The consiracy theories surrounding the arrest warrant for Harry Vassallo are not the real story behind all this. I have no intention of going into the merits of who is behind it. The story is very very dirty indeed. I will assume that this story is ther result of a mindless bureaucracy acting like a headless chicken. To my mind the real issue is that the law is an ass.
We have a number of laws where penalties do not match the 'crime' or better the fault. Harry Vassallo has explained that no tax was evaded and yet he is slapped with am Lm 6000 fine or two years imprisonment. To the law is the one that needs to be changed. These laws are arbitrary and to my mind whoever drew these laws does not have any idea what justice is.
One issue which surprises me is why the President of the Republic declined to issue a pardon to Harry Vassallo while issuing almost two hundred such pardons for VAT offences to others and especially since this time no actual tax was evaded.
No wonder people are alienated from politicians and that the best minds in Malta are not interested in a political career.
My plea is that these draconian penalties for minor failures should be abolished and replaced with punishments which reflect the seriousness or otherwise of the fault. Seeing how this election campaign has gone I wonder why I remain 'everhopeful'.
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3 comments:
OPM have said why Vassallo's petition for a Presidential pardon has been refused: he is too lazy to fill in the VAT forms.
Saviour Balzan says that, well, it's just that he's too disorganised in his personal life. Fine. But then let's not hand him any power over our public life. And not to let him expect any special treatment just because, unlike the rest of us, he can't be bothered with the paperwork.
Come on Fausto my point is that the punishments meeted out by the bureaucracy are exaggerated compared to the 'offence'. Frankly prison time for someone who did not cheat on his tax is somewhat exaggerated don't you think? No-body should be sent to prison for being disorganised. What do you say? A 50 Euro fine would be more than enough punishment. We are not living in Victorian times my friend.
With regards to the President, I must say that I remain somewhat sceptical. First of all it was his and Dalli's Government which made these laws.
Considering that the President has issued around 130 pardons because of this law doesn't his fine conscience tell him that there is something wrong with the law and that something should be done about it?
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