The conclusions of the inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia did not surprise those who had followed the reporting on the evidence given to the inquiring team of judges. The headline conclusion is that the cabinet members of 2013 and 2017, led by former prime minister Joseph Muscat, are “collectively responsible” for their inaction, which, in turn, led to the journalist’s assassination.
As the local political debate rages, there is an urgent need to address the further damage caused to Malta’s reputation in international fora.
Some international institutions and investors already consider Malta a pariah state that has little respect for the rule of law and lacks sound public governance. The inquiry report has added another layer of untrustworthiness only a few weeks after the country was greylisted for its shortcomings in the fight against international financial crime.
Politicians and organisations seem to agree on the need for change to pull the country out of the moral quagmire in which it was engulfed when Muscat was prime minister.
Some have signalled good intentions but other comments were no more than shameful political rhetoric.
The great danger now is that there will be no accountability, that the culprits for this moral collapse will be allowed to reinvent themselves in the political field or public life.
That would greatly damage the credibility of the reforms professed by Prime Minister Robert Abela in the eyes of the international community. The gap between political rhetoric and reality poses the biggest threat to the restoration of Malta’s reputation.
Muscat was ultimately responsible for the failures of the government identified in the inquiry report and says he accepts the conclusions. Yet, he argues that he has already “paid the ultimate political price” for the collapse of good governance. No sense of real accountability there.
Likewise, while Abela made a public apology for the previous administration’s shortcomings on behalf of his government, he argues that “the way the Maltese state functions is unrecognisable from January 2020”.
This indicates he is happy with having people in his cabinet who have been held collectively responsible for their inaction in preventing the murder of a journalist.
The Caruana Galizia family hasacknowledged Abela’s apology. But they rightly insist they expect accountability from every person identified as culpable in the inquiry report.
It is difficult to understand why they still feel they are entitled to the people’s trust, especially when one minister was quoted in the inquiry report as having observed there was “a law for the Gods and another for animals” when the revelations about the Panama Papers became public.
Local and international observers will judge the government on what it does rather than what it says. They will want to see evidence of the action taken to hold accountable those responsible for the collapse of good governance.
They will also look for evidence of a credible action plan to dismantle the informal network of perverse relationships between politicians and their corrupt business cronies.
Closing the rhetoric-reality gap is now a top priority. There is no time to waste. The country needs a credible action plan to regain the trust of international institutions and investors, who hold the key to our economic prospects.
The prime minister and his cabinet must commit themselves, beyond rhetoric, to addressing the structural governance weaknesses identified in the inquiry report.