Does the arrest of tycoon Yorgen Fenech (quite naturally, innocent until proven guilty) prove that in Malta the laws that govern the beasts (or common people like you and me) are the same laws that regulate the gods?

The gods include the big-monied bullies, the well-connected individuals, the friends of friends and the corrupt politicians.

Does the arrest of Fenech (at the time of writing on police bail) prove the current mantra that our institutions are working well as they treat all citizens equally and fairly?

It is not necessarily so, say I.

When the Panama Papers scandal and the role of minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri in that scandal became public, minister Evarist Bartolo clearly said that Mizzi should resign. He added that he surely would not have opened a company in Panama and had he done so he would have resigned.

Bartolo then referred to a Roman saying that there is a law for the gods and a law for the animals. We cannot afford to let this happen, said the minister.

But it happened, and with the support of Bartolo to boot. Schembri is comfortably welded to his seat of power.

He helped me beat the Nationalists, the Prime Minister said, how can I dismiss him?

Mizzi did some temporary minor juggling and bounced back on top. They are the gods over here, we all know.

Bribes of €20 and €2m: which one gets jail?

Muscat did not budge even when more of the proverbial material hit the fan. It transpired that Tumas Group and Electrogas supremo, Yorgen Fenech, had set up a company in Dubai which according to the infamous Nexia BT firm of accountants was to pass on to the companies of Mizzi and Schembri €2 million, equivalent to €5,000 a day!

Mizzi feigned that he knew nothing of this deal, as if the e-mail by Nexia BT was either just an April fool prank by naughty adolescents or a plot to embarrass him.

Schembri tried to brush the matter aside, describing it as just a tentative business plan for 17 Black. He has such an ironclad case that he did not want anyone to ask him anything about it in open court.

The police just closed their eyes, ears and mouths, preferring to leave FIAU reports gather dust on proverbial shelves than investigating them.

But beasts are treated differently than gods. A poor Albanian immigrant who offered a €20 bribe (not €2 million) to a Customs officer was sentenced to six months in prison.

Yeah. Our institutions work perfectly well! Fuq ir-rubini (like clockwork) as we say in Maltese.

The well-connected

It seems that former prime minister Alfred Sant is also upset that the gods are trouncing the beasts.

He recently tweeted of the existence of a perception of double standards when enforcement is concerned.

 “The perception is growing,” tweeted Sant, “that regulations get enforced most when ‘normal’ people are involved.”

Current positive developments do not absolve the instances when politicians failed to do their duty and shoulder political responsibility

Then he continued: “When the rich, the well-connected and the powerful are concerned, enforcement goes slack.”

As if this was not enough, Sant added an image of euro notes and coins clearly implying that ‘money talks’.

This tweet was the second outburst by Sant after the Qala scandal. In a Facebook post he wrote that “Many people are getting the impression (and I am one of them) that not all is going well when building permits and developments are concerned.”

Your mole, their mountain

There a consistent nefarious logic behind the reasoning of our so-called well-oiled and well-functioning institutions: stick for the beasts; carrots for the gods. Let me give one example. The Birkirkara local council – like other local councils – have put up posters telling the beasts that if they dirty the place they can be fined up to €2,330. They would also have to clean up the place!

And if you want another example of the authorities’ stern discipline with ‘beasts’, note that 117 were fined €150 for taking litter out on the wrong day! Serves them right!

Consider now how the authorities deal with gods.

At 9pm on Friday, November 16, 2018, together with a fellow journalist at Newsbook.com.mt, I was at Ta’ Qali. Sources told us that one of Malta’s largest contractors would be, once more, sending heavy vehicles to dump tons of construction waste close to an abandoned factory. Four such vehicles drove past us in the dead of night.

They were followed by a pick-up driven by one of the company’s foreman and more trucks from a different direction.

Over the months a very large open space was buried under tons of rubble. We estimated 10,400 square metres of debris have been dumped.

We saw a police car stop one of the heavy vehicles. The police spoke to the driver who then phoned his employees. The operation was abandoned.

The police denied that there was a police car and that a truck was stopped and the driver quizzed.

This was a shocking denial. My colleague and I saw the car. We were later even privy to the conversation between the police office and the truck drives. How could the police deny all this?

Not only did they deny all this but they failed to investigate all the details we gave. Why did this happen?

Worse still, the massive illegal dump will be cleared at our expense and not at the expense of the contractors who dumped all those tons of construction waste.

Once more, this is a case where the stick is applied to the beasts while the gods go scot free.

Beasts deserve better

All the above can be considered by some as insignificant when compared with the developments in the case of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. In some respects it is so; but in others it is not.

Well done if the institutions (in this case the police) do their duty scrupulously and solve the case. But this does not absolve the several other occasions when the police and other institutions miserably failed to pull their weight. These instances should not be forgotten. It is our right that the institutions fulfil their duties always and without fear or favour.

Current positive developments do not absolve the instances when politicians failed to do their duty and shoulder political responsibility.

Had all institutions, including the political authorities, always treated gods and beasts equally, Daphne would probably still be alive. Had this been the case, several gods would have been dethroned while beasts would be living today in a country worth living in and striving for.