When a minister’s driver shoots in public at night, it is a matter for the prime minister, not his apparatchik
The buck stops here
This is the point so many people are missing. They are allowing themselves to be talked down the government’s pathway with all this rubbish about how Kurt Farrugia dealt with the matter.
When a minister of state’s driver causes a major incident by shooting in public – even if it is warning shots only, let alone when it is not – this is a matter for the prime minister and not for his apparatchiks.
When the Chief Justice, Noel Arrigo, and Judge Patrick Vella were discovered to have been liaising with the agents of drug-traffickers, the Police Commissioner at the time did not ring Prime Minister Fenech Adami’s communications man and botch out a press release with him.
He rang the prime minister and went to see him at his office. And then the prime minister called in the press and the television cameras and addressed the nation.
While a minister’s driver shooting at people is of far less constitutional significance and of a less grievous order than the bribing of a chief justice and an appeals court judge by a drug trafficker, the method of handling remains the same. The Police Commissioner communicates directly with the prime minister.
Police Commissioners do not communicate and negotiate with communications men – they communicate and negotiate directly with the PM, not even with the cabinet minister responsible for the police. Communications men negotiate with other communications men, other than their own boss.
The Police Commissioner will have communicated with the prime minister. This prime minister will have passed the buck to his underling, because he has no sense of responsibility, no understanding of his position, and because he is afraid of taking decisions (which is why he tells us repeatedly that he is not afraid of taking them).
And that’s exactly why the prime minister refuses to tell us who called him that night and when.
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He didn’t carry a watch at the time, he said.
Liar.
If I were Rolex, I’d withdraw my sponsorship.
Maybe he uses a Casio.
He takes off his watch rather early. Was it his turn to wash the dishes?
No. It was his turn to play Pontius Pilate.
The PM’s mobile is special, it doesn’t display the time.
The prime minister will hide behind the enquiry of the three wise men, who, on an exceptional basis, this year will arrive before the 25th and instead of the usual gold, frankincense and myrrh, will be bearing a report to exculpate Don Emmanuel, who will be reborn as the Messiah, Hallelujah.
The report is of course based on terms of reference drawn up by the prime minister in a way that they focus only on Don Emmanuel’s role.
But what the enquiry should be focusing on is the prime minister’s own role, that of his Communications Coconut and the entire Ministry of Don Emmanuel.
The outcome of the enquiry is worthless, because the scope of its work was misplaced in the first place.
At this point nothing is clear. In fact I believe that this is a strategy in itself. Iktar ma thawwad il-borma….
“The three retired judges appointed by the Prime Minister to examine the whole issue were appointed before the Malliagate tapes surfaced and I very much doubt if their remit includes delving into the tapes question. So any conclusion they may come to is already rendered half obsolete.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-07/blogs-opinions/The-Malliagate-saga-is-swamping-the-government-6736126967
Were the terms of reference ai termini of the enquiry ever ‘ivventilati’ in public?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-12-07/local-news/Deputy-Prime-Minister-Louis-Grech-said-PN-s-media-selected-which-transcripts-of-call-logs-to-publish-6736126970
It shouldn’t be a question of being afraid to take certain obvious decisions. Or is it ?
Now a days only a few carry a watch. However most people carry a mobile phone, which gives you the time and a thousand other information.
“I dreamt about those bullet holes that night. And I felt angered and disgusted the following day.”
I have just read the PM’s interview with The Sunday Times. If the interview was meant to bring some positive PR for the PM, to quote a phrase used in the same interview “it has done him a disservice”.
Joseph Muscat failed to understand that when he removed the topmost experienced people from key departments – level-headed civil servants who calmly advise politicians on the best course of action, particularly during crises – they created a noose for their own necks. He thought that by replacing them with biddable political stooges he would be ‘safe’. Instead the opposite has happened and he has learned what true professionals in the top echelons of the civil service and other institutions are for.
Had the Police Commissioner and the topmost cadres in the force been experienced, impartial, not obliged towards anyone and unafraid of politicians, this episode would have been handled differently and in all likelihood nobody would be commenting about it three weeks later.
They are now reaping the fruits of their savage harvest.
The pity is that it is not only the Labour government which will suffer but the country as a whole.
A police president (commissioner) in Germany first informs his administrative superior (responsible minister), who is then bound to inform the chancellor/prime minister. This holds at federal level as well as for the 16 states.
I stand to be corrected.
[Daphne – In our system, the Police Commissioner goes to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister goes to the President. ‘Police Minister’ does not figure in the Constitution.]
In Germany, there are no seperate autonomous ministries for police.
The federal and the respective statal ministers for home affairs are ex officio responsible for police affairs.
The problem is that Labour has bent all the unspoken rules – be they to do with etiquette or otherwise – that they have led almost everybody to believe that their way of doing things is normal.
He doesn’t remember the time they rang him to tell him such bad news, but he keeps remembering what the previous administration did wrong some years ago.