Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/181770
18 Opinion maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2013 Saviour Balzan I This is the story dread to think what it's going to be like in five years time, when another election will loom over us. The temperature is still too high for anyone's liking, and the friction and mistrust between the two political parties is growing, not dissipating. PN leader Simon Busuttil is under immense pressure to show some muscle, but he may be sprinting before the starting pistol has been fired. He has asked for the Commissioner of Police to resign… when he knows that this will never happen. In my early days in journalism, I would write editorials asking for everyone to resign. Later, I only rejoiced when someone resigned after we revealed their missteps. Busuttil should go slow with his resignation psalm. It is a little bit early in the day to ask for the Police Commissioner to resign, since there's no watertight proof of any impropriety. Are we to spend the next five years with a permanent cold war with the Commissioner of Police? It seems so. Is Busuttil justified in his criticism? Actually, he is entirely unjustified. He should ask questions and get answers. He has every right to lash out at what he sees as inconsistencies, but he must not forget that he, the leader of the opposition, must also have some form of responsibility and not create a sense of mistrust among all the executive. It is akin to our position with the law courts, which are presently and manifestly against the media and show little or no understanding of the difficulty of writing about corruption and bad practices. Needless to say, we still abide by the law and respect the judiciary. Busuttil should know that over the past few years – and by this I mean the last 40 years – consecutive governments have ignored ethical questions and gone ahead with using government and agencies as they saw fit. Busuttil has a very deep-rooted problem when he preaches about ethical standards. His party in government ignored good governance and implemented a nepotistic structure. Has the Labour Party changed this? The answer to this question is NO – it has not. Labour has made this worse because of its Taghna lkoll litany. But this does not give the PN the right to speak as if it were the Virgin Mary. So what one really expects is that Busuttil come up with a blueprint to counter Labour's policies and old PN policies. If Busuttil is fighting political interference, he has to promote a culture where people in the executive are not chosen by the politicians. Does he have any idea about how this can be done? In reality, what we have today is a photocopy of the PN's approach in the late 80s and 90s, and beyond. The only difference is that, whereas under the Nationalist administration many of the political appointees were tired and in some cases simply recycled, the new appointees are fresh Labour or former PN faces turned Labourites with The charges against Silvio Zammit on 11 December 2012 a lot of energy and some fresh ideas. But back to Simon Busuttil and In some years time, they The truth is that Rizzo should the John Dalli story. will be as ragged and tired as the have issued a charge on 11 John Rizzo has said under oath previous bunch. December 2012 – and there was that he agreed to charge John Busuttil should insist that nothing to stop him from doing certain posts should be that – then and after 11 April Dalli. enshrined in the Constitution, 2013, when John Dalli arrived in Well, that is not news. or else screened and approved by Malta. We all knew this. parliamentary commissions. The truth is that there is no In fact, if one were to look at The commissioner of police and proof, other than imaginary the accusation sheet against the army chief, among others, are conjecture, that there was a Silvio Zammit, one will read examples where convergence is a request for a bribe from John Dalli. that the accusation implies very requirement. But others need not If there was one iota of proof, I clearly that Silvio Zammit was be 'neutral' bystanders who are would be the first one to place an accomplice with John Dalli, only loyal to the Constitution. John Dalli under the spotlight. and Dalli is mentioned by name. There is surely a number of posts I am that ruthless. The charge also states that he that require political appointees, I can say, hand on heart, that I asked and accepted money on his but I am sure that both parties have no guardian angel. behalf… and all the other crap would agree that they should not The big question is, why did that one usually associates with a be changed. John Rizzo not charge John Dalli? criminal act. FIMBank p.l.c. is a licensed credit instituti in Malta with Bank l icense nsed edit institution d ti lta wit compan registr t on company registration C17003 is regulated by the Malta o pa a istrati tr 003, s t d e Malta Financial Servi Financial Services Authority and listed on the Malta Stock vices A horit n listed i ri t Malt t ck t E hange. The Exchange. The Bank is a parti ipant of the D positor ge k is participant pa e Depos to Dep s o C p sation Schem in Malt T Compensation Scheme in Malta. Terms and conditions apply. S h a nditions nditions a t ti n I guess he had a conscience at the time, because he knew he had no hard evidence in hand – just conjecture tainted by Giovanni Kessler. The conjecture being that both Rizzo and Kessler believed that a telephone conversation they never heard was about a bribe. Even Inspector Clouseau would be surprised! Anyone with any sense should have revisited the case. What is strange is the fact that Gayle Kimberley was never charged by Rizzo. And if anyone wants to know the real answer to that, I will be very pleased to explain. I should remind everyone that Gayle Kimberley, who hails from a well-known and established Maltese family, worked in Castille before 2013. Should I say more? This is a complicated case. Dalli did not help himself with the Bahamas revelations. And if there is one accusation that will stick, it is that he was either careless or simply stupid, or a combination of other suggestions. There are many who are standing up for Rizzo. They seem to have forgotten what Rizzo stood for before he was Commissioner. His appointment – which happened when Commissioner Grech was forced to resign in the wake of a MaltaToday news story – was not applauded by all of Fenech Adami's Cabinet, and one declared opponent was John Dalli. But that is history. What is not history is the Dalli affair. There is no doubt in my mind that the timing of the Silvio Zammit charges on 11 December in court coincided with the political turmoil in government. Gonzi had just lost a budget vote. Rizzo insists that he never talked to Lawrence Gonzi. I guess that means he never talked to anyone close to Gonzi, either. I'm impressed. But if you don't mind, I will choose not to believe him. I guess that counts as an offence, right? I will choose to stop believing that politicians never involve themselves in the executive, then and now. I have the right to be cynical.