My, what sound principles…

A lot of things pissed me off about the outgoing administration, as I believe I have made abundantly clear in 10 years writing under the government of Gonzi.

But not even I expected Lawrence Gonzi to end his career as PM so shabbily.

In the end, after all that talk of 'political integrity', of 'values' and of being 'on the right side of history', Gonzi did the equivalent of packing the hotel toiletries into his own luggage, and checking out of the room with the hotel's towels, toothpaste and soap still in his suitcase.

Only much worse, for the items that his party stole from the Maltese State last week were worth considerably more than towels and facecloths. Even if we ignore the monetary cost of the government property that went missing in the transfer of power - and we are talking a good few tens of thousands' worth of office equipment - there is the theft of information to take into account.   

Joseph Muscat entered the office of the Prime Minister on Monday to find that everything therein - the furniture, the computers, the telephones and whatnot - had been spirited away (leaving only childish 'messages' for the incoming administration which I won't even bother describing).

As a result, any plans he may have had to 'hit the ground running' were duly foiled. So apart from barefaced theft, Gonzi's last act as Prime Minister also amounts to sabotage.

All of which is perfectly understandable, as it is entirely in keeping with a government that had long lost sight of it own raison d'etre for years, and had in the end been reduced to little more than a facade to disguise the wholesale plunder of our country's limited assets and resources by a coterie of government-friendly gluttons.

I for one do not doubt that the outgoing Nationalist administration had plenty to hide. Just think of all the emails and other documentary evidence that those vanished computers would no doubt have contained: concerning Malta's fuel procurement deals in the past decade, among other sensitive dealings.

Who would have an interest in hiding that information, other than an administration which must have been aware of, and condoned, and possibly even participated in illegal activities such as the oil scandal (and maybe more we don't even know about)?

I am sorry to say this, but Gonzi chose to end his career as Prime Minister by sending out a clear message of GUILT. He made it patently obvious that the government he had presided over for a decade did indeed (as, let's face it, we all suspected anyway) have copious amounts of dirt on its own hands... and like any criminal fleeing the scene of the crime, Gonzi tried to destroy or hide all the evidence as he left.

And this is indicative of the way the PN visibly degenerated under his leadership: from a party which had vision and a clear sense of direction, to one which was actually little more than a skulk of thieves and swindlers who simply grabbed and appropriated anything they could lay their hands on... yes, all the way down to the office chairs and mouse-pads.

And it gets even shabbier, too. For Gonzi's last act as Prime Minister simply pales into insignificance compared to the wholesale abuse of public funding by a political party which (as Paul Borg Olivier constantly reminded us) could not afford to run a campaign on its own steam.

Last week, Robert Arrigo (MP) wrote a Facebook status update in which he revealed how one Nationalist candidate had apparently siphoned public funds into its own re-election campaign, in a blatant breach of electoral law (and all norms of political decency).

Allow me to quote verbatim:"I was one who had no supporting staff, paid by the taxpayer, to campaign, and who were transferred to a private apartment in Sliema to conduct a campaign from the taxpayers' money."

The Times identified the inferred 10th district candidate as former environment minister George Pullicino - though it didn't explain how it reached that conclusion.

I don't know if it was Pullicino or someone else who embezzled public funds to run a private campaign. What I do know is that the allegation is extremely serious. Embezzling public money is a crime which entails a potential prison sentence; and on this occasion the allegation has been made in public by a sitting MP. Yet it has not, to the best of my knowledge, even been investigated by the police.

Nor is embezzlement the only illegality involved in the operation. There is also a 'Corrupt Practices Act' in this country, which makes it technically illegal for political parties to use illicit means to gain an electoral advantage of any kind.

Even without this detail, I for one can't understand why a police force which was so very quick to respond to complaints about Facebook posts on the 'day of reflection', would sit on its backside and not take any action whatsoever when such compelling evidence emerges of a serious case of electoral fraud.

Why have the police not initiated an investigation into Arrigo's claims of multiple illegalities in the PN's campaign? Why has it not called in any of the OPM staff for questioning regarding the theft of public property, and the possible tampering with evidence in an ongoing criminal case?

Are we to understand that it is only ordinary citizens like you and I who are hauled through the judicial process when caught breaking the law? And that Nationalist Party officials enjoy some kind of special immunity to police investigation?

Perhaps the Police Commissioner may wish to take time out of his oh-so-very-busy schedule to inform us lesser mortals what's really going on here.