A refreshing dose of candour

It was with a refreshing dose of candour that Opposition Leader Adrian Delia made good on his promise to sit down with this newspaper to go over exactly how and when he settled his tax bill. This newspaper has seen the evidence with its own eyes and is entirely satisfied with his account of his accounts.

If only Konrad Mizzi had done the same when the news of his Panamanian company broke out... No, hang on, he did do that but without the finite detail that Delia was able to provide because, as Delia put it to this newspaper earlier this week: ‘The truth is not complicated’.

If Mizzi had gone into such excruciating detail, matters may have played out differently in his, and the country’s, respect. That, however, would have given the game away at a point at which he did not know how much the media knew, or would come to know, about that company and his trust in New Zealand. We came to discover much, much more in his respect.

Perhaps Mizzi would care to sit down with this newspaper to go over all of that again, now with the benefit of hindsight, and to spell out exactly how innocuous his ‘family planning’ intentions actually were, instead of the whitewashing exercise he attempted with the press at the time.

Delia, on the other hand, has conclusively shown exactly how he paid his tax dues from years that well preceded any thoughts he had of entering politics. He has backed up everything he said with full documentation and he left absolutely no question unanswered.

That is just the thing: there is no comparing like with like here as many have attempted to do. One politician honestly settled his tax dues - a hefty bill by any measure, and which that he had accrued before entering politics – within some eight months of entering public office, which was certainly no mean feat.

The other, Mizzi, on the other hand began his financial shenanigans as soon as he entered politics, right after he was carried over the threshold of Castille by then new Prime Minister Joseph Muscat after being elected in 2013 when that plan to ‘populate’ his company with his assets still to come.

For the government acolytes and pundits who keep throwing the issue ad nauseam of Delia’s unpaid taxes in his face, they have had their conclusive answer in the interview Delia has given to this newspaper today.

In addition, all the documentation shown to this newspaper is all in the public record at the Public Registry and at the Malta Financial Services Authority for anyone curious, or cynical, enough to give them a gander.

We have, however, had no such concrete answers from Mizzi.

Delia’s insistence on putting this tax issue, which has been hounding him since before he was elected as Opposition Leader, to rest and his ongoing drive to bring the different factions within his party together both suggest he is ready to enter a new phase of his leadership, which is encouraging.

So is his approach to criticism over his integrity, which, to our experience, he will give no quarter.

The last time this publishing house had taken Delia to task which showed that he, in his previous incarnation, was tenuously linked, by several degrees of separation, to a company that handled a bond issue for the former lead partner of the Delimara power station – one of the most contentious projects the country has seen.

It wasn’t the suggestion that a firm he had been involved with in a previous incarnation had legitimately held a share, in trust, linked to the power station deal but, rather, the suggestion that he had been silenced as a result, which he took as a mortal insult.

Love him or hate him, Delia is showing once again that he will not have his integrity questioned and both times that this newspaper questioned his past fiscal behaviour, he has been nothing but upfront and forthcoming. We cannot fault him for that. Having a strong opposition is, after all, one of the main underpinnings of having a strong democracy. Not only is a strong opposition able to challenge the government and keep it in check, but it also collaborates with the government and provides essential input on the drafting of new laws and policies.

This role is essential even more so in the current day and age that the country is living at present, in which the authorities fail to prosecute or even investigate the documented multiple misdeeds perpetrated by members of the government. In which the government has castrated the institutions that are meant to protect citizens rights and uphold the laws of the land, and in which the authorities ignore basic democratic principles left, right and centre.

Now that this leaf has been turned over, perhaps the Opposition can get down to its work of keeping the government in check without needing to fend of baseless accusations. That, after all, is what is truly important here.