GUEST POST: Silvio Debono owes the public an explanation of his political beliefs

By Matthew S:

In the midst of a public discussion about Silvio Debono’s donations to the political parties, I find it peculiar that nobody bothers asking him what his political beliefs were when he made them, and how those political beliefs have changed over the years.

If I were to make a donation to, say, an organisation whose stated aim is to plant trees, and then demand my money back when the trees are being planted, people would quite rightly call me mad. If that organisation started uprooting trees instead of planting them, though, my request would be justified.

Political beliefs don’t change overnight, so Silvio Debono ought to explain what has changed within the Nationalist Party to make him go from being a big donor to asking for his money back. Of course, the cynical and widely accepted view is that fixers and crony capitalists like Debono have no specific political or ethical beliefs but, if they don’t, they should be made to admit it explicitly.

Simply accepting this behaviour as ‘this is what they do’ is an insult to the old couple who takes an hour and a half bus-ride to give twenty euros out of their meagre pension, the worker who is a grass-roots activist and paid-up member of the party and the 16-year-old who donates 10 euros from her pocket-money because she believes in the political cause.

Trying to buy off politicians is not normal behaviour, and it should not be accepted as such. The vast majority of donors don’t do it. Making a donation to a political party is, like voting, a political statement.

Now that Silvio Debono is in the eye of a political scandal while concurrently asking members of the public to buy to take on his exposure to the banks by buying it up as a bond, he owes the public a treatise on his political beliefs.

In 2015, the Nationalist Party fought strongly, right from the get-go, against the transfer of public land to Hani Hasan Naji Al Salah, for the ‘American University of Malta’. It did the same with the government’s power station plans, and with Mark Gaffarena’s deal on the house in Old Mint Street. And the words ‘Café Premier’ are burned into all of our minds.

In its document about good governance, the Nationalist Party said that it wants all contracts signed between the government and private companies/individuals to be published and scrutinised in parliament. Did Silvio Debono agree with that when he made his donations? Has he changed his mind, and why does he think that he is a special case who fully deserves a large tract of public land in a prime area?

In its document on good governance, the Nationalist Party gives a slew of proposals on how to avoid conflicts of interest. Is Debono exercised by matters of conflict of interest, or does he think that donating to two opposing political parties raises conflicts of interest of his own?

What about employing Lou Bondi, who worked for the Prime Minister and now works for the Justice and Culture Minister? What about retaining the professional services of deputy leader of the Nationalist Party?

Among other things, the Nationalist Party has insisted that people in public life should not “associate themselves with unsavoury characters”. As a donor to this political cause and as someone striking deals with the government, does Silvio Debono feel that consorting with some of the individuals whose company he prefers is somehow concomitant with his political beliefs?

The Nationalist Party, to which Debono donated so handsomely, believes that the only reason Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and, quite possibly, Joseph Muscat himself, opened secret companies in Panama is to hide illicit gains. What is Debono’s view on this matter and what assurances can he give that his own secretive company in the British Virgin Islands (Evergreen Ltd.) is not used for anything illegal?

In its proposals for better governance, the Nationalist Party made it very clear that it wants to “remove the law permitting journalists and media organisations to be sued for criminal libel”. Does Debono support this position and does he feel that filing 19 simultaneous libel suits (probably a record) against the same journalist, on blog-posts all related to the same matter, conflict with this policy?

I very much look forward to reading the answers to all these questions and learning more about Silvio Debono’s political beliefs. Lou Bondi should take note and make sure that the answers are released well before any bonds for the project in St. George’s Bay are issued. After all, impact investing is the hottest trend in business right now.