Many believe that corruption has become so deeply ingrained that it will be difficult to root out.

Some cultures, especially within small societies, like ours, may be willing to allow a degree of tolerance for certain forms of favours. The problem is such pjaċiri – which, in Maltese, also literally means pleasures, apart from favours – can easily get out of hand and become widespread corruption. Regretfully, such is this country’s experience.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech says Labour “corrupted minds”. In reality, it is not just minds Labour has corrupted but the very systems and structures put in place along the years to serve deserving citizens as fairly as humanly possible. This was confirmed by its present leader, Robert Abela, when, reacting to the driving tests scandal, he declared that the transport minister and the customer care team were doing their job. It was a statement shunned by the big majority, including Labour sympathisers, as indicated by a recently commissioned Times of Malta survey.

Such crooked thinking on how public administration should work, coupled with a culture of impunity create the right environment for institutionalised abuse.

Grech put it this way: “What we normally consider as ‘bad’ is nowadays perceived as ‘good’ and we attack what is good, making it seem as though it’s bad. For the government, the good is theft, bribery, deception, forgery and fraud.”

It is only the politically blinkered and/or those with a finger in the pie who would disagree. Indeed, the big majority – nine out of 10, according to a study conducted in the second quarter of this year – think corruption is widespread.

The Eurobarometer survey had also found that bribery and abuse of power for personal gain is most prevalent where political parties are involved. Politicians too rank high in this list of shame.

A very worrying factor emerges from this research. Though the Maltese are the most likely among Europeans to know where to report corruption, they are discouraged to do so due to lack of protection and a feeling that it is all pointless since perpetrators will still get away with it.

Perhaps more than corruption itself, this is the biggest tragedy this country has been living in recent years.

Wrongdoing, abuse and corruption may not be accepted or tolerated but most people fear there is nothing to be done about it. The best they can do is, through valiant NGOs, keep pushing for justice to ultimately prevail. Still, the odds seem to be stacked against them: police investigations are long in coming and prosecutions very few and, usually, aimed at the small fry.

In the meantime, rather than condemning this institutional corruption and putting his foot down for a thorough reform to eradicate it, the prime minister keeps insisting the institutions work.

He even says he “actually set up structures to avoid corruption”. If he did, they have evidently failed miserably, unless such “structures” have unearthed more filth but kept it hidden from the people.

Abela does not even appear to be bothered by the reputational damage this dark and sinister state of affairs has and continues to cause to the country he swore to serve and bear “true faith and allegiance” to.

The problem of corruption did not start in 2013. It’s been there for decades. But Labour turned it into an art form. And the more corruption becomes deeply ingrained, the more difficult us becomes to root out, with the present young and future generations thinking all is fair in ensuring personal gain.

It is only by boosting transparency and accountable governance that the rise of corrupt minds can be reined in.