concealed, a country where an amorphous appendage of Muscat’s parliamentary group becomes prime minister with Muscat’s direct and Schembri’s indirect support and then spends his time denying the rot that ate his predecessor away.
Simon Busuttil is owed an apology- Kevin Cassar
A country with a prime minister who shows no regret at the failure of the institutions to act against crime, who expresses no shock or anger at Keith Schembri’s iniquity ‒ a prime minister who flatly rejects the existence of the problems he is tasked to address, and his own part in creating them.
The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that there is one. Sadly, our prime minster is yet to make that first step.
Simon Busuttil is owed an apology.
First from Robert Abela who, despite his insistence that he only answers for his own administration, is leader of the Labour Party and responsible for its media organisation. That same Labour Party under the direction of Muscat waged a brutal campaign of humiliation and ridicule against Busuttil.
Abela is still responsible for his own MP Joseph Muscat, who continues to soil our parliament with his presence. He is the prime minister who is faced with the impossible task of reversing the damage his predecessor inflicted on the country.
Busuttil is owed an apology by the whole of Muscat’s cabinet, many of whom are Abela’s cabinet now.
He is owed an apology by the whole Labour Party parliamentary group. They participated actively in the mud- slinging and jeering of Busuttil. They backed Muscat and Schembri all along as they taunted and derided Busuttil.
Busuttil is owed an apology by Adrian Delia, who willingly abetted Muscat’s attempts to destroy Busuttil. Delia pounced on the dishonestly redacted conclusions of the Egrant report to ostracise Busuttil and stab him in the back for his own political expediency.
The whole country is owed an apology from Abela.
He continued to act as consultant to the mastermind Muscat, sat as an MP defending those who deceived and betrayed the country, silently drained over €630,000 in taxpayers’ money from his plum Planning Authority, Transport Malta and Dairy Restructural Aid Animal Housing Scheme contracts and direct orders, almost doubled his personal bank balance from €247,135 in 2018 to €534,000 in 2020, and who now absolves himself and will answer only for what happened since January.
Abela was there all along, attending Muscat’s cabinet meetings, advising him and providing his parliamentary support for the country to be swindled. He was and remains part of the shameless organisation that tormented and hounded Busuttil, who against all odds pursued truth and justice.
And now Abela continues to deny the ravages inflicted on his country.
No wonder Abela’s credibility ratings lag so far behind those of his deputy Chris Fearne, the man Schembri worked so hard to destroy.
How they laughed, mocked and ridiculed when Busuttil cried “Barra, barra, barra” (out, out, out) in reference to Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.
Nobody is laughing now.
Busuttil deserves respect and admiration for his courage and determination in the face of a relentless state-sponsored onslaught of derision and disparagement.
As Schembri, Mizzi and Muscat sink further into the quicksand of disgrace, the country celebrates a small victory of truth over falsehood. Busuttil’s victory is Malta’s victory. As the country slowly awakens to reality, there is hope for us yet.
Kevin Cassar is professor of surgery and former PN candidate.