A cause for great concern

The Prime Minister should be concerned, very concerned, over the fact that the majority of people surveyed by this newspaper are of the belief that he and his wife are implicated in the Panama Papers scandal.

In our latest edition of the iSurvey, a whopping 42.1 per cent of people said they believe the Prime Minister is implicated, 39.9 per cent felt the opposite and 18 per cent of people are undecided on the matter.

Those 18 per cent could very well swing the tide of an election should the ongoing magisterial inquiry into the matter show or even suggest that the Prime Minister has been putting his finger into forbidden pies. But whether that inquiry will be wrapped up any time before the 3 June election is any outsider’s guess.

Earlier this week the Prime Minister, quite possibly for the first time in this short election campaign acknowledged that mistakes have been made under his watch when it comes to the numerous allegations of corruption his administration has faced, particularly over the last year. When asked by this newspaper whether he would once again promise accountability, meritocracy and transparency as he had done in the 2013 campaign he said: “Yes. We intend to work harder to put this into practice. We realise we have disappointed some people on this, we have learned from our mistakes and we will make sure we will deliver better.”

But simply saying that you have learned from your mistakes is nowhere near enough to placate a large section of the electorate that has recoiled at allegations that he himself, and not just his chief of staff and one of his lead ministers, may be involved in the Panama Papers scandal.

And as such, he will have to do much better than simply lobbing such platitudes around.

The scandals and accusations of graft have riddled this government for over a year now since Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were outed by the Panama Papers, and the heat has been turned up quite a few notches over recent weeks.

The plot has thickened substantially since the Pilatus Bank element was thrown into the mix. Thanks to that development, the Prime Minister’s wife has been accused of being the owner of the third Panamanian company Egrant, an allegation which the Prime Minister denies, and it has also been alleged that Mr Schembri received kickbacks for the lucrative citizenship scheme.

But still the Prime Minister refuses to take any concrete action that may help set the electorate’s mind at rest. Asked this week if he would reappoint Schembri and Mizzi if he wins the upcoming election, the Prime Minister said: “Those are decisions I will take, if elected, after the election once I see the crop of Members of Parliament.”

The answer was completely misleading and disingenuous politico-speak that really meant ‘none of your business’. For starters, Mr Schembri is not an elected person but, rather, a political appointee. And as for Dr Mizzi, he will clearly be kept in the Cabinet if the Prime Minister secures another mandate, but he is reticent to say so.

And even if Mr Schembri were to resign, as the Prime Minister said this week, if the magistrate appointed to hold an inquiry into the evidence presented by the Opposition Leader finds that there is enough evidence for a criminal investigation into Mr Schembri, it may still not be enough to redeem himself in the eyes of many. Such action will inevitably be deemed a case of too little, too late.

Corruption is clearly the name of the game in this election. The Prime Minister clearly has to do more that promise tax rebate cheques, repave the country’s roads, legalise marijuana, give workers more public holidays and whatever other goodies he is still holding up his sleeve to offset the long shadow of corruption that has been cast over his governance of the country.