Simon Busuttil bets prime minister cannot sack Minister Evarist Bartolo

Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil yesterday got the greatest applause from the crowd at the Zabbar PN club when he claimed that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat cannot sack Evarist Bartolo because of allegations that have surfaced in recent hours “because the prime minister is worse than him (Mr Bartolo) in corruption”.

Dr Busuttil, weak from flu, focused on Mr Bartolo as he listed the scandals of the past week.

Mr Bartolo, he said, is well known to pontificate and preach against corruption. He urged Konrad Mizzi to resign and he even quoted from the Romans that there should not be one law for the gods and one for the beasts. But the man who wanted Dr Mizzi to resign has now been identified as the minister in whose remit corruption took place and was not checked by the minister.

His politically-appointed staffer has been accused of asking for a bribe from a contractor just for that contractor to get what was his due.

Now the former CEO has revealed that the minister knew of the allegations of corruption since the end of April and did nothing about it, something the minister is denying, only to be told by the ex-CEO to check his Hotmail account.

Dr Busuttil told Mr Bartolo to do what he was always preaching about and resign. He is however convinced that it will only be the people who will see off Mr Bartolo at the election.

Next Dr Busuttil focused on another scandal concerning Mr Bartolo which surfaced this past week: the scheme by Mr Bartolo’s ministry (not the GWU) to take 600 persons from the list of people registering for work and put them in a scheme where they would get the minimum wage.

These workers now work alongside government employees who are getting €300 a month more than them doing the same work.

GWU makes a €150 profit on each worker every month, that is €100,000 a month or more than €1m a year.

Dr Busuttil began his speech by joining other speakers in commemorating the tragic events of 30 years ago: first the Tal-Barrani events (Dr Busuttil asked how many of the audience were present that day); then Raymond Caruana’s murder in Gudja and lastly the frame-up of Pietru Pawl Busuttil who was falsely accused of the Raymond Caruana killing.

Commemorating these events (there was a Mass at the Gudja parish church yesterday evening, heavily plugged by many speakers) is also a means of remembering what the PN stands for, Dr Busuttil said.

He welcomed the two previous speakers (Peter Micallef and Edwin Vassallo) who were last week elected to Parliament after the PN was given two additional seats. Dr Busuttil heavily criticised what was said by the PL lawyer (Dr Robert Abela) on Xarabank who said the five years of PL legislature began only last week.

Dr Busuttil said that over the past weeks he had been visiting shops in Swieqi and Attard to explain to shop owners the PN’s recent document. More visits will be held in the coming weeks. The document does not regard shops only but all types of small businesses. PN commits itself to bring Income Tax of such businesses down to 10% in its first budget.

The past week has been peppered by sandals: one really does not know which one to begin with.

There was the case of Minister Owen Bonnici who “lied” in Parliament and when this was pointed out by Jason Azzopardi outside Parliament, he (Dr Bonnici) chose to haul Dr Azzopardi before a Forum (Parliament) where he (Dr Bonnici) has a majority.

He heavily criticised the decision taken by the Speaker and said the Speaker has a conflict of interest in that the Minister for Justice had appointed his daughter as a magistrate. This was an ‘obscene’ decision which was why he had associated himself with Dr Azzopardi in the case.

There was also the case of the Chief Of Staff of Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg who called an Assistant Commissioner of Police to allow a man, arrested because of a case of domestic violence, to be released so as to allow him to play a game. This is a message to all women especially the victims of domestic violence that if the man who caused their injuries happened to be a footballer, then football comes first.

As stated, the two previous speakers were Peter Micallef and Edwin Vassallo. The latter spoke of years of isolation and loneliness he passed through in these four years. The 36,000 PL majority is dissolving and the nine-seat majority has become a five seat majority. Mr Vassallo thanked Paul Borg Olivier, whose victory at court brings to mind Guido de Marco’s victory when Pietru Pawl Busuttil was released.

The moral of the victory at the law courts is: Power to the people.