Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Civil Society Activists and the Malta Panamagate Scandal


The Panamagate scandal poses a serious threat to Maltese governance and democracy which, at the very least, requires the immediate resignation of Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.

Civil society stood up to be counted by means of a non-partisan declaration signed by persons coming from different political and non-political backgrounds. We called for the resignation of Mizzi and Schembri, and we are making it clear that all Members of Parliament (PL and PN) must declare any financial investments they may have made abroad in tax havens or other similar jurisdictions immediately.

We have also expressed our support for the independent media in its endeavour to cast light on this scandal and have deplored the attempts by other sections of the media to downplay or deflect attention from the facts which have emerged in the past week.

Last Saturday Simon Busuttil gave Joseph Muscat an ultimatum regarding the Panamagate issue and the PN has invited the public to join it in a protest. People are free to join this protest. I myself am a Green Local Councillor and will therefore not attend.

Other signatories are free to attend or not as they deem fit. It is, after all, a 'free world'.

All civil society activists who want to stand up to be counted against this political mess are meanwhile invited to sign our civil society appeal via this link:

http://mikes-beat.blogspot.com.mt/2016/02/appeal-by-civil-society-activists.html