Ministerial responsibility by all means

 To say that the minister or any senior aide who is responsible in the ministry, should not resign because they were not directly involved is taking a dim approach to the matter of political responsibility.

Cartoon by Mark Scicluna
Cartoon by Mark Scicluna

Wednesday’s incident, in which Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia’s personal driver (also a police officer) opened fire on a vehicle after giving chase through the streets of Gzira, is the latest in a string of events in which the Prime Minister has seemingly defended errant members of his Cabinet.  The police officer’s actions could have led to a fatality.

There is much to be said about the government’s handling of this case and the belief in government circles is that there is no political responsibility. To say that the minister or any senior aide who is responsible in the ministry, should not resign because they were not directly involved is taking a dim approach to the matter of political responsibility. The matter is also even more serious because the minister in this case is responsible for the police force.

The first and most pressing cause for concern is that the initial Department of Information statement, issued Wednesday evening, contained a number of serious inaccuracies which could be interpreted as an attempt to minimise the incident altogether. The impression given by these inaccuracies is that everyone seems to have been scrambling to come up with a version which somehow would minimise the magnitude of what had happened. Instead, a highly charged political fray ensued which swept all discussion on a newly delivered budget out of people’s thinking.

According to the DOI’s version, two warning shots were fired into the air by the minister’s personal driver. We know this is not true: at least two shots were fired, both having been aimed directly at the fleeing car, and actually hitting it in the rear. Was this warranted? It was, after all, only a car that had been damaged. There were no injuries. To fire warning shots in such a case is more than serious enough, but to shoot to hit, which could have led to a death, must ring alarm bells – are the security forces trained to give proper responses?

The fact that aim was taken radically changes the flavour of the incident, and raises serious questions regarding what appears to be an attempted cover-up by the authorities of a potentially fatal shooting. Whatever one makes of the police officer’s reaction, it is unacceptable for the government’s official communications channel to issue misleading information with a view to influencing public opinion about the incident.

Nor was this the only anomaly in the government’s reaction. Addressing a news conference, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia appeared to defend his driver (who has since been suspended) by referring to an unrelated incident in which the officer had been rewarded for apprehending an illegal poacher while off duty. Yet the minister omitted to mention that the same police officer had also been disciplined for refusing to obey a superior’s order.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has likewise sent mixed signals regarding the case. He claims to have been ‘angered’ and ‘disgusted’ by the incident; yet he has not taken any action regarding the issue of political responsibility, even after the minister would appear to have been caught out in a lie about the shooting. What does all this say about accountability?

At this point, one must conclude that this is entirely consistent with Joseph Muscat’s handling of a number of analogous recent incidents in which other members of his cabinet have been similarly embroiled in controversy.

In the past weeks, there have been reports of irregular works carried out on a property that has since been established (following a series of denials and rebuttals) to belong to a company in which Equal Opportunities Minister Helena Dalli holds a 99% stake. To date, no action has been taken in connection with this case.

Elsewhere, an appeals court recently ordered an investigation into “serious allegations” of conflict of interest involving government MP Luciano Busuttil. The MP, a lawyer, is understood to have advised the Cospicua council on the adjudication of a tender for the collection of domestic waste, which was eventually awarded to one of his own clients. But again, the government’s response to this issue was to stand by Busuttil.

This apparent strategy of simply ignoring or brushing off allegations may in part be down to the unassailable lead Muscat currently enjoys in the polls.

It is ironic that Muscat seems to now be settling comfortably into roughly the same behaviour pattern as the former government which his own party had criticised so severely in its day. But apart from ignoring the questionable actions of a few of his political allies, Muscat may also be ignoring the lessons of recent history, to his own peril.

It remains to be seen whether there will come a watershed moment which will puncture the Prime Minister’s present aura of invincibility. Joseph Muscat has so far shown himself to be acutely politically aware, is it possible that so much is happening now that he is losing his grasp?