I wasn’t in the courtroom when Joseph Muscat asked the prosecution to remember it was talking to a former prime minister. I’d like to reassure Joseph I remember he was prime minister so well.
We all do. It’s because we remember Muscat was prime minister that we understand why he’s in court. It was on his watch that the state was captured by bandits, whose crimes and maladministration have been indicated by multiple investigations.
We just wish he could remember enough to explain how it could happen. Although he remembers he was prime minister, he’s been forgetful about so much else.
His amnesia often concerns Yorgen Fenech, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. Muscat is a polymath who’s consulted on anything from exotic birds to football excellence. He says he jets around the world every few weeks to give advice. But ask about Fenech, Mizzi or Schembri and he’ll say he honestly can’t remember or still can’t understand.
Back when the news was first dominated by the allegations swirling around Fenech, Muscat was asked about the last time he’d spoken to him. Muscat furrowed his brow. Honestly, he couldn’t remember: “A year, maybe two.”
Actually, it was no more than a few months. Fenech had been invited to Muscat’s birthday party. The forgetfulness is surprising. According to Muscat himself, he only invited Fenech in order to follow the advice of the police and not arouse Fenech’s suspicions that he was being investigated.
Fancy inviting someone to your birthday party when you’d rather he didn’t come. Fancy receiving sumptuous gifts from a man whom you know is a police prime suspect. Fancy forgetting it all some months later.
Muscat also honestly forgot he had been in a WhatsApp chat group of three with Fenech and Schembri. Ah, Schembri. In 2021, Herman Grech asked Muscat when he had asked Schembri about the ownership of 17 Black, Fenech’s secret company, which was revealed to be committed to pay €5,000 per day to the Panama companies of Schembri and Mizzi.
Muscat can’t honestly remember: “Initially not. I had no idea. […] And it’s not even clear in my own mind, to be honest. But it wasn’t at the start – I still couldn’t even understand the matter.”
“The start” here could be February 2017, when Daphne Caruana Galizia revealed the company, though not the owner. Or it could be November 2018, when Reuters and the Times of Malta revealed Fenech owned it.
Fancy not remembering just when you first asked questions about a matter that could rock your government. Everyone else did.
One of the Electrogas partners, Paul Apap Bologna, remembered the board asking questions. Brian Tonna, whose firm, Nexia BT, had opened the Panama companies for Schembri and Mizzi, remembers telling Schembri that he was disgusted.
Disgust? That shows Tonna reached the obvious conclusion. Muscat’s communications chief, Kurt Farrugia, was clearly hoping it didn’t mean what it seemed. But he was disturbed. He told the Caruana Galizia inquiry that he went to Muscat to ask whether Fenech really owned 17 Black.
Imagine this: a very senior aide comes to you clearly thinking your chief of staff has got you into a boiling cauldron of trouble. How would you react? Muscat shrugged: “Ask Schembri.”
Perhaps it’s difficult to remember what you never paid attention to. Maybe deep down Muscat is really like Maurice Chevalier in Gigi (1958), singing gloriously about the first time he met his paramour while forgetting what she had worn, the weather and even the country they had been in.
But if Muscat was never paying attention, he must have been sleeping on the job. He forgot he was prime minister and the chief watchman.
Muscat’s amnesia becomes astounding when the subject is Mizzi. Muscat has berated former members of his cabinet for not knowing about the scandalous €100 million side deal that Mizzi signed with Steward in the summer of 2019. Before the cameras, Muscat has smiled indulgently at his ministers’ forgetfulness.
And yet, barely 18 months after Mizzi signed off on that agreement, Muscat was testifying in court about it. The court sentence quotes him saying he couldn’t remember anything about the €100 million figure. Under oath, he couldn’t remember.
Is it Mizzi who triggers amnesia or speaking under oath? Testifying before the Public Accounts Committee, Muscat said he found out about Mizzi’s Panama company when the news broke.
Turns out he was being forgetful but not for the first time. In late April 2016, Muscat asked Mizzi to resign as Labour deputy leader (only two months after being elected to the position). Why were Mizzi’s wings trimmed? Muscat told the cameras that he had obviously been disappointed with the misjudgement concerning the Panama company.
Amnesia again. Just two months earlier, when Daphne Caruana Galizia broke the news, Muscat was assuring us that Mizzi’s company was not “secret”; he, Muscat, had seen Mizzi’s draft parliamentary declaration at the beginning of February and it was fine by him.
In April, Muscat is disappointed at the news. Yet weeks earlier he was Mizzi’s main character witness, backing him before the media and pushing him to be Labour deputy leader in a one-horse race. Terrible thing, amnesia.
Hopefully, this stroll down memory lane will reassure Muscat that we do remember we’re talking about a former prime minister and the hallowed office he filled. We just wish he had remembered he was prime minister at the time.