Simon Busuttil has slammed Education Minister Evarist Bartolo for having drawn comparisons between Keith Schembri and Richard Cachia Caruana, chief of staff of Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami who was stabbed 25 years ago this Wednesday.
In an early morning Facebook post on Sunday, Mr Bartolo said two of Malta’s last three prime ministers had a chief of staff who was too powerful, akin to a chief of government. He insisted that there could only by one prime minister at the Auberge de Castille, the one elected democratically. No one else should be allowed to weave a network of power in various sectors which ended up stronger than the national institutions.
“To try to compare Richard Cachia Caruana to a criminal such as Keith Schembri (Joseph Muscat’s former chief of staff) is totally unacceptable,” Dr Busuttil wrote on Facebook.
“While Richard Cachia Caruana will go down in history as one of the public officers who best served the country, Keith Schembri will be remembered as a criminal who served himself of the country.”
He recalled that Mr Cachia Caruana, together with Dr Fenech Adami had transformed the country from the third world state it was in 1987.
With Foreign Minister Joe Borg, he negotiated the best possible EU accession package, and the Labour government was still using the funds he negotiated for Malta. In all, Mr Cachia Caruana negotiated 2.5 billion euro in EU funds for Malta.
Yet Mr Cachia Caruana was made to pay a bitter price, with a fierce campaign against him by the Labour Party which did not cease until he was removed from his post as envoy to the EU.
“The biggest difference between Richard Cachia Caruana and Keith Schembri is this: While Keith Schembri had a hidden hand in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Richard was himself the victim of an attempted assassination,” Dr Busuttil said.
It was true that Richard Cachia Caruana had a strong character. He was demanding and difficult to work with. But he had served the country with dignity and success, rather than having served himself of the country. To compare him to Mr Schembri was not only an insult to Mr Cachia Caruana, but to all those who held dear truth and justice, Dr Busuttil said.
Dr Busuttil said he longed for the day when at least one Labour MP would apologise to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family and the Maltese people for the predicament the country had been reduced to.
The country needed unity, but unity had to be built on truth and justice.