Opinion: The awesome Zammit Lewis

Edward Zammit Lewis really believed he would be accepted as a Judge at the EU General Court. He was so convinced that he spent “months of preparation and personal sacrifice”, he said on social media.

That just shows the man’s utter lack of insight, his hopeless judgement and his total detachment from the real world outside Labour’s Mile End fortress.

Who in his right mind would nominate, let alone appoint, Edward Zammit Lewis as Judge at the EU’s General Court? This is a man who, while cabinet minister, maintained a close relationship with Yorgen Fenech despite knowing he owned 17 Black – a Dubai company set up for kickbacks to government officials.

Zammit Lewis concealed his close friendship with Fenech and failed to declare his massive conflict of interest, participating in discussions in cabinet about Fenech’s pardon request.

Zammit Lewis even addressed a press conference attacking former PN leader Simon Busuttil for requesting an inquiry into Fenech’s 17 Black. He argued against any investigation into Fenech and his suspicious links to disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Zammit Lewis was so proud of his defence of Fenech at that press conference that he sent Fenech the link to a newspaper article quoting his comments to ingratiate himself.  Right up to Fenech’s arrest, Zammit Lewis maintained regular communication with Fenech.

When Zammit Lewis, as minister, was begging Fenech to “organise something at the ranch and Keith and I will come”, he knew about 17 Black.   Yet Zammit Lewis kept pleading with Fenech: “Take me with you”.

What sort of cabinet minister messages a man suspected of serious crime and exposed as the owner of 17 Black and tells him, “I miss you so much… for me, you are the most important.  I am proud to know you”?

If any evidence of his abject unfitness for the role of Judge were required, Zammit Lewis provided it in spades in his pathetic Facebook post after his rejection. Hasn’t he embarrassed himself and his country enough?

He attacked the Article 255 panel for rejecting him, implying that their decision was influenced by “those who, for their own interest or even personal gain, relentlessly undermined my nomination from within and outside Malta”.

The panel is made up of seven individuals chosen from among former Members of the Court of Justice and the EU General Court, members of National Supreme courts and jurists of recognised competence.  They’re also persons of deep integrity.

But Zammit Lewis, smarting from the humiliating rejection, resorted to smearing the panel. He claimed the panel asked him “not whether I possess the qualifications to occupy this position but about other matters that have nothing to do with this position”.

He implied that the panel asked him inappropriate or irrelevant questions.  He’s accusing them of rejecting his nomination because of “other matters that have nothing to do with this position”.

He blamed the Nationalist Party for his predicament.  He’s implying that the seven-member panel let the PN dictate who to reject and who to accept. That’s deeply offensive to the panel and grossly disrespectful to the integrity of its members, besides being completely loony.

What were these “other matters” the panel asked Zammit Lewis about?  He didn’t tell us in his Facebook post.  But he accused the PN of writing “repeatedly” to the committee of experts about “allegations that were baseless and led to nothing”.

Zammit Lewis thinks he knows better than the seven respected members of that panel what “matters” are relevant to the position for which he was interviewed.

The man’s ego is so massive that he parted with this message: “The greatest harm was done to your own country – our Malta”. Zammit Lewis expects the whole country to wail in anguish because he will not sit at the EU General Court.

“I will continue to move forward despite all the obstacles – and I assure you of this,” he insisted.  What utter nonsense.  What infantile drivel. Zammit Lewis claims nothing will stop him –  he’ll just keep moving forward, whatever that means.

“I will continue working and contributing in parliament for the good of my country,” he droned on.  If Zammit Lewis is so great, why does his own Leader keep him on the back benches?

Robert Abela banished him from cabinet.  Yet the man still thinks he’s the most deserving, the most suited, the best pick. He’s still shocked that the panel rejected him.

Any half-decent person caught doing what Zammit Lewis did would hide away in shame, too embarrassed to show his face again. Instead, Zammit Lewis blames everybody else for his humiliating rejection.