Politics in Malta as we have known them are falling apart and the great unravelling has begun in earnest.  We have a government and an international reputation in free fall.  We have a parliament and a police force that are a sick and destructive parody of what they should be.

We have a cabinet that routinely and openly flouts the law and brags about it while mocking the population at large.  We have a state that again openly abuses other European Union countries and citizens and smirks while doing it.

And, between the current and previous PMs we have a contrived Russian roulette-style face off each daring the other to be first to pull the proverbial trigger while both claim innocence of anything and everything.  We have three hospitals with the needs and rights of their patients, staff and users being abused in a viciously corrupt virility contest between a multinational health corporation in ‘war’ mode and a trouser less government implicated red-handed at all levels and now visibly in panic mode.

What was designed and delivered as a secret deal for the benefit of a local and an international cabal of crooks is now exploding into the public domain creating an existential crisis for the government of Robert Abela, his cabinet, and his party.  Steward Healthcare is now on the attack while Abela is in retreat, flailing around and bellowing loudly.  Likewise Joseph Muscat, threatening many of not all of his former cabinet colleagues with collective political oblivion and possible criminal investigation.

On a daily basis we continue to experience at first hand the rapacious feeding frenzy on our nation’s resources, finances, and environment.  The utter hollowing out of our key state institutions, the promotion of devious, deliberately incompetent place people and a concerted campaign to muzzle public investigation and dissent continue unabated.

Meanwhile, the wealth of our land and people is deemed fair game for the anointed.

What a thoroughly rotten and dysfunctional state we currently endure.  The sheer scale of the mess we have become is breathtaking and its consequences yet to be fully measured and understood.

But (and it is crucial but for anyone who genuinely cares about Malta and its future), there are now initial signs that the hoped-for unravelling is underway.  An unravelling that will see this current regime devour itself due to its utter disregard for anything approaching truth, basic morality, accountability, and democracy. 

There are now four visible cracks in the corrupt political edifice constructed over the past ten years, cracks that will become fissures.

First up, we are beginning to witness dissent within the Government as Ministers manoeuvre for position, for office and as they begin to brief against each other.  The silence of some of the ‘titans’ of this regime on the hospitals’ scam is deafening; avoiding the blowback from the fan is becoming a priority.  Others, closely associated with the regime are now openly (and sadly very belatedly) critical.

Secondly, critical scrutiny, exposure, and public highlighting of the criminal behaviour of this Castille regime has been relentless and has not run out of substance or energy.  It is to the undying credit of those who have litigated, demonstrated, written and denounced in full public view this incarnation of Maltese ‘Labour’ especially when relentlessly attacked and vilified by that same regime and its foot soldiers.

Malta has not just one opposition but now many oppositions, stronger and more determined than ever, and more significantly internationalised than before.

Thirdly, there is an emerging shaft of light that suggests the public mood and, more importantly the public’s tolerance for the graft of this regime is weakening in the face of its deeply negative consequences.  Any considered conversation with Maltese of goodwill readily uncovers a weariness among people, a dread that deepens with each day’s batch of revelations that drag the country even further down.  

Many who held their noses and voted for Labour last time out while remaining dubious about a Nationalist alternative yearn for the political opportunity to make something different of this state, something more ethical and edifying that they can pass on to their children.  Given the opportunity, they would abandon this Labour in a millisecond. 

Finally, Malta is constantly under scrutiny internationally from the Council of Europe, the EU institutions and procedures, the Financial Action Task Force as well as from human rights, media and governance organisations.  It is intriguing to imagine what is included about Malta, its government and its institutions in ongoing reports from embassies here.

It is deeply unlikely that foreign diplomats are taken in by or even marginally impressed by this regime.

A great and most welcome unravelling is underway. How long it takes and with what level of damage is significantly dependent on that numerous and pivotal middle ground of Maltese people.  Only when they have stood up and are (literally) counted can the rescue and rebuilding agenda commence.