Standards czar will not open investigation on Ian Borg’s slip of the tongue

Malta’s standards commissioner George Hyzler has told the independent candidate Arnold Cassola he will not open an investigation on a blasphemous utterance by transport minister Ian Borg on television.

Hyzler was asked by Cassola to open an inquiry on Borg after the minister corrected what was clearly intended as a blasphemous exclamation, in an off-guard moment on One TV’s Pjazza.

He agreed that Borg was about to say “Ħaqq Alla” – the notorious equivalent for “Goddamn” – but disagreed that he was about to say the even more atrocious “liba”, whose English translation carries none of the Maltese word’s outrageous obscenity.

However, Hyzler pointed out that Borg's choice of words were not premeditated, and most likely just a slip of the tongue in the heat of an argument. “As I have already concluded in the past, not all that is offensive necesarrily represents a breach in ethics... In my understanding, one would be disregarding the importance of such codes if they apply them to a case of a bad word slipping from the mouth of a minister in the heat of an argument.”

As a result, the Commissioner declared that the incident cannot be considered a breach in ethics worthy of any further investigation.

While Cassola thanks Hyzler for the ruling, he disagreed with the Commissioner on whether Borg was about to say "liba" or not. "But I think this is a marginal detail compared to the rest," he stated.

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