Rewarding rule breakers

Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar has given her word,  this time to Lucas Micallef, FKNK’s president: “I will see to it that common sense and respect towards persons prevail.”

She’s on a crusade, defending those who break the law or who clearly intend to.  Cutajar wants to bring down fines for illegal trapping.  She said, “I have always worked against injustices”.  Where’s the injustice of fines for breaking the law?

Cutajar didn’t “always work against injustices”.  She worked hard to defend Yorgen Fenech’s ownership of Dubai company 17-Black, destined for kickbacks to those at the helm of government, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

She accepted thousands of euro from Fenech and then used her privileged position in that Assembly to shield 17-Black from scrutiny. She evaded punishment for her “serious breach of the rules of conduct” when Abela removed her from the PACE.

Cutajar knows all about evading justice.  She breached ethics, yet her punishment was a polite letter from Speaker Anglu Farrugia.  She committed serious breaches of the PACE rules but was spared sanctions.  She was spared police investigation and prosecution for her phantom ITS consultancy post.

She evaded punishment for failing to declare her income from the proposed sale of an Mdina property to Fenech. Yet, after a short interval in the wilderness, she was swiftly reintegrated into Labour’s parliamentary group. Cutajar is the master of getting away with it.

She considers hunting and trapping “a lifestyle” and wants trapping and hunting laws to be “more humane and balanced”. She wants fines reduced. Who better to champion FKNK’s cause? She’s the patron saint of defiant rule breakers,

She’s not alone. Another Labour MP, Ramona Attard, also came out defending trappers who break the law. She too joined FKNK’s crusade:  “There should be more proportionality in the case of punishments related to hunting and trapping, especially if it’s a first offence. ”   But the trapper fined €5,000 was a repeat offender. He knew he was breaking the law because he had done it before.

Labour is never on the side of the long-suffering, law-abiding citizen.  They’re always on the side of the criminal, the crook, the cheat, the one standing in the dock facing serious charges.  And they’re always tormenting those who seek justice, the key witnesses, Birdlife, Repubblika and others.

FKNK’s president said, “Let’s be sensible and humane”. The irony was completely missed by him.  Maybe his errant members should just get a rap on their knuckles like Rosianne Cutajar did.  Maybe that’s what FKNK will propose to Labour’s ORNIS committee – trappers breaking the law should simply get a polite letter like she got from Anglu Farrugia..

Lukas Micallef used another of Labour’s recent “merciful” acts to justify FKNK’s crusade to reduce fines. “Certain offences, including those relating to drugs, have been decriminalised,” he argued. So why shouldn’t hunting and trapping be decriminalised too?  If Labour showed drug users such leniency, why not the poor hunters or those choosing illegal trapping as their “lifestyle”

We know exactly what will happen next. FKNK will pressure the ORNIS Committee to revise fines. FKNK has already declared they want “fairer and more proportionate” penalties. Labour is foursquare behind them. Those estimated 27,000 votes are precious. That’s why Ramona Attard and Rosianne Cutajar are paving the way, softening public opinion in favour of the poor hunter-trapper.

Labour will do anything to keep FKNK on its side. And they have. First, they opened trapping seasons in defiance of EU bird directives. When the European Commission challenged those decisions, Labour invented creative ways of circumventing the law – a scientific derogation, pretending birds were only trapped to check their rings.  When those impertinent Europeans picked on Malta again, Labour just ignored them.

When the European Court of Justice finally decided that trapping derogations were outright illegal, Labour plans to reduce fines. Let the trappers enjoy themselves. When the occasional trapper gets caught because those irritating Birdlife extremists keep filming them and pestering the police, make sure the fine is just a nominal one.

Trappers can trap, hunters can hunt, and Labour gets their vote. What’s not to like?

Why is Labour never on the side of the long-suffering law-abiding citizen?  Those who stole electricity were given an amnesty. Those who claimed disability benefits they weren’t entitled to got a Presidential pardon. Labour is on a relentless campaign to harass and intimidate a key witness in Joseph Muscat’s trial to disrupt the course of justice. It decriminalised drug use and allowed drug traffickers to be tried without a jury, removing the possibility of a life sentence.

During COVID, Abela suggested waiving fines for those who blatantly disobeyed the rules.  Abela described Minister Ian Borg’s interventions with Transport Malta’s Clint Mansueto as “just doing his job”. Mansueto is charged with running a criminal scheme to get licences for those who couldn’t pass their driving test.

Labour rewarded Fort Chambray’s concessionaire with a better contract after failing key targets.  Prime Minister Robert Abela sought to reward Steward Health Care with a more bankable deal when they failed every milestone.  Labour planned to pay Vitals Global Healthcare €100 million after it siphoned millions of our taxes into offshore accounts.

It gave disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat a far more generous termination package than he deserved, provided him with an office in a prominent location to serve his personal clients.  The government gave his wife a state-funded car and chauffeurs.

Disgraced former Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar got a consultancy post on the same day he left his role in disgrace. Ronald Mizzi got reinstated despite facing criminal charges.  Rosianne Cutajar was rehabilitated.

It pays to break the rules under Labour – you’ll only be rewarded.