Muscat: Not fit to be an MP

This newsroom has this week sent questions to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, asking him whether he will stay on as an MP after the arrest of his good friend and former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri on suspicion of money laundering.

Muscat had not replied by the time this newspaper was sent to print.

Ever since he resigned in January, he has become somewhat unreachable.

The former PM often takes to Facebook to rebut claims of wrongdoing, like he did this week, when a financial crime blogger claimed he is being investigated by the Italian authorities. He chooses Facebook because it is a controlled environment – he can say what he wants without being challenged. He has occasionally replied to emailed questions, again, when facing serious allegations of wrongdoing, but he has ignored others, like the ones where we asked him to sit down with us for an interview.

But Muscat cannot keep running. And he cannot continue to avoid shouldering full responsibility over the way in which he has persistently defended Schembri since the Panama Papers revelations in 2016.

When it was revealed that Schembri, together with Konrad Mizzi, had opened up secret companies in Panama, Muscat chose to retain them both and stepped in to defend his two close allies.

Despite the protests and, as we now know, the advice given to him by Cabinet members, Muscat chose to stick his neck out for Mizzi and Schembri and kept them by his side.

Muscat’s parliamentary group defeated a vote of no confidence moved by the Opposition after his inaction to remove the duo.

Testyfing in the public inquiry recently, Chris Fearne said Muscat had made it clear that he would be the only one to decide on Mizzi and Schembri.

“The former prime minister had told me that Mizzi would not remain a minister. As for Schembri, he told me ‘he is my person of trust and it’s up to me to decide, not cabinet’,” Fearne said, adding that Muscat had made it clear that Schembri’s position was “not up for discussion.”

A full year after the Panama revelations, Muscat had described Schembri a “a man of integrity.”

Despite all the filth that came out in the following months, Muscat defended Schembri in Parliament in November of last year when he insisted that only one person was suspected of being behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

He did the same later that month, when he said Schembri was right in refusing to answer questions on 17 Black in view of an ongoing magisterial inquiry.

He defended Schembri when leaked FIAU reports highlighted that the former Chief of Staff could have been involved in money laundering and kickbacks.

Now, a magisterial inquiry sparked by one of those leaked FIAU reports has forced the police to arrest Keith Schembri again and interrogate him for over 20 hours.

Schembri is out on police bail but, as Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa put it on Friday. This means that more investigations are needed.

The case is far from closed. The latest round in this never-ending saga has seen four people arrested, and Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna and Karl Cini have finally had their warrants suspended by the Accountancy Board.

Schembri and many others had their assets frozen by the courts. If convicted of money laundering, it has been reported, he could face up to 18 years in prison.

In view of all this Muscat – the former PM who consistently refused to take action against Schembri until he had absolutely no other choice – must answer for his decisions and shoulder full responsibility for his actions.

Having resigned as Prime Minister is not enough. Muscat rose to power as a hero but, seven years down the line, there is no place for him in Maltese politics.

This is not just about his inaction on Schembri. This is about the trail of corruption left behind by the previous administration. It is about the way in which our country’s reputation has suffered irreparable harm.

It is about the way in which the country was run by a kitchen cabinet, rather than by a Cabinet of elected ministers.

It is about ongoing revelations linking Malta to corrupt deals spanning from Panama to Montenegro. It is about a failed hospitals privatisation deal which saw Malta give millions to a group of rich foreigners who gave nothing in return.

It is about a journalist who was murdered under his watch.

Muscat did a lot of good. But he did a lot of bad, too. His failure to act against those who now potentially face spending a long time behind bars, combined with the fact that he is constantly in the news for all the wrong reasons, make him unfit to be a Member of Parliament.