Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1395902
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 JULY 2021 OPINION As Grech knows only too well – because the FIAU director warned him, and all Parlia- ment, about it last week – there is also the question of remov- ing a Constitutional loophole that permits money-launder- ers and tax-evaders (and other criminals, too) to fall through cracks in the system. And yet, oddly enough… when Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis presented a bill (requiring a two-thirds major- ity, please note) to amend the Constitution, and remove this loophole once and for all… who voted against it, if not the party representing the 'Light Side of the Force'? To be fair, I'm not saying the Opposition didn't have its own good reasons for wanting to de- feat that bill in parliament (not least because – for a change – it actually could). Some of its 'red lines' – especially insofar as ordinary citizens rights are concerned – are certainly valid; and in any case, Zammit's bill could have been a lot bet- ter-worded, too. Nonetheless, the PN knows full well that this Constitution- al change has to happen one day, if its own electoral prom- ise is ever to materialise. And – for the first time since 2013 – it also has the power to block it in Parliament, whensoever it likes. From this point on, it be- comes slightly easier to pre- dict what Grech's 'grand stra- tegic plan' might actually boil down to, in the end. His party will sabotage every attempt by government to ever meet the FATF's conditions… until it gets into government itself: by which time of course, there will be nothing left for the FATF to even grey-list us for, because… Well, that brings us to the second (far likelier, in my view) interpretation. Because Ber- nard Grech really does believe the only reason we were put on that list to begin with, was as 'punishment' for having elected a Labour government in 2017. So even just the simple fact that – in this other galaxy, an- yway – the PN will back be in power again: that, on its own, should be enough. After all, the 'good guys' would have won; the 'dark side of the Force' will have been defeated; and – just like in fantasy universes - we will all live happily ever after, THE END.