When the gunsmoke fades

Now that the inquiry report has been finalised and made public, much of the gunshot smoke that has clouded this issue for so long has finally begun to lift. 

The inquiry delved into questions regarding both the administrative and political responsibility for what occurred. On both counts, its conclusions point towards a pervasive culture of dilettantism and collective shirking of responsibility.

For instance, the inquiry points towards an active cover-up by “police officers close to PC Sheehan”, and also concludes that they were unwittingly aided by an Acting Police Commissioner “as a result of a lack of professionalism in the carrying out of his duties.”

Incoming Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela should pay close attention to the glaring administrative shortcomings this report has exposed within the Malta police force. Had it not been overshadowed by the far-reaching political considerations, the incident as a whole would surely have served as a wake-up call that the entire force is in dire need of a systemic reform. 

We now know that a number of officers who were “first to arrive at the scene” had tampered with the evidence and deliberately issued false information in a bid to “play down the gravity of what happened”. It remains to be seen what disciplinary actions will be taken against these officers. But weeding out the rotten apples is only part of a process which must now take place to rebuild an otherwise shattered public trust in the police. 

Clearly, existing institutions to monitor the behaviour of the police are insufficient. This newspaper has long advocated the need to set up an independent police complaints commission, among other reforms which would introduce a much needed system of checks and balances within Malta’s law enforcement arm. 

Significantly, the specific conclusion with regard to PC Paul Sheehan was that this person should not have been trusted with a gun in the first place, still less as a policeman or a minister’s personal driver. Again, this points towards a laxity with which such serious matters are treated by the authorities. Ultimately, what also emerges from this latest incident is that the police, as an institution, still subscribe to work practices and policies that are clearly past their sell-by date. A thorough re-evaluation of such practices, of the kind already underway with regard to the law courts, is now urgently required.

On the political level there is much more to be said; even though, from a national security perspective, the need for a police overhaul remains the top priority that emerges from this report. But the issue itself has in many ways altered the political landscape, leaving even the Prime Minister vulnerable to scathing attack.

From the outset, it must be said that Joseph Muscat’s handling of the affair left much to be desired. The prime minister committed a number of cardinal mistakes which have dented his reputation as a political tactician. The first and most blatant was his reluctance to take a firm line with Mallia when he had the chance to nip the controversy in the bud. 

It was clear from the beginning that the political overtones of this case would prove toxic for the government. Mallia himself should have been the first to realise this, and offered at least a temporary resignation pending the outcome of the inquiry. This would have spared his government much of the intense flak it was to receive over the following weeks.

To his credit the Prime Minister yesterday admitted that the matter could have been dealt with better but Muscat himself also took decisions which unnecessarily protracted and prolonged the embarrassment for his government: in the process, giving the Opposition plenty of ammunition which was used to fire more than just ‘warning shots’.

Perhaps the most incongruous mistake made by Muscat was, in fact, his apparent underestimation of the Opposition: a mistake which had ironically been made by the Nationalist government in his own regard.

The Labour Party surely does not need to be reminded that, whatever its current political or financial state, the Nationalist Party has always proved a force to be reckoned with in opposition. Yet Muscat seems not to have reckoned with this force. Even now, by procrastinating and dithering over whether to sack his minister for an entire day, he seems oblivious to the political damage this turn of events has caused to him and his party.

There are also lessons for the prime minister in the inquiry report itself. It is telling, for instance, that the board observed how “[the culture of resignations] is often invoked by parties in Opposition, but then forgotten by the same parties when they are in government.” This applies specifically to Muscat, who had variously insisted on a number of political resignations when the shoe was on the other foot.

Ironically, Muscat himself is also responsible for raising public expectations of a culture of ministerial responsibility: and by pointing fingers at its absence under the PN, he is only underscoring precisely why more was, in fact, expected from his own government than from Gonzi’s or Fenech Adami’s. 

In brief, it is not just the police that need a shake-up: Malta’s political landscape is also in dire need of an ‘earthquake’ that we were once promised, but which never really materialised.