The country needs a PM, not a defence lawyer

In comments given to journalists in April last year, Prime Minister Robert Abela had said he excluded the possibility that Rosianne Cutajar contests the next election as a Labour Party candidate.

It was the day Cutajar had resigned from the Labour parliamentary group, a few hours before the party executive committee was to decide her fate following the publication of chats between her and Yorgen Fenech, the man who has been charged with being the mastermind behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. She quit before she was kicked out.

“I exclude it from now,” the PM had said when asked whether Cutajar would be allowed to represent the Labour Party in an election. He had said that the decision to deprive her of a Labour candidature raised the bar in terms of ethical standards.

Fast forward to January this year and Abela has said that he is considering the position taken less than a year ago, effectively opening the door to Cutajar’s return.

Since her resignation from the party last April, Cutajar has remained as an independent MP.

But, also since her resignation, the National Audit Office last November had declared that her appointment as a consultant at the Institute of Tourism Studies was “fraudulent”, “irregular” and “in breach of policies and procedures”. Added to this, a call for an investigation into her ethical behaviour on the same consultancy job by Repubblika was turned down by the Standards Commissioner only because the case was time-barred.

In spite of all this, the Prime Minister is mulling her return, saying that she has paid a price which, according to him, was higher than what it should have been, and that, in his words, she should not be expected to be perpetually impeded from public life. Yesterday he said that her request to be reintegrated in the PL parliamentary group will be discussed.

The Prime Minister here is making another U-turn. It’s not the first one. We all remember how he adamantly refused to launch a public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia on a construction site, voting against the idea in Parliament (and dragging all his MPs into the decision), only to change his mind as thousands were gathering outside his office in Valletta to protest.

This year we have already seen the appointment of Joseph Cuschieri to a public role – that of Project Green CEO – after he had been forced to resign from the headship of the Malta Financial Services Authority in the wake of revelations that he had travelled to Las Vegas with Yorgen Fenech.

And, apart from reconsidering Cutajar’s position, the Prime Minister has also said that he is willing to reassess that of Justyne Caruana, who had resigned twice from the post of minister. She resigned a first time after the friendship between her then husband, former assistant police commissioner Silvio Valletta, and (the same) Fenech had been made public. She had been reinstated, given a different ministry, but she had resigned a second time after she had given a €15,000 contract to a close friend, violating ethical rules.

All this has paved the way for the possibility of an even more shocking return to politics of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who was very much in the news these past few days as the idea of his contesting for a return to the European Parliament is steadily taking shape. That Muscat, after being forced to resign as PM in disgrace, is considering this option, is already an appalling idea. That his successor Abela does not have the guts to reject it is even more outrageous.

Together, Muscat and Abela have nurtured the “anything goes” mentality that has characterised Labour’s administration since 2013. Together, if Muscat goes ahead with the candidacy and if Abela, as he has already indicated, endorses it, they will be taking it to another level.

Individuals who abuse their position in public life – in jobs that we all pay for through public money – lose the people’s trust, and they should not be given another opportunity.

Abela must understand that he should act as a Prime Minister for the whole country, not as a defence lawyer for those close to him.

When people commit a crime and are taken before a judge or a magistrate, they have a right to a defence and, in many instances, deserve to be given a second chance. Very often, they are given that second chance in the hope that they rehabilitate themselves.

But it is a different story in public life. Individuals, who are caught abusing the trust they are given, should not be afforded a second opportunity, irrespective of who they are and whatever their capabilities. Once that trust is broken, it is hard not to be suspicious.

The message that Abela is conveying is that he does not believe in political accountability. And neither does Muscat.