Shooting the messenger and ignoring the message – Editorial

The Malta Police Force deserves a round of applause for the speed with which it now appears to be conducting investigations.

The Force’s newfound form was evidenced this week when it burst into action on a court order for author Mark Camilleri to be investigated for contempt of court after he published those now infamous Rosianne Cutajar-Yorgen Fenech WhatsApp chats.

No sitting on shelves gathering dust for months or years on end like those Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) reports into the rampant corruption that was the ElectroGas power station deal, no nolle prosequis or allergic reactions to arraigning Pilatus bank officials.

This time, the police managed to investigate the messages and Camilleri’s actions within a mere 24 hours – setting a new standard for the force that we, the public, now expect it to maintain.

It would upset the scales of justice’s delicate equilibrium if Camilleri were to be investigated so quickly while the multitude of corrupt practices and actions on the part of the politicians and the wheelers and dealers who surround them that those chats disclose were not acted upon with similar urgency.

That would, after all, convey the unsavoury message that the Force doesn’t dare lift a finger against the untouchables but is ready to come down with a sledgehammer on those who expose the untouchables’ graft, sleaze or corruption.

That is an image the police force is certainly keen to avoid. Or is it?

Just as the police force is living in a world of two weights and two measures, so is Rosianne Cutajar when it comes to the conflict between her oath of loyalty and service to the nation as a member of parliament and her loyalty and service to her love interest Yorgen Fenech.

We understand Cutajar was rather love-struck. But this is no excuse for the absolute treasonous disservice she has done to the nation she was elected to represent and which now she very clearly has no more business representing on any level whatsoever.

For starters, Cutajar has sued Camilleri for publishing a fraction of the messages published this week – dealing with a comparatively innocuous account of a hotel stay paid for by Fenech.

But the real fact of the matter, which has become glaringly obvious since the publication of thousands more text messages, is that Cutajar sued Camilleri when she knew full well that he was right. Yet another vexatious case of a politician abusing the country’s libel laws.

What action will her party or parliamentary group take against her over this affront to democratic principles?

Cutajar also lied to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) when she failed to disclose her relationship with Fenech before so vociferously defending Malta against now-proven corruption allegations involving Fenech’s power station deal with the government and his 17 Black money laundering vehicle.

The WhatsApp messages released this week show she was putting up her defence of Fenech at the same time that she was cavorting with him.

A complaint was filed over her behaviour at PACE when only her property deal with Fenech was known. She was consequently found in “serious breach” of PACE’s rules. Imagine the fallout now if Cutajar had not withdrawn herself from PACE before that first complaint was decided.

And that is the context here: the machinations and scheming between a sitting government MP and a businessman leading a corrupt energy deal with clear influence in the corridors of Castille – to the point where she asks him to help her career by passing on a good word for her to become a minister.

A man she continued to defend against accusations of having paid individuals to murder a journalist.

This has nothing to do with misogyny as the prime minister and party apologists attempt to put it in their misguided and inexplicable attempts to excuse Cutajar’s behaviour instead of doing the obvious and right thing by demanding her immediate resignation.

The core issue is not the salacious message content. It is about the sleaze, graft and corruption of the highest order at the highest level that the messages have uncovered.

It is about what will be done to stop the rot exposed to the clear light of day by those messages surfacing.

So far, it’s the standard response being applied: Shoot the messenger and ignore the message.