Cyrus Engerer: PM accused of double standards

There was a huge reaction on blogs and comment spaces after stern words that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat used to condemn the sex tape that went viral last week.

The PM this morning spoke against the person/s behind the sharing of a video showing an intimate relationship, saying that they are the real evil-doers.

Among other reactions, the Nationalist Party accused Prime Minister Muscat of double standards.

In a statement, the PN said that in May 2014, the Prime Minister had described Cyrus Engerer – who was found guilty by the courts of law of distributing pornographic material of his former boyfriend – as a ‘soldier of steel’.

Today, the PN added, the PM had condemned similar behaviour committed by others.

This is the kind of populism endorsed by the PM, the PN said.

In reply, the Labour Party said Simon Busuttil had no sense of respect.

Cyrus Engerer had switched from the PN to the PL before the last election and was later appointed as the PM’s special envoy to the European Union.

Beginning his address at a political conference held in Mosta yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat dwelt on the issue that monopolised public attention last week, well above the EU meetings – the case of the video showing two persons engaged in sex play that swiftly became the rage on social media.

We must understand that the girl in the video is a victim, not an evil-doer, Dr Muscat said. The real evil-doer is the person who disseminated the video. We must ask ourselves: what if it was my daughter, my sister, my wife?

A parent of the girl has spoken to him and told him the whole family is going mad over what happened.

The forces of law and order are doing their bit with regards to this case but the entire country must express solidarity with the girl. It is our Christian duty to express solidarity because it is not enough to go to Sunday Mass to be a Christian. We must not judge. Malta must not be a male-dominated society. Malta must not be neutral with regards to a case like this, Dr Muscat said in a stern warning to males.

Turning to the main theme of his speech, Dr Muscat twice said, here and at the end, that we are now almost at mid-point. Given the election is a matter of months, he must mean that Labour is set for two terms and we are now almost at mid-point.

We must plan the way ahead, Dr Muscat said. He compared the methods used by his government to those used by previous PN governments. The PN administrations cut programmes and increased taxes. No increases were given to pensioners and the result of some decisions that were taken only became apparent after a time. They closed the dockyard, allowed early retirement and cut down on expenditure in the health sector by declaring medicines as out of stock. Simon Busuttil had a hand in all this.

On the contrary, this government did things differently. It cut water and electricity rates and thus put some €80 million in people’s pockets. It extended childcare and thus freed women to go to work; it did not stint on spending. It cut taxes. It gave tablets to children in the 4th year.

The government is only using 30% of the revenue generated by the citizenship scheme; reserving the other 70% for future projects.

Getting to the core of his message, Dr Muscat spoke about the surplus generated in public finances for the first time in 35 years. Dr Busuttil said this surplus was generated by the government cutting down on capital expenditure. Had he taken advice, he would have been told the 2015 capital expenditure was so high because it came at the end of the EU funding period. It was around the same level as the capital expenditure of 2012. But in 2012, when capital expenditure was so high, Malta had the highest deficit while in 2015, when it had the same level of capital expenditure Malta passed from a deficit to a surplus.

That is the difference between the two parties: Simon Busuttil generated the biggest deficit while this government generated a surplus. Dr Busuttil is not credible to manage the economy in the right way.

Dr Busuttil has something else he must do: he must produce the invoices that refer to the db Group. And does he have other similar agreements? The invoices would show if the PN infringed the party financing law.

The planning for the next Budget will soon start. It is three men sitting around a table. But they would be discussing not who will get to pay more taxes, but which long-standing situation will be solved first - people in the former Corps, Pioneers, people who worked at the Harbour, police unpaid for overtime done.

Every year, people complain they had not been given enough but at least a start was made to address their issues. There are many people asking for housing and this issue will also begin to be addressed.

The party in government has not done everything right, Dr Muscat concluded, and on some issues the mistakes have been grievous but the government has now put in legal parameters to stop this recurring.