Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1196490
27 OPINION which was given on another occasion (a few months after Muscat made that speech, as it happens). Also like Tonio Fenech, Muscat did not deny having accepted the items; instead, he argued that there had been no breach of the ministerial code of ethics (the same code he had just accused Fenech of breach- ing, in the case of a much less expensive gift). To give his reaction its full due: Joseph Muscat also claimed he was the victim of a 'smear campaign', in the sense that "partial, deeply manipulat- ed information being selectively leaked to parts of the media by someone who is directing the accused in a hideous assassina- tion case to obviously try to build a narrative that is both misleading and self-serving." Either way, the prime min- ister has yet to explain the precise situation surrounding his apparent acceptance of at least two luxury presents. And given how much he himself had capitalised on a remarkably similar set of circumstances in the past… well, he can hardly blame his political opponents from using the same line of at- tack today, can he? (Ironically, that is part of the reason why such things as 'ministerial codes of conduct' exist in the first place: i.e., to avoid situations where prime ministers can be 'threatened with smear campaigns'…) Still, the benefit of the doubt must be given, as always: albeit with a much smaller margin than usual. It now falls to the Standards Commissioner to determine whether, in fact, there had been any breach of the code of ethics; even though – just as Muscat himself had argued, in the case of Tonio Fenech – that is all just a largely mathematical exercise, at this stage. The whole point is not what the code says, specifically, line by line. It is the purpose that it serves: in this case, to prevent politicians from creating a sense of moral or material obligation to third parties… which is important at the best of times; but all the more so, when those third parties also happen to be major investors who regularly bid for public contracts. For there is more than just a superficial resemblance between these two 'forbidden clock' scenarios: like Yorgen Fenech, George Farrugia was also a successful tenderer in the energy sector; and then as now, government was rocked by a corruption scandal in broadly the same sector – both involving the building or refurbishment of a power station, and the supply of its fuel (not to mention that there were controversial Presidential pardons given out on both oc- casions, too.) Having said that, there are also other differences apart from the value of the gifts themselves. The repercussions in Tonio Fenech's time were almost exclusively suffered by his own government: which collapsed in disgrace a few months after the oil scandal broke out. The long-term consequences of today's revelations have yet to be fully calculated; but at least one of the protagonists is already separately charged with murder; and the case itself implicitly tied in with a company of his, separately under investigation for corrupt practices and graft. And to cap it all, this was precisely what Joseph Muscat himself had only just prom- ised to address, with his 'time to clean up Maltese politics' declaration: the clearly sym- biotic relationship that exists between the seat of Maltese political power, and the seat of all Malta's Big Money. But oh look: seven years later it's not only all still there; but the gifts have become four times as expensive to boot… Well, this only brings me back to precisely how unfair the English language really is, at the end of the day. For if there's one thing you certainly cannot ever accuse a weasel of doing… it's not cleaning up his own mess behind him. We all saw it in the video: did that specimen of much-ma- ligned Mustela erminea leave bits and pieces of dismem- bered rat lying about all over the roadside? No! It dragged the entire carcass over a rubble wall, and safely out of sight into the bushes… leaving not so much as a drop of blood behind, to show that anything had ever even happened there at all. And all in less than one min- ute, too. Now that's the way you do it. Like a true boss. Like a real weasel… maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 DECEMBER 2019 The prime minister has yet to explain the precise situation surrounding his apparent acceptance of at least two luxury presents. And given how much he himself had capitalised on a remarkably similar set of circumstances in the past… well, he can hardly blame his political opponents from using the same line of attack today, can he?