“We are living in heaven, even at this moment,” Robert Abela claimed a few months ago, “and this is because of the decisions we took.”
His declaration seems bold even by divine standards. For Abela, who staggers from one atrocious decision to the next, it’s nothing but fantasy. From petty issues to those of strategic importance, Abela consistently gets it wrong. If ever proof were needed of the magnitude of incompetence of Abela and his government, one day should suffice.
On Wednesday, July 21, Abela, gusher of bogus predictions, came out with some more. Good governance will be one of the five pillars of his vision and he will “successfully implement further reforms which boost resources to regulators”.
The prime minister was addressing a two-day financial services conference organised by Finance Malta about greylisting. Despite the pariah state Labour has brought Malta to, Abela deludedly claimed “we are starting with considerable trust”.
That trust was so considerable that the next day, Thursday, July 22, all hell broke loose. The UK put Malta on the high-risk list for money laundering and terrorist financing, along with Haiti and South Sudan. Malta joined Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea and Panama. Malta is the only European Union country on that list. This latest devastating blow will not deter Abela from convincing himself and his population that living in Malta is paradise.
Our UK high-risk listing will bring increased monitoring. Significant progress will need to be demonstrated on a list of recommendations in order to be removed from that list. But if the FATF greylisting didn’t stop the sun rising on our blissful island, as Edward Zammit Lewis pointed out, the UK high-risk listing certainly won’t.
Abela’s government was too busy reeling from its own mess. That very day, a young motorcyclist driving along the shiny new Iklin road was seriously injured when a culvert came off. Triq il-Wied, which connects Naxxar to the Birkirkara Bypass through l-Iklin, is a one-kilometre stretch of road. It took over 18 months for the road to be re-opened to the bombastic bragging of Transport Minister Ian Borg.
Those 18 months were sheer hell for the residents and road users. Building Energy Technologies Ltd was awarded the contract for the road works but repeatedly missed targets. When it gave up, it subcontracted the work to another company. The road was partially opened in May 2021 but sections of newly laid tarmac started coming off.
Malta joined Haiti, South Sudan Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea and Panama on the UK’s high-risk list for money laundering and terrorist financing- Kevin Cassar
After spending €1.2 million on the short stretch of road, Abela’s government promised it would finally be opened in the first week of June. That target was missed once again. When the road eventually opened, in July, culverts were laid so amateurishly that they started coming off as cars drove over them. The unfortunate motorcyclist was lucky no vehicle was coming in the opposite direction when he crashed. Days after the accident, the culvert of the new road remains unrepaired with barriers around it in the middle of the road and traffic swerving to avoid it.
That same day, just a stone’s throw away, heavy machinery was rolling over the Grade 1-listed Wignacourt Aqueduct. Residents were desperately calling the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage as heavy diggers on Borg’s Central Link project were literally riding roughshod over the prized 17th century structure. Application PA9890/17 specified that works would be kept at a safe distance from the architectural gem. Photos showed those conditions were completely ignored. At the last minute, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage halted the works.
Meanwhile, that afternoon, COVID-positive French students were airlifted home. Having enticed them with a €300 bait, and fuelling a third COVID wave, Abela’s government was frantically getting them off the island to keep the official number of active cases as low as possible. The Malta Tourism Authority admitted that repatriation was funded by Malta but refused to divulge the cost or how many students were transported.
Reuters, however, reported that 128 COVID-positive French students had been airlifted. Spanish and other students would also be transported home at Maltese taxpayers’ cost as Abela desperately attempted to mitigate the fierce negative publicity surrounding the debacle. Headlines such as ‘Malta kidnaps Italian students’ were the price Malta is paying for Labour’s fiascos.
By the evening of that Thursday, the prison authorities were compelled to admit that they had blocked prisoners’ access to Peppi Azzopardi. Azzopardi’s mobile phone number was blocked to stop prisoners communicating with him. Azzopardi petitioned the prison director and minister to no avail. When IĠM, the journalists’ association, intervened, prison chief operating officer Randolph Spiteri admitted that Azzopardi’s phone had been blocked. But they were not to blame, he insisted.
“The fact that the decision was taken before the current leadership, we are not in a position to give a reason why such a decision was taken,” Spiteri explained. Azzopardi’s phone was blocked on August 4, 2017. At the time, Labour was already in power. That number has been blocked for four years. Hadn’t the current leadership noticed? Nobody is buying Labour’s
pathetic excuses. Even IĠM roundly condemned the authorities for “outright censorship”. Home affairs Minister Byron Camilleri remained silent.
The following day, Owen Bonnici, previously found guilty of breaching human rights, pretended to defend them, not those of prisoners denied access to a journalist but the rights of Hungarian LGBTQI members. He pledged to “continue advocating for the respect of their rights”, while trampling on those very rights in Malta.
Because of decisions Bonnici took, we were deprived of our right to freedom of expression. Because of Abela’s decisions, Malta is on the EU’s travel red list and the UK list of money launderers and terrorism financiers, motorists sustain grievous injuries, our architectural heritage is destroyed and prisoners are denied their human rights.
All in one day. Like Shukhov, starving and freezing to death in a Soviet Gulag, in Solzehnitzyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the Maltese citizen can wearily sigh: “The end of an unclouded day, almost a happy one.”