Joseph Muscat lied to us, again. On December 27, 2019, he travelled to Dubai with his family on a three-day holiday, while his premiership was crumbling. It was not your average low-cost airline holiday.
The flights alone cost over €21,000. When Times of Malta reporter Jacob Borg asked Muscat about the extravagant expense, Muscat lied through his teeth – he had used his personal private funds, he claimed.
That Muscat lied is no surprise. This time, however, he was pinned down. He was forced to admit he lied. The €21,000 were paid for by a third party in Jordan in cash.
What is more shocking than Muscat’s serial lying was the commissioner for standards’ conclusion that the prime minister was not in breach of the code of ethics.
Hyzler concluded that it is just fine and dandy for a prime minister to lie to the nation he serves. Nothing wrong with that.
To add insult to injury, Muscat requested that details about the third party who paid for the flights and the real purpose of the visit be withheld from the public.
Why is Muscat so secretive? What is he hiding? If his trip was so benign and the profligate third party who funded his trip so well-meaning why is he so desperate to keep the information from his adoring public, the same public who voted him into office twice? Why is Muscat so desperate to hide the truth?
What is even more galling is that the commissioner for standards acceded to Muscat’s request to keep everything secret. The commissioner decided there was nothing wrong with the prime minister accepting thousands of euros from an unknown person, nothing wrong with the prime minister lying to the nation, and nothing wrong with withholding the information from the public, who still does not know why Muscat resigned.
President George Vella has refused to publish Muscat’s resignation letter. With George Vella we can now add another George – Hyzler this time – who shields the former prime minister from public scrutiny that should be the standard for EU member states – not Malta.
Why would anybody pay a prime minister thousands of euros? Hyzler thinks it’s not to get anything in return because Muscat was resigning anyway. Flawed argument.
Muscat’s resignation from his post has not removed him from positions of power – he continues to advise the current prime minister, continues to lobby for Steward Health Care to be awarded more taxpayers’ money to sustain the continuation of the corrupt Vitals deal, remains an MP and retains enormous control of his party.
Hyzler does not think it is payment for a service already rendered either. His rationale – he did not find any evidence that Muscat had any prior relationship with whoever funded his trip. Ludicrous.
We are expected to believe that somebody who had no prior relationship with Muscat decides to splash out thousands of euros for Muscat to enjoy a three-day break with his family in Dubai – out of the sheer goodness of his heart.
Muscat was not present at Hyzler’s appointment as Commissioner for Standards in November 2018. Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne attended instead. Fearne praised Hyzler and said that the government believes in transparency – and that his appointment as commissioner will increase accountability of MPs.
Two years later, the same commissioner for standards is used as a tool preventing transparency and condoning perjury.
This judgement distils the essence of our society- Kevin Cassar
This was the third case involving Muscat that Hyzler investigated. The first case involved Muscat and his wife chanting partisan slogans at a private party at the prime minister’s official residence in Girgenti.
The video of Muscat and his spouse bouncing and waving, champagne in hand, while chanting party anthems was hardly “behaviour of the highest order” as required by the code of ethics.
Could anybody imagine Lawrence Gonzi and his spouse behaving like this? But Hyzler felt that the prime minister’s behaviour was not improper. Arnold Cassola, who had requested the investigation, was incensed. Such rulings, he commented, would give “more leeway to arrogant politicians to continue abusing their positions”.
And “continue to abuse his position” Muscat did.
The subsequent investigation into Muscat was about Yorgen’s Fenech donation of expensive wine gifts.
Hyzler found that Muscat had indeed breached the code of ethics when he accepted the gifts. But that was missing the wood for the trees. The point was that Muscat was so close to Fenech that he invited him to his private birthday party knowing Fenech was under criminal investigation over his 17 Black ownership.
Muscat also knew that Fenech was being investigated in connection with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination. The denunciation by the commissioner did not go down well with Labour. Glenn Bedingfield was unleashed. And true to form, he lashed out at Hyzler, accusing him of conflict of interest.
Bedingfield had also attacked Hyzler after he rejected his frivolous call to investigate opposition MP Jason Azzopardi. The intimidation of Hyzler appears to have worked.
In his third investigation into Muscat, Hyzler concluded that Muscat had not breached the code of ethics despite lying blatantly. Muscat’s reply “none of your business” to the journalist, could have been phrased less arrogantly, according to the commissioner. Really?
This judgement distils the essence of our society. A prime minister who lies to the public, bullies journalists, hides the truth and gorges on obscene hospitality running into thousands of euros by an unknown third party while his country burns, is judged by the commissioner for standards in public life to have done nothing wrong, and is assisted by the same commissioner in hiding the facts.
So much for transparency, so much for accountability. If the commissioner for standards’ own standards are so low, why bother with a commissioner for standards at all. All it serves it to normalise perjury.
Kevin Cassar is consultant vascular surgeon and former PN candidate.