Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531391
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 JANUARY 2025 NEWS Busuttil and David Casa are hopeful but wary www.vbf.mt bour administration, stating that its sole intention in gaining pow- er was to carry out "extreme cor- ruption." "Look at what they managed to do in just three years," he said. "After just three years in power, top government officials have been charged with – passports, 17 Black, Vitals, and the Allied Newspaper printing press." He added: "Their sole intention was to commit corruption, and it led to the assassination of a jour- nalist." Abela's way forward: continuity or responsibility? With government critics call- ing for political responsibility to be shouldered by the current administration over the 17 Black findings, MaltaToday asked what shape and form should ac- countability take. Busuttil said there is clear "con- tinuity" from Muscat to Abela. "Abela defends Muscat to the hilt. Just last year, he led a cru- sade against Magistrate Gabri- ella Vella. That is his continuity. If he does not want to be held responsible, he should disassoci- ate," Busuttil said. He said Labour has to carry out a soul-searching exercise on how it ran the government over the past decade. "Let's remem- ber this is the same government which the public inquiry found responsible for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia." Busuttil, who led the PN to its defeat in the 2017 general election, said it does not matter whether he felt cheated out of a win or not. "It is in the past. People can now see, clearer than ever, that I was competing against a crimi- nal organisation," he said. Casa continued in Busuttil's vein, stating that the Opposi- tion and government critics "are confronting systemic cor- ruption at the very core of the Labour Party and this govern- ment." "We shouldn't have to rely on the bravery of Jason Az- zopardi, Simon Busuttil, Repub- blika and the Nationalist Party to go above and beyond to bat- tle the criminality that hijacked this country. A functioning de- mocracy has institutions that do precisely that. They don't. And that is by design because the rot is at the very core of this gov- ernment," he said. Reforming magisterial inquiry system In recent weeks, Prime Minis- ter Robert Abela has repeatedly called for reform of the magiste- rial inquiry system, arguing that it is being abused for political retribution. Matthew Caruana Galizia slammed the poor timing of such statements, saying people are now being made aware of "their [the Labour government's] cor- ruption through such inquiries." Instead of complaining about why and how these inquiries are initiated, Abela should re- form the "long time it takes for such inquiries to be concluded", Caruana Galizia said. Matthew Caruana Galizia