Two recent developments have underscored the gulf of difference that separates Malta from the rest of Europe: the first involved the recent hearings before the European Parliament to approve Barroso’s second Commission; the second was last Monday’s ‘grilling’ of Louis Galea by the European Parliament’s budgetary committee.
Regarding the first, it fell to a Maltese MEP to publicly reveal the extent of Malta’s unfamiliarity with such practices. Nationalist MEP David Casa in fact earned the dubious accolade of ‘most inane question’ by the European Voice – a reputable newspaper owned by the Economist Group – on the strength of his (admittedly vague) query to Commissioner designate László Andor: ‘How do you intend to solve child poverty?’
The question was bad enough on its own, but it was Casa’s reaction to the EV article that betrayed how very alien the concept of press freedoms have remained in Malta, in spite of our accession to the EU in 2004 (or indeed, our Independence in 1964).
Astonishingly, Casa went as far as to lambast the European Voice for ‘irresponsible journalism’... evidently overlooking the fact that newspapers are entitled to an opinion of their own (regardless of whether people like David Casa agree or not); and more significantly, revealing the typical Maltese political trait of being unable to handle criticism of any form whatsoever.
Tim King, the newspaper’s editor, quite rightly reminded Casa that MEPs were expected to ask intelligent questions, and therefore could also expect to be taken to task when they fail to do so. Needless to add, the same principle applies across the board to all politicians who fail to live up to their responsibilities.
By the same token, Louis Galea’s performance in Brussels last Monday was equally revealing – though to be fair, the former Education Minister handled matters with considerably more dignity and flair.
Nonetheless, going over the transcripts of Monday’s so-called ‘grilling’, one cannot help but detect the same impatience with criticism, as well as the same underlying supposition that a politician (in his case, a former minister) should somehow be immune to any questioning regarding his political past... even if this is of direct relevance to the issue at hand.
Galea reacted curtly when a Socialist MEP questioned him about past allegations regarding the Auxiliary Workers Training Scheme (AWTS) and the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools: two schemes that had been associated with the liberal dishing out of contracts, mainly by direct orders and often in breach of ordinary procedure, and in which several of the recipients happened to be persons from his constituency.
Evidently caught off guard by the question (which in itself is odd – did Galea not expect to be scrutinised on all aspects of his political career?) the Speaker of the House argued that the article previously circulated among MEPs had been intended to ‘harm his reputation’.
Galea also claimed before the EP’s budgetary committee that he had been ‘cleared’ of wrongdoing – though to be honset, this claim is at best open to interpretation.
The Permanent Commission Against Corruption may indeed have found no evidence directly implicating Galea himself in any direct orders; but one of its members, Dr Tonio Azzopardi, presented a minority report in which he openly doubted the testimony of one of the witnesses in the case. Truth be told, this investigation has to go down as inconclusive.
As for the FTS affair, Louis Galea understandably saw no reason to point out that the magisterial inquiry into the allegations had concluded that there was “no doubt that... FTS officials constantly issued direct orders, breaching the regulations...” But despite this daming conclusion, the issue was not probed any further.
All things told, then, Galea ought to consider himself fortunate that the MEPs had been exposed to these stories only through a single article by MaltaToday – and a rather complimentary one at that, as it mentioned the AWTS and FTS only as footnotes in an otherwise generous assessment of his career – and did not do any more fact-checking of their own.
Furthermore, Galea should also thank his lucky stars that the rest of the Maltese media has always proved so accommodating to him and other government ministers caught up in similar allegations... and that the usual government-friendly press did not let him down on this particular occasion.
But this is cold comfort to those among us who once hoped that EU membership would bring about a lasting change in our national ‘way of doing politics’. Evidently, some of our politicians continue to regard themselves as above all forms of criticism and reproach, in spite of their claims to transparency and openness.
From this perspective, Malta would stand to gain enormously by adopting some of the practices we have so far seen functioning only at European level. For instance: if public officials were to be questioned by a local parliamentary committee before their appointment to high office (as even Commissioners are in the EU) perhaps they might in time grow accustomed to the idea that their past and present behaviour is subject to scrutiny... as indeed it should be.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
The need to grill Two recent developments have underscored the gulf of difference that separates Malta from the rest of Europe: the first involved the recent hearings before the European Parliament to approve Barroso’s second Commission; the second was last Monday’s ‘grilling’ of Louis Galea by the European Parliament’s budgetary committee.....>>
