The next five years
Finally, he said it. After a year of bickering, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat buckled under the pressure of the electoral campaign he himself called for, and indirectly admitted that his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi are a liability.
It was during last Sunday’s raging speech in Imqabba that Joseph Muscat let it slip that his two closest political acolytes, Schembri and Mizzi, went against what he preached, ‘but I needed them to finish off important projects,’ the Prime Minister begged and whined.
These presumably are the completion of the power station as regards Konrad Mizzi, though the project overran by two years over the promised timeframe, and the Individual Investor Programme (IIP) for Keith Schembri, though it is not clear if this is what Muscat had in mind in the heat of the moment, when he was close to hysteria in front of the thousands that cheered to whatever he threw at them.
The Prime Minister doesn’t seem to get any comfort from the surveys that are still giving him a lead over Forza Nazzjonali. He is speaking in panic mode and is seen ready to concede a little bit more each day that passes in this short but intense campaign. On Sunday he did his best to abate the confusion reigning in his camp. People, mainly switchers, who have no reason to change their 2013 preference other than for the revelations that show how the Prime Minister’s Chief of staff, his accountant and No Portfolio Minister rushed to open financial structures in shady jurisdictions to deposit money for which the provenance cannot and hasn’t been explained,
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are asking themselves the same question over and over again. If the Prime Minister finds it so appalling to have a company in Panama with secret bank accounts such as those found in Pilatus Bank, and if he’s ready to resign if proof emerges that he is involved, then how is it that he didn’t sack Mizzi and Schembri the moment the Panama Papers were released?
Joseph Muscat knows all too well that if this question continues to linger in the air like a stench that wouldn’t blow away, he and his ‘movement’ will continue to lose support from those who were pivotal to his success four years ago. Even if his rushed 3rd June election rewards him with a slight majority that will enable him to become Prime Minister for a second term, he understands that governing with a one or three seat majority would make it extremely difficult to proceed with his best laid plans for the clique he continues to support till kingdom come.
Evidently, half measures accompanied by half-truths have characterised Joseph Muscat’s style of politics. He kite flies a thought, leaving it semi-baked. He follows it closely and builds on it if it seeps into the social discourse, or tweaks it as many times needed if it hits a barrier. Sometimes declarations are forgotten, so he lets it pass. A case in point was when he vouched that gay marriage is not a ‘normal’ process. Conveniently he u-turned on that position, avoiding the embarrassment by never bring it up again. And so he did with the Panama Papers. He kept avoiding the subject that his two closest politically exposed persons opened companies and bank accounts in secret jurisdictions.
Once he couldn’t avoid it any longer he tweaked the message and gave Konrad Mizzi a slap on the wrist. When he saw that people grew tired of hearing of the Panama Papers he let Mizzi lead the Energy portfolio during Malta’s EU Presidency. He relished the fact that the EU Commission didn’t beat an eyelash on the matter and was sure that the issue had been placed under control. In full serenity he plotted an early election sometime towards the end of June. But Egrant came to haunt him late in April and he moved the election as close as possible. The PANA committee and the European Parliament kept him on his toes, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil unleashed more damming documents and The Malta Independent and the Times published leaked FIAU reports amongst many other things.
Dr. Muscat did his best to keep avoiding to reply on whether he intends retaining the two PEPs by his side until he came to a point when he had to give a signal, albeit cryptic. He tweaked the message again to try and squeeze it through for public consent. “I needed them to finish off important projects,” was his most recent declaration. Which means: ‘I know they are a liability but I couldn’t go forth without them, they were indispensable.’ But it also means: ‘maybe I will sack them if re-elected, but maybe I won’t.’
This country needs a Prime Minister that is clear in his message. Even if, as surveys predict, the PL will win the election by a whisker, the electorate should know how Dr. Muscat intends to proceed to the next five years.