Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1354201
2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MARCH 2021 Schembri in the dock Editorial KEITH Schembri was yesterday charged in a raft of accusations that include corruption and money laundering. He was not in the dock because he was a Borm- la boy done-good-for-himself; or because he was such a central part of the Muscat administration; or because the "establishment" was hunting him down, supposedly to make him an example for the Moneyval adjudicators that are yet to pass judge- ment on Malta's greylisting (a situation to which the Muscat administration contributed no end in the first place). Schembri has been the establish- ment for the past decade, a businessman in his own right with a keen eye for tax avoidance, for drawing friends-of-friends into his business net- work, and for turning the seat of Maltese politi- cal power into his personal fiefdom. It is this kind of establishment that employs a total control of political life and the instrumentalization of weak governance structures for their personal gain, that hollowed out the Muscat administration of the good will it manipulated in its quest for power. Whether or not the accusations that were yes- terday read out to him in court will subsist, is a matter left to the prosecution; he may be inno- cent before proven guilty, but his central role in a string of scandals, the Panama Papers, his con- nection to 17 Black which he had dared deny, his ties to Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination, as well as his re- ported efforts in allaying the fears of assassination middleman Melvin Theuma before his arrest, have long consigned Keith Schembri to the dustbin of Maltese political history. But Schembri persists in instrumentalising that very dedicated following of loyalists who treat him as a party stalwart or, as he himself fashions it, a victim of the 'establishment', a buzzword em- ployed by the Labour administration and which now risks becoming Schembri's own keyword. Yesterday marked an important stage in Maltese political life. The charges themselves are a sign of a functioning police force. The Abela administra- tion has been clear-cut on restoring national cred- ibility in an area where the previous administra- tion seems to have wantonly taken Malta to the brink. Yet Labour keeps paying the price of being associated with people like Keith Schembri, which the party has never disowned; much as it will never disown Joseph Muscat for the political crisis that befell the nation when Yorgen Fenech was arrest- ed on suspicion of being the mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination. But the names of Keith Schembri, and more recently former Labour minister Chris Cardona, never seem to be too far away from this assassination. How long until this country will have to make amends with the politi- cal machinations that enabled the assassination of a journalist? Without an internal process that clearly re-eval- uates the legacy of both Muscat and Schembri, the average Labour voter will regard these people as heroes and victims, rather than persons who have a lot to answer for, in terms of both political judge- ment and possibly direct or indirect involvement in the scandals which rocked his administration. When the Enemalta-Montenegro scandal was linked to Yorgen Fenech's 17 Black, the same com- pany identified as a target client of the Panama companies, Robert Abela rose to the occasion by calling on the party's national executive to remove Konrad Mizzi from Labour MP. Already then, that was an action that could have inspired an inter- nal process leading to a re-evaluation of the legacy left by Muscat in office. It is clear that even today, there is a need for an internal party inquiry that gives Labour clear recommendations, similar to those held after election defeats, on the scandals its administration has presided over. The politically astute Schembri, as evidenced in the lengthy Facebook post in which he attempt- ed to once again influence the news cycle, knew then that by painting himself as a child of Labour hunted down for his public service or political be- liefs, stands a chance of being seen as a victim. He knows that without meaningful political change, especially inside Labour but also in government, he can foment some form of pressure on those who are trying to close the circle around him. It is the same tactic he used in a court testimony last year in which he dismissed the circumstantial evi- dence linking him to a plot to kill Caruana Galizia, by using it to delegitamise critics and journalists… always politically effective enough to rally Labour supporters to his side and muddle public opinion. Still, even Labour voters should note that while the government is obliged to respect the presump- tion of innocence, including Schembri's, Robert Abela's administration should be sending out a strong message of political atonement. The nor- mal functioning of the police force and justice on the Caruana Galizia assassination and so many scandals that plagued the Labour administration, are indeed the first steps. Only then will Abela prove he does not owe any- thing to his predecessor. 20 March 2011 'PN has right policies, leader to win next election' PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier has de- fended his party's stand against divorce, saying his party would still welcome candidates that did not agree with its position. "It's a party of Christian values, but secular, enjoys unity in its diversity, and it is dedicated to the strengthening of the family… we cannot separate these values but it doesn't mean that who isn't in line with the party's mainstream thinking gets excluded." Borg Olivier said he was convinced the PN still had the right policies and leader to win the next general elections, speaking on Radju Mal- ta's Ghandi Xi Nghid. On Wednesday, two Nationalist MPs – Jes- mond Mugliett and divorce bill promoter Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando – voted in favour of a Labour motion to hold a referendum on 28 May asking voters if they agreed with the in- troduction of divorce for spouses separated for four years. Borg Olivier told presenter Andrew Azzopar- di that it was incorrect to state that the govern- ment had 'lost' the vote. "We didn't really lose the vote… when you give a free vote you cannot say that the party has lost the vote. It's not a vote directed by the party whip, there is no defiance of the party line." Azzopardi pressed him on whether Pullicino Orlando's private members' bill had already been in defiance of the party. "Yes, nobody in the party could accept the way that was done… waking up in the morning – despite his right as MP to do so – to present a private bill, was impulsive. It was not a move that tallied with the collegiality the party expected," Borg Oliv- ier said. The secretary-general defended his party's consistency on holding a referendum, saying it was the Opposition leader that had ruled out a referendum on divorce. "It appears he did not have enough MPs to pass the divorce bill… I think it was the PN that was consistent in the way it handled the matter, even in respect of Pullicino Orlando himself." Borg Olivier said Pullicino Orlando should have presented his idea to the party's executive committee before going ahead with the bill. ... Quote of the Week "A lazy and ultimately ineffective workaround to Malta's abysmal trial court system." On Bill 198, amending the Interpretation Act, being debated in Parliament and which, if passed, will allow administrative fines issued by a regulatory entity to be interpreted as a criminal punishment MaltaToday 10 years ago