Editorial | Wednesday, 19 November 2008

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Espionage? No, business as usual...

Nationalist Party secretary-general Dr Paul Borg Olivier owes the nation an explanation for his request, sent by email to all cabinet ministers last week, for the personal data of all citizens who contact government ministries with complaints.
The revelation is scandalous, and if the same thing were to happen in another European country, the party secretary concerned would probably have already handed in his resignation. Malta, however, appears to be suffering from a hangover of yesteryear’s political struggles, as well as an inherent difficulty in understanding the proper functions of the country’s various institutions and departments.
For this reason, it seems that the incident has been obfuscated by a miasma of deep-seated partisan prejudices: a fact which in itself illustrates how far we still have to go to be taken seriously on an international level.
To understand the gravity of the implications, the following facts must be borne in mind:
1) Contrary to popular perception, political parties do not enjoy any exemption from the Data Protection Act, except for a proviso (applicable also the church and voluntary organisations) enabling them to process data pertaining only to “their members”. Otherwise, the law clearly states that personal data can only be stored with the data subjects’ specific consent; and even then, only for the purposes for which the data was collected in the first place.
Transfer of such data to third parties for other purposes, without the citizen’s explicit consent, is a criminal offence at law.
2) Dr Borg Olivier is secretary-general of the Nationalist Party, and as such has no role whatsoever in the functions of government. Government benches in parliament may be occupied by Nationalist MPs; but this does not mean that there is no difference between the government and the PN. On the contrary, the two are entirely unrelated organisations, and contrary to the arguments brought forward by Dr Borg Olivier, his own office is not, nor ever can be considered as part of the machinery of the State.
3) The email concerned was sent after a meeting between Cabinet ministers and the Nationalist Party’s strategy group.
Let’s start with the first consideration. For reasons explained above, Borg Olivier is wrong when he declares that his request was “fully compliant with the Data Protection Act.” It was nothing of the kind. The most that can be said in defence of his otherwise indefensible position, is that the request itself was not against the law. But the PN secretary-general cannot deny that he asked Cabinet ministers to break the law by providing him with such data; evidence of this is the alacrity with which the Prime Minister’s head of secretariat, Mr Edgar Galea Curmi, issued a disclaimer to absolve the Prime Minister (although significantly not Dr Borg Olivier himself) of all responsibility for the blunder.
As for point number two; when it transpired that Borg Olivier had erroneously sent his damning email to third parties outside the intended recipient group, the PN secretary-general came up with the excuse that the idea behind the request was to provide “customer care” for the complaining citizens.
This is utter nonsense. The PN can no more participate in a government “customer care” operation than this newspaper can, for one very simple reason: the citizens of Malta are not “customers” of the Nationalist Party. They are customers (to continue the metaphor) of the government... and as pointed out above, the two are hardly interchangeable.
However, Dr Borg Olivier appears to be gambling on the regrettably widespread ignorance that exists regarding the role and nature of these two separate institutions. He may be successful with the party grassroots – who, let’s face it, will defend their own party no matter– but his explanation is unlikely to satisfy those discerning citizens who understand their rights within the context of an EU member state.
This brings us to the third and most sinister consideration. Why would Lawrence Gonzi’s Cabinet attend a meeting with the PN strategy group to discuss (or so it would appear) complaints made by citizens to the various ministries?
It is worth pointing out the secretary-general of any political party is also held responsible for that party’s electoral office, which in turn co-ordinates efforts to “bring out the vote” at election time: an exercise which would naturally be greatly facilitated by access to citizens’ private details... especially if the same citizens are unhappy enough with the government’s performance to complain to a minister.
On another level, the uncontrolled exchange of information between State and Party can also be used for altogether more reprehensible purposes: for instance, to identify the political leanings of government employees with a view to granting/withholding promotions, making transfers, consolidating the party’s influence in the government’s decision-making process, and so on.
It is for this reason (among others) that the separation of party and state is taken so seriously in self-respecting democracies. And yet, in Malta we often witness cases where public officials tend to blur the distinction between their allegiance to a party and their constitutional responsibility towards the State.
Dr Paul Borg Olivier has now taken this unwholesome national trait altogether too far. For the “peace of mind” we were promised before the last election, an explanation is in order.

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