New PM must clean house

We now have two contenders for the Labour Party leadership election – Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and MP Robert Abela.

Whoever wins the contest on 12 January will have to carry out the huge task of cleaning up the party and country.

The winner will, first and foremost, have to return Malta to normality and doing this won’t be an easy or popular task.

The new prime minister will need to take ruthless decisions and heads must roll. The highest levels of government and the country’s institutions have been infiltrated by individuals whose personal interests come before those of Malta – people who, through action or inaction, have let this country slip into the abyss of corruption. They must go – all of them – and only a bold and decisive prime minister can do that.

The new leader will need to do what Sant did in 1992 – carry out a massive clean-up of the Labour party and oust anyone with the slightest shred of doubt hanging over their head.

On Friday, when Fearne was the only one to have thrown his name in the hat, several MPs backed him publicly. These included people from the MuscatSchembri cabal, like Konrad Mizzi, who has been disgraced many times over.

Some argued that Mizzi was doing this to save his own skin, possibly because he is harbouring future political ambitions. Others said this might be a coordinated manoeuvre to link the rotten part of this administration to Fearne, thus harming his image before the leadership race. Many have already commented, in fact, that if Fearne has the backing of the likes of Mizzi, then he does not have theirs.

One will have to see what these MPs will do and say now that Abela is also in the running to become the next leader. Many are pointing out the fact that he serves as legal advisor to the Cabinet, and also to the fact that he was Neville Gafa’s (of Libyan medical visas scandal fame) lawyer.

Whatever the case, the country expects its new leader to take decisive action and bring to justice all those deserving of it. Konrad Mizzi, for example, still has a lot to answer for over the scandalous hospitals privatization deal. We cannot just let this go.

There are others who, in our opinion, cannot continue to form part of the administration. People like Chris Cardona, for example, who, despite having recently been reinstated as economy minister, will forever remain tainted by the FKK Acapulco debacle.

There are other names, like Sandro Craus, the head of the OPM’s customer care department, who should not be allowed to remain after he was outed as the one who gave middleman Melvin Theuma the infamous phantom government job.

And this is not just about bringing out the proverbial guillotine. The entire mentality of clientelism, corruption and defending the indefensible must change.

It must be a clean sweep. The country deserves nothing less.

A million unanswered questions...

Muscat and Schembri cannot keep hiding

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his former chief of staff, Keith Schembri, are nowhere to be seen in the unfolding drama.

The press has a million questions to ask, especially after this week’s bombshell revelations in court, but no one is there to answer us.

Keith Schembri has been locked up at his Mellieħa villa for two weeks now, and repeated attempts to speak to him have proved futile. Yesterday afternoon, he was questioned again by the police, this time in relation to the phantom job given to middleman Melvin Theuma. Other than that, we have been unable to contact him.

Journalists, including from this newsroom, have gone to his house and rung his doorbell several times over the last week, but the only movement we have seen are his close buddy Neville Gafa’s frequent comings and goings. His phone number has been inaccessible for the last two weeks.

Within this vacuum of information, speculation is mounting that something sinister is being cooked up, or that the course of justice is being perverted once again.

In order to avoid journalists, Muscat is not holding any public events. And Parliament has risen a full two weeks before usual, which means that journalists cannot quiz the prime minister there either.

We have so much to ask him: How can he say that he knew nothing when so much was happening right under his nose, in his very office? Why is Keith Schembri not under arrest? What about Kenneth Camilleri, a former member of the prime minister’s security detail who has also been implicated in the case?

Why did Muscat keep defending Schembri until the very end – the day of his friend’s arrest and interrogation? After all, we are in this mess because the prime minister has consistently refused to take action against his friend.

Are the two still in contact now? What do they talk about? Is Schembri still being fed information from the investigations?

This morning, we will be covering the first leg of Muscat’s farewell tour, but it is highly unlikely that he will stop to speak to us and answer our questions. Even his resignation announcement last week was recorded in the comfort and privacy of Girgenti, away from those pesky reporters.

Muscat is not only refusing to meet the press but has also shunned the constituted bodies and social partners, all of whom are telling him that he must step down immediately.

Just this week, the retailers’ association said the situation had directly led to a 50 per cent drop in sales, and told Muscat, in no uncertain terms, that he should not stay in Castille a day longer.

The damage is already being done and it is up to Muscat to stop it.