The appearance of Joseph Muscat in court at the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry has further convinced me of the large inequalities that exist in our country. The powerful help each other out and are treated in a privileged way vis-à-vis the ordinary citizen. Alas, in this specific instance, Muscat was even allowed to dictate the way proceedings were to be held in court.

The first sign of arrogance at the hearing, as reported in the papers, came from Muscat’s lawyer, Paul Lia. According to the reports, Muscat’s legal counsel asked what criteria were used to allow people into the courtroom. Since when have lawyers started acting as doormen at the law courts? He was immediately informed that the procedure was the usual one, on a first-come first- served basis.

But compared to what was to come a few minutes later, this was just child’s play.

Muscat, as any other witness, was rightly entitled to make a statement at the sitting. But his supposed statement turned out to be an arrogant 20 minute exercise in chastising the three judges presiding over the sitting.

Muscat embarked on a furious diatribe against the way they were behaving in the inquiry. He started by telling them off, stating that he was the one who had appointed the inquiry and he expected the proceedings to be carried out the way he wanted it.

Not content with his initial barrage, he proceeded to actually humiliate the three members of the inquiry. He pointed out that Caruana Galizia had been scrutinising the Nationalist opposition during the election campaign for PN leader and in the few weeks following the election of Adrian Delia. It was the times characterised by the “Biċċa blogger” utterance. “What happened to the investigation of this aspect,” remonstrated Muscat, sporting his habitual defying smirk.

Muscat then went on to pour further salt into the three judges’ wounds: “Your investigation is so shallow”, he ridiculed them. “It seems you asked very little on how Daphne’s death could have been avoided.”

The drubbing continued when he accused them of ignoring issues linked to the protection of other journalists, such as Frans Ghirxi and Saviour Balzan.

The silence of the three judges left me dumbfounded. Muscat was chiding them like two-year-olds and they let him continue unhindered. Had I or Joey, the grocer, or Mary, the secretary, adopted 20 per cent of Muscat’s attitude and tone, we would have been fined at least €200 for contempt of court. But Muscat symbolises power and all that the board could finally answer was: “It is not our duty to enter into an argument with you.”

My blood curdled to see such an arrogant representative of power being treated with velvet gloves.

Joseph Muscat was chiding the judges like two-year-olds and they let him continue unhindered- Arnold Cassola

I am convinced that Muscat’s initial whipping of the members of the inquiry board did condition the rest of the session.

I was flabbergasted to see the judges block all questions which they considered to be of a “political” nature. But, sorry, is this not an inquiry into the behaviour of the Maltese state? And what can be more political in life than the behaviour of a national state? Yet, any question deemed to be political was immediately blocked. Muscat’s initial ‘statement’ had obtained the required result.

Indeed, his arrogant attitude emboldened his lawyer, Lia, to imitate his political master and he, thus, addressed the board: “No, no. The family have a right to observe. They are the ones deciding who to summon, what to ask. They are the ones deciding... and the PN. And you have a narrative, you already know where you are heading.” Of course, no contempt of court for Lia, the privileged one.

Yet, despite Muscat’s serious intimidatory attitude, interesting information still came up about how men of power work in Malta. Our man from Burmarrad justified his intimacy with businessmen... because even the Nationalists were close to business people. “I wasn’t just close to certain businessmen, I was close to all of them. That’s intimacy. There is nothing wrong with it,” he stated with a brazen face.

And to prove that Maltese political leaders are led by the nose by rich and powerful businessmen, Muscat confirmed that for his famous Girgenti “Ma tagħmlu xejn” Petrus birthday party, various businessmen had been invited... but no minister.

Power, and the abuse of it, also came up in Muscat’s declared relationship with the police authorities. Hand on heart, the former prime minister swore that he had never asked the police what to do because it was not within his remit. But then he confessed that it was the police themselves who informed him of whatever they believed they should inform him about. Can you imagine the scene: “I never asked Lawrence anything... it was Lawrence who came to tell me.” Simply ludicrous.

But the cherry on the cake, which shows Muscat’s contempt for the ordinary people and his reverence towards the rich and powerful, was his unashamed admittance that when the FIAU was investigating the ultimate beneficial owner of SmartCity, who turned out to be the ruler of Dubai, Muscat answered: “Ma tarax, as if we’re going to bother the Dubai ruler by asking for his electricity bill.” According to Muscat’s warped logic, the rich and powerful are entitled to immunity... even if suspected of financial infringements.

This is supposed to be a political leader with a social conscience.

Ħallina, Ġuż.

Arnold Cassola is an independent candidate and former secretary general, European Greens.