Minister Tonio Fenech does not feel compelled to make a statement in parliament about his private trip with business tycoons having vested interests in the gaming industry. The reason for this is that he has already said what he wanted to say to mainstream newspaper The Times. This goes to prove three things:
1. that the media (The Times in particular) is far stronger than the other institutions (amongst which is parliament of course) of the country;
2. that The Times directly or indirectly serves as the government's Pravda; and
3. that arrogance and unaccountability have firmly substituted the principle of ministerial responsibility or what's left of it
In other democracies (except for the Italian kind which we admire so much) a situation like this would have spelled the end of a politician's career. But this is Malta and I have to say that Harry Vassallo is spot on when he says that in Malta there exists no culture of political responsibility and it is only the electorate that can elect, re-elect or remove MP's and members of the Cabinet from power once every five years. Problem is we have become so used to such 'scandals' that four years down the line we would have forgotten all about it. What's worse is that the politician embroiled in any controversy tends to emerge stronger than ever.
The good news is that we can save our coffers several million euros by not having to build a new house of parliament.
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One Response to The Times bigger than Parliament according to Minister Tonio
Amen!
However it bears pointing out that this anti-resignation culture is purely a product of Nationalist administrations.
Under Labour governments ministerial resignations were not uncommon. The most recent example was of Dr Charles Mangion who resigned over something a subordinate had done. Previous to that, in the seventies, ministers had the guts to resign even if they disagreed with the way things were being done.
But sad to say that is no longer the case. People are now too tied to power - or perhaps they just can't afford to walk away for reasons only known to them.
This government has become a joke and this country a sad and sorry place!
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