PD says rule of law breaking down, government silencing dissenters

The Partit Demokratiku said yesterday that the rule of law in Malta in breaking down, with the government attempting and often managing to silence dissenters.

In a statement one year after Joseph Muscat was re-elected to office, the PD said that the Prime Minister did not humanise and consolidate politics whose core value is the dignity of all persons and the common good.

The Prime Minister did not focus on a Government clean up, visibly and openly, to re-instate a sense of what is acceptable as a decent standard of behaviour by our public officials, the PD said.

Neither did he focus on the restoration of Malta’s Rule of Law by encouraging the police to investigate FIAU reports and other situations where corruption is clearly suspected.

“We saw the dismantling of our national institutions continuing unabated. In fact, those implicated in political scandals continue in office and are even appointed to steer capital projects,” PD said.

We would have also expected some serious effort in developing a national master plan that would anticipate and plan adequately so that our landscape and character be preserved. In contrast, we continue to see our congested environment daily degenerating into a cosmopolitan concrete jungle. Our countryside, especially our valleys, has continued to be raped. And trees, even protected ones, have suddenly becoming the country’s number one enemy and are being chopped down indiscriminately.

“Our expectations for good governance from a serious EU Member State, where the culture of common decency with the spirit of the law being honoured, could go on and on, but instead we even encountered intensified attacks on free speech, culminating in the vindictive killing of a journalist who dared criticise. The rule of law is visibly breaking down, with impunity for the powerful, and hate speech, trying – and often managing – to silence anyone who dares to continue criticising,” the PD said.