Dr Korrott Mixtri is looking increasingly like Dr Korrott Mixwi

The Prime Minister’s performance last night on TVM’s Dissett was beyond abysmal, even though his interviewer was on his side and so clearly in his pocket.

He would have us believe that there are investigations into Konrad Mizzi’s holdings in Panama and New Zealand and that Mizzi will be made to resign if he is found to have concealed money there. What rubbish. Aside from the fact that no investigation is possible – the system is designed to withstand formal requests by government authorities even if they are backed by the consent of the owner, because it is always assumed (rightly) that the consent is given under duress – we are supposed to believe that Mizzi is being investigated by the authorities of the government while he continues to hold his position as a minister of that government.

Any such investigation will have to include the police and forensic financial investigators, which automatically means that he has to step down. So it follows that he is NOT being investigated at all.

Other than that, setting up a company in Panama when he was a government minister already, when the sole intent for something like this is clear, is a sackable offence in and of itself, regardless of what’s in that company and what it is to be used for. What’s in it will only make it worse; it doesn’t change the original offence, which is setting it up. A government minister is not an ordinary person. Government ministers may not go about setting up secret companies in other jurisdictions, let alone a jurisdiction like Panama.

But there is another important point. The Prime Minister claims that he found out only a few weeks ago that his top minister had set up a company in Panama (we’ll leave his chief of staff aside for now; that snake is plotting something), and that he found out only from Mizzi’s “draft declaration of assets”. We don’t believe him there, either. In what scenario does a cabinet minister go up to his prime minister and say, “Hey, I thought of giving you a sneak preview of my declaration of assets even though it’s not due in parliament for around three months. And by the way, I have a company in Panama which I had been meaning to tell you about.”

But if we were to take the Prime Minister at his word – an unwise thing to do in any circumstances, as his behaviour has shown consistently – that is a sackable offence in itself.

A cabinet minister may not set up a company anywhere at all – let alone in Panama for suspect purposes – without prior clearance from his Prime Minister. Doing something like that behind the Prime Minister’s back and without his consent is a ‘you have 10 minutes to clear your desk’ matter.

We have no choice but to conclude that the Prime Minister knew about it.

Dr Korrott Mixtri is looking increasingly like Dr Korrott Mixwi and the Prime Minister is a side order of overcooked vegetables with a shelf-life of a few days, but he’s going to stick it out.