Rule of Law

Finch Trapping: A meeting is not an endorsement

The Times of Malta recently reported that Minister Clint Camilleri met the European Environment Commissioner to discuss Malta’s latest “finch research” season. The article’s headline — “All above board for finch research season” — suggests that Brussels has given Malta’s new trapping rules a clean bill of health. Yet on closer reading, there is no indication that the European Commission confirmed any such thing.

The piece simply recounts the Minister’s visit and his own assertions that Malta’s revised framework now complies with EU law and with last year’s Court of Justice judgment that struck down the previous derogation. Nowhere does it cite a statement from the Commissioner or the Commission affirming that the new rules are indeed in line with EU requirements. The most that can be said is that the Commissioner “welcomed dialogue” — a standard diplomatic courtesy that should not be mistaken for approval.

This matters. Malta’s record in the field of hunting and trapping is one of chronic friction with the EU’s environmental acquis. For years, governments have skirted or stretched the limits of the Birds Directive, invoking “research” or “tradition” to justify practices the Court has repeatedly condemned. Each time, reassurances are offered that “Brussels understands” or “the Commission agrees,” and each time the facts tell a different story once legal scrutiny sets in.

Until the Commission itself publicly confirms that Malta’s new system satisfies the Court’s judgment and the Directive’s strict conditions, it is premature — and misleading — to claim compliance. A meeting in Brussels does not change legal reality; it changes optics. The real test will come when the Commission assesses Malta’s measures on their merits, not on the strength of a press release or a photo opportunity.

Malta’s relationship with EU environmental rules has long been erratic. One can only hope that this time, conformity will be measured by law and science, not by wishful interpretation.

The Times of Malta article would have served the public better by highlighting the gap between ministerial assertions and legally binding validation, rather than implicitly treating the meeting as de facto endorsement.

Alarum! Inflation!

Households will experience the biggest fall in their living standards since records began as they face soaring inflation, tax increases and rising energy bills. In a bleak assessment of the year ahead, the Bank of England warned people that take-home pay would fall by five times the amount it did during the financial crisis of 2008. It will be the worst hit to real incomes since comparable records began in 1990.

Britons facing biggest drop in living standards – The Times

It’s a ticking time bomb and it is among us as we go about our daily lives. The warning signs are increasing daily and we ignore it at our peril. It is the result of a combination of a number of factors that might be contributing to speed up the countdown to D-Day and these factors include the pandemic, the energy crisis and the return of threats to global stability. The worst contributing factor, if not the main one, is the degeneration of liberal democracies and the proliferation of false republics.

The armageddon that I speak of is inflation. Not to be confused with a simple rise in prices, it is a possible breaking point, a crisis moment that will force a shift in the social paradigm.

Malta has already begun to feel the rumblings of the storm. Unable to operate in a vacuum the dangers of rising prices, increased energy bills and a general devaluation of the money in people’s pockets would spell disaster even in the case of a diligent government trying to navigate through the latest international crisis.

We have been there before. In 2008 the Gonzi government did manage to cushion the impact of a global financial crisis. Which did not mean that we did not emerge with a disgruntled business class. This time round we would do well to harbour strong doubts with regards to the capability of the Abela government to weather such a storm.

Here lies the problem. The Abela government inherited a system of governance that had already compromised the real republican constitution. An all-powerful executive hijacked the remaining pillars of the constitutional checks and balance denuding the system of any semblance of a republican charter based on the rule of law.

The compromised state is unable to generate any kind of policy beyond the populistic and is only able to plunder public funds for the benefit of the select few. The power of incumbency is used to maintain an illusion of normality notwithstanding the imminent signs of economic and social disaster.

Take the latest measure announced of distributing 200 or 100 euro cheques as one-off compensation for the damage caused by the pandemic. At an estimated 70 million euros this measure falls far short of creating a clear far-sighted policy to weather the impact of the incoming storm. Instead it is a temporary distraction for the population.

What we are facing is a collapse in living standards. The price hike will be the last thing on our minds compared to the devaluation of take-home pay, rising energy bills and rising cost of living. There will be a limit to the number of times the government chooses to plunder public money.

The real question is: how long before the anger spills to the streets? How long before partisan loyalty no longer suffices to blindfold citizens from the real effects of a faltering economy? How long before they realise that the institutional rape of our state has left our country exposed to the elements?

Justyne’s Double Standards

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life is one of the feathers in the Labour government’s cap. The role forms part of the much trumpeted measures introduced to improve the Rule of Law in Malta. Or so we are told.

My guess is that Justyne Caruana (a lawyer by profession) voted along with the rest of the labour MPs to enact what would become Chapter 570 of the laws of Malta at the time. She had no objections whatsoever on the role and functioning of the Commissioner.

Funny how times change…..

The Mafia State

“Come evitare di parlare di Stato quando si parla di mafia?”

Giovanni Falcone

Il-Bord huwa sodisfatt, u l-indikaturi huma kollha f’din id-direzzjoni, illi għalkemm il-movent mhux sa llum bi preċiżjoni stabbilit, ma hemm xejn x’jindika li l-assassinju ma seħħx għal raġunijiet direttament marbuta malinvestigazzjonijiet li kienet qed tagħmel is-Sinjura Caruana Galizia fuq allegazzjonijiet serji ta’ amministrazzjoni pubblika ħażina, ta’ abbuż ta’ poter u korruzzjoni, f’isfond ta’ 𝗿𝗮𝗯𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗹-𝗾𝗿𝗶𝗯 𝘂 𝗱𝘂𝗯𝗷𝘂𝘇̇𝗶 𝗯𝗲𝗷𝗻 𝗶𝗹-𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗸𝗮, 𝗻-𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘇𝗷𝘂 𝗸𝗯𝗶𝗿 𝘂 𝗹-𝗸𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮̀ 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗮.

Bord ta’ Inkjesta Daphne Caruana Galizia

The Board of Inquiry into the circumstances of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination has published its report. The main thrust of this report is that the State should shoulder the responsibility for this assassination. There are many conclusions to be drawn from the contents of the report including the fact that finally we have a clear assertion that Joseph Muscat’s government enabled a culture of impunity that led, among other things to the atrocious murder of an investigative journalist.

Within the wider context of the backsliding of the rule of law, the report shines a powerful light on the shortcomings of an executive within a corrupt system that is now irremediably intertwined with big business and organised crime. Beyond the important issue of the responsibility for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and the need for justice in that particular case, the report is a clear indictment of the system that exists today.

There can be no clearer evidence that our current decadent constitutional set up has suffered irreparable damage. The Mafia State that runs the show cannot continue to purport to lead Malta through a process of change and remedy. So long as the main enablers of the system persist in a game of survival there will be no real cure.

Prime Minister Abela tweeted the need to rise above partisanship. He is right in that. What is wrong is expecting the parliament of parties that were part of the problem to provide solutions. The Mafia State needs eradicating – literally cleansing from the roots. The political party structure, the current constitutional set-up, the partisan cul-de-sac that has provided fodder for criminal activity and is putty in the hands of big business needs to go.

It is time to admit that the Mafia State exists and it is time for the Mafia State to go.

“Per lungo tempo si sono confuse la mafia e la mentalità mafiosa, la mafia come organizzazione illegale e la mafia come semplice modo di essere. Quale errore! Si può benissimo avere una mentalità mafiosa senza essere un criminale.”

Giovanni Falcone

Frozen too late

On this night when the news broke of the freezing of assets of Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and others we need to take a step back and realise that the information that led to this action has been in the public domain for at least three years.

On April 24th 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia published a post entitled “BREAKING/Prime Minister’s chief of staff took kickbacks from Brian Tonna on sale of Maltese citizenship”. In that post, as the title describes, she detailed fact upon fact of how Keith Schembri had received kickbacks from Brian Tonna on the sale of citizenship.

The ball, you could say, was in the AG’s court. Action could and should have been taken. Instead we all know what would happen. Nothing. No prosecutions. No investigations. Keith Schembri would remain a key figure in disgraced PM Muscat’s kitchen cabinet and Brian Tonna’s Nexia would feature in many a government contract or consultancy until yesterday.

And Daphne Caruana Galizia would be murdered.

Reading this comment by Daphne has a spine-chilling effect. It thunders from beyond the grave and reverberates in our heads. There you have it. She knew that publishing these facts would not be enough. She knew that the police would do nothing with this evidence.

“It’s the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, so they’re not going to touch him.” Daphne was one of the select few who were aware at the time of the system of impunity that was already in place. Institutions had by then already been bent into submission. The saga was only about to begin.

Action by the police at the time might have prevented the disastrous vortex that was to follow.

Daphne Caruana Galizia began to die that night. She did not have to, but the nation was too blind to realize the possible consequences of this kind of revelation. Blinded by partisan bickering and by government propaganda the people would only serve as a fertile ground for institutional breakdown.

And murder.

This is what justice for Daphne is also about. We are a long way from that yet.

ADDENDUM:
This is how the lying lowlife scum reacted at the time. Thanks to @bugdavem on Twitter for the reminder.

Train wrecks don’t need derailing

Adrian Delia has dismissed reports on messages between him and Yorgen Fenech as “a mudslinging attempt aimed at derailing his work“. The Sunday coffee table news was dominated by an apparent ‘scoop’ from the Times of Malta uncovering the supposed ‘exchange’ of Whatsapp messages. There had even been a dramatic build up with an earlier confrontation by a Times journalist.

Like some latter-day Saint Peter, Delia was repeatedly asked to deny whether he had ever had any form of relationship with Fenech by a journalist who was obviously already in possession of the ‘incriminating’ evidence (that would be kept on hold till the convenient Sunday publication date for full effect. No cocks crowd on the day of the interview but the Times made a big deal of the issue today.

Having seen the supposed Whatsapp exchange (and only on the basis of what has been shown), I think that I can safely conclude that this was a case of harassment by Fenech. Delia seems to have little time for his entreatments and rarely replies until what seems to be a fob off by passing Fenech on to Pierre Portelli to fix a dinner/lunch which we are not even sure ever happened.

The thousands of sleuths who grace the Maltese Republic were all over the social media condemning Delia for this latest “lie”. In his earlier interview with the Times journalist Delia had wriggled and writhed to try to give a legalistic reply – one that implied that if by communication there was meant some sort of dealing then no he did not communicate with Yorgen. Delia might have had this Whatsapp harassment in mind. Surely in normal circumstances nobody in their right mind would consider Yorgen’s pseudo-sycophantic messaging as a basis of some form of effective communication with Delia.

Surely. But this is not normal. In a world of Whataboutism gone mad we have the Sunday papers dominated by a very weak exchange that is neither here nor there while trying to build a very spurious link to Delia being another of Yorgen Fenech’s political relationships. For some context. Labour’s cabinet is still labouring (sorry) under the heavy accusation of having a member who had a much more than platonic relationship with Fenech. Another one is deep in business dealings with Fenech (not the Arrigo style). Yet here we are trying to cause a storm for a one-way set of messages.

You’d think that the Times would have a much higher standard in its quest of fulfilling the fourth estate’s role in a democracy. As things stand it seems to be a weak platform for the disgraced Labour government’s use to disseminate confusion. Worse still it leads to situations where Delia, of all people, can cling to a victim’s alibi of attempts at derailing him.

Now that’s a first. Delia has already long proven to be unfit for political action let alone leadership. His time as PN leader has proven to be a train wreck. To derail a train that is already wrecked and picking up the pieces is something that only a paper desperate for a distraction from the real issues can achieve.