Former judges are by definition not members of the judiciary, Mr Prime Minister
Ouch, I sat on a really hard decision.
Letting loose his inner teenage bitch in parliament tonight, the prime minister sought to transfer blame to the Opposition leader by accusing him of mounting an attakk fahxi on the judiciary.
Busuttil raised doubts about the inquiry, Muscat said, and this means he has attacked the retired judges and that in turn means that he has fired a fusillade at the judiciary, and this is intolerable in a democracy because he is putting pressure on them.
That man is such a circus act. I sometimes stop to wonder whether he is so poorly educated that he believes his own irrational trash, or whether he’s doing that Mintoff thing (hope it’s bucketing tomorrow, by the way) and manipulating his ignorant fans with skip-logic.
A judge who is retired is no longer a judge. That’s why he’s retired. Because he is no longer a judge. Therefore nothing anyone can say about retired judges can be construed as an attack on the judiciary – because they have retired from that august institution.
There’s more. Precisely because they are retired and no longer judges – and because they are not operating in court but in an informal inquiry – they are not required to be impartial and unbiased. They are not even required to look at all the evidence to examine a case. That is the job of the inquiring magistrate.
And that is exactly why the outcome of the inquiry is what it is, and why it is impossible to take it seriously.
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X’taghmel jekk ikollok prim ministru zattat?
I found it odd that they signed the inquiry report as Judge so and so.
Mintoff’s statue is already in situ, covered in yellow plastic, awaiting the commemoration ceremony.
It is a resignation matter if the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat does not know that the judiciary does not work to a letter of appointment and terms of reference set out by him.
Shame on you, Prime Minister.
And since when did Joseph give a toss about the judiciary?
Definitely not when he let Lino Farrugia Sacco run the clock down on his term of office and avoid his impeachment. Or when he appointed new judges who are not suitable, like Wen Zhou Mintoff.
Agree with you 100%. This so called inquiry left more questions that what we had before. Who is going to answer these questions now?
Explaining the difference between political responsibility and criminal responsibility was hard enough.
Now the Labour Party can’t seem to reconcile whistleblowing with data protection.
So they are onto a witch hunt to find out who leaked the tapes.
Busuttil recalled this:
But Labour leader Joseph Muscat, who described Cyrus Engerer as a “victim”, said he had no confidence in Judge Manchè, who also heads the Permanent Commission Against Corruption, which “in 12 years never found a case of corruption”.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110727/local/Judge-to-probe-police-action.377459
He managed to sleep the night the shooting took place (according to the inquiry). I wonder if he managed to get any sleep since then.
Muscat is learning that it not so easy being on the other side of the fence. Being the sort of big head he is and knowing what class the Opposition belongs to, it should be quite fun to watch them killing him softly with their speeches.
He has completely lost his composure, turning into frenzied panic mode.
It would be interesting to know whether this reaction is to deviate the attention from Malliagate, from which more interesting facts and information might soon emerge.
Bloody emeritus thingy.
You are very correct in saying that “They are not even required to look at all the evidence to examine a case”.
They did NOT interview/question Joseph Muscat and/or his head of secretariat, Keith Schembri.
Agreed Alf, and I believe that Mallia is going to go after him in a big way.
Joseph Muscat should realise that with each life he he steals and consoles himself with, the probabilities change.
Internal settings will try to control damage in the future but it is his nature to lie and trip up.
It is not only his credibility (what credibility?) that has reached the pits, but the moral authority of the whole of his sham Government.
That’s why a resignation is in order the first time round.
That’s four lives stolen.
Four times he should have resigned.
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I bet you now that we’re back to “normal,” Marlene is back to voting for “Joseph.”
Their sleaze makes me sick.
Joseph Muscat, stop talking crap.
It is utterly unacceptable for Prime Ministers to talk crap especially in a EU country.
For heaven’s sake and for Malta’s sake please grow up.
Stop being a Peter Pan.
If Muscat had any real argument he would be using that. Muscat himself is not so keen to follow the findings of the inquiry is he?
If he was going to fire the Minster anyway he did not need to continue to insist that he waits for the conclusion of the inquiry, yet the inquiry states that Mallia did not act maliciously but Muscat fired him. Mallia sites this and says it is the reason he did not resign.
The inquiry said Scerri denied certain facts which were later proven to be otherwise yet Muscat kept him.
Muscat is an expert at walking on the fence, this was never an attribute of a statesman. Let us see how good he is at continuing to fool people.
…(hope it’s bucketing tomorrow, by the way)…
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2014/12/10/ghada-mistenni-jkompli-l-maltemp-imsemmija-xita-u-anke-silg/
Yess! And on the 12th, it’s showers again.
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. – Maximilien Robespierre
Can we have the report PRESENTED BY THE BOARD OF INQUIRY? Then we can check if it is identical to the one published. We cannot trust this lot anymore.
It is also the reason why they should never have been appointed to prepare this report. They are retired.
They no longer represent the judiciary, they no longer have allegiance to justice, they are no longer bound by their oath.
Muscat goes on about transparency, accountability, etc. And then turns vicious when it is no longer a tool for him to use.
He is nothing but a sleazy hawker, who promises the earth to get the sale, but is then completely incapable of delivering the goods.
If he was the corporation he tries to project himself to be, we’d be suing his pants off for misrepresentation and gross negligence for the way he is running this country.
I’m not a lawyer, nor did I ever study or worked with jobs directly related to law. But I have what I consider ‘basic knowledge’.
Can the prime minister stop making a laughing stock of himself? Or bother to get proper adviser to his speech-writer?
The government lacks individuals who’ve got a basic idea of how to interpret the law. This includes those who actually are lawyers, like Owen Bonnici and Edward Zammit Lewis.
For instance, tonight in parliament Owen Bonnici was accusing Dr Busuttil of “attacking and undermining the judiciary”. Can somebody enlighten him that Dr Busuttil is not only the opposition leader, but also a member of the highest institution in Malta?
Also, he has EVERY right to have a political judgement just the same as every member of parliament?
In his letter of the 22nd November to Simon Busuttil, the prime minister refers to the board of inquiry as being composed of “nies li kienu jservu lil pajjizna bhala membri tal-gudikarura”. Past tense. He knows that ex-judges are no longer members of the judiciary.
Oh so if one criticises the ex Chief Justice Noel Arrigo, it qualifies as an attakk fahxi fuq il-gudikatura.
Had the retired judges still been part of the judiciary, the PM would have been unable to assign them this task, precisely due to the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary.
The PM’s ‘hard’ decisions have come back to bite him. Tghid Ray Zammit ha parir min ghand il-kugin? If Zammit’s statement to the press is not showing the middle finger to Joseph Muscat, I don’t know what is, more so when no sane person listening to the audios would say that Zammit did nothing wrong. This just highlights how wrong the PM was to retain Zammit.
” ‘…I don’t feel it was just because I did nothing wrong, Mr Zammit said about his removal from acting police commissioner.” TOM
One must remember that the inquiry, touted by Muscat as the basis for his decisions, also found fault with Zammit.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141211/local/former-acting-commissioner-i-did-nothing-wrong-will-continue-to-serve-in-the-police-force.547705