Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1311619
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Lawrence Cutajar resigns from police commissioner Justyne Caruana resigns from Cabinet after revelations that her husband Silvio Valletta, a former deputy police chief, travelled abroad to watch a football match with Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech Peter Grech resigns from Attorney General Adrian Delia (right) loses PN leadership contest to Bernard Grech (pictured left) in a contest unleashed by alleged WhatsApp chats with Fenech 17 January 2020 20 January 2020 15 August 2020 3 October 2020 choices in a forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle that comes in the wake of speculation on WhatsApp chats linking key members and Yorgen Fenech. Ironically, the dismal track record of his predecessor on governance issues has pro- vided Abela an opportunity to shine. While revelations involving characters like Mizzi, Schembri, Valletta and Cutajar were a stark reminder of the murky state of affairs under the Muscat administration, the instant resignations of those implicated (and even that of a spouse who had to bear responsibility for her husband's actions), provided Abela an opportunity to raise the bar on ministerial ethics, which had sunk so low ever since Muscat retained Mizzi as minister and Schembri as his chief of staff. Surely one may argue that Abela does not deserve much credit for restoring a sense of decency in the country. But by betray- ing the expectations of continuity, Abela has managed to positively surprise critics even by simply doing what is expected of him. Rather than raising expectations on- ly to disappoint upon being elected, Abela intelligently lowered expectations before being elected, in a way, which makes his present actions more noteworthy. The risk for Abela now is that by acting decisively, he may have raised the bar too high for himself to consistently apply it. He has surely raised expectations of full closure on both the Caruana Galizia assas- sination and Panamagate, which he may find hard to satisfy without fatally under- mining his predecessor's legacy and place in history, something which may be unac- ceptable for Muscat loyalists. That also ex- plains why a year after the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, Abela has remained hesitant on expressing a political judgement on the at- tempt at state capture which characterised the Muscat era. Instead Abela continues to placate these elements by resorting to partisan attacks on critics thus showing no will to defuse the kind of partisanship which clouded the judgement of Labour activists and support- ers who had previously absolved Schembri and Mizzi from any wrong doing. No second republic on Abela's horizon Abela has been lukewarm on reforming the political system. While progress has been made in implementing the Venice Commission report and limiting the pow- ers of the Prime Minister in strategic ap- pointments, he showed little enthusiasm for more substantial reforms leading to the establishment of a 'second republic' once dreamed of by his predecessor. Neither has Abela shown great enthusi- asm to address the structural roots of cor- ruption through more checks and balances and stricter rules on the financing of po- litical parties, including their TV stations. Abela has reiterated his opposition to the state financing of political parties and has refrained from increasing MPs' salaries, a pre-condition for a full-time parliament. Apart from a personal initiative by En- vironment Minister Aaron Farrugia to start logging his meetings with lobbyists, a new code of ethics proposed by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler, which fore- sees the creation of a registry for lobbyists still has to be enacted. Abela has also shown little enthusiasm to break away from the pro-business man- tra and the compromises he continues to make with powerful lobbies like the con- struction industry and the hunting com- munity. Even in tackling the COVID-19 crisis, Abela was conditioned by business lobbies in giving the country a false sense of security in a rush to return the country to "normality". Missing links While Abela has taken decisive steps in establishing a sense of political decency and accountability for all those suspicious- ly linked to Yorgen Fenech and the Pana- ma scandals, the police still have to estab- lish whether high officials in the Muscat administration have been involved in ob- struction of justice in the assassination of Caruana Galizia. Neither has the police thrown any light on the alleged frame-up of former minis- ter Chris Cardona by Keith Schembri. One notable missing link remains the identifi- cation and arrest of those who made the bomb which killed Daphne Caruana Gal- izia, a trail which could throw a light on other unresolved crimes. Despite the lack of progress on several frontsm the police interrogation of Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini indicates that under new police commissioner Angelo Gafà the police is less conditioned by the kind of political considerations which fa- cilitated the culture of impunity character- izing previous administrations. Creating the political environment for the police to carry out its work without fear and favour may well be Robert Abela's greatest legacy. proposed commissioner, through Appointments General separated proposed in Standards