We now have a prime minister who has created and controls a spider’s web that spreads into every facet of governance – a web designed to be a one-stop shop for exchanging your democratic right to vote for something you would otherwise have to wait long for or for something you otherwise are clearly not entitled to.

This man has described this as a “political system based on helping people”.

You keep failing your driving licence test? Are you facing disconnection of your energy supply for non-payment? Are you two years back in the queue for an elective health procedure?

Can fake medical certificates add an extra €450 to your monthly income? Are you still waiting for some childcare places?

Do you need a bit of a leg up in anything else?

No worries. Get in touch with the minister, or one of his canvassers or,  if you don’t know where to go, just contact customer care staff at Castille or at the relevant ministry.

This is Robert Abela’s modern “customer care system” – run exclusively by party activists who have been put on the public payroll with the sole scope of rewarding party loyalists and opportunists alike, who are ready to sell their vote in return for gaining preferential treatment over other mortals.

The system has no limits. There is no line that cannot be crossed. 

It manufactured fake and forged certificates that were allegedly passed on by a sitting Labour MP for years. He did not act alone.

Some lower-level party activists ran the same racket as a private business, even charging fake disability beneficiaries their first 12 months of fake entitlements.

The system’s success depends on its easy access to a database of the electorate, street by street, house by house, with notation as to the political leanings of each and every one of us.

Some have ‘PL’ or ‘?’ next to their names while those noted as ‘PN’ are ignored.

Genuine cases that go through the proper legal channels are thus penalised, humiliated and disadvantaged. These are the unfortunate majority.

Robert Abela’s system has no limits. There is no line that cannot be crossed- Eddie Aquilina

Abela realised two years ago that the benefits racket was getting out of hand and was about to reach the light of day. Labour MP Silvio Grixti, allegedly at the core of this criminal activity, was quickly and quietly ‘retired’ from politics and – yes, that’s how it goes – immediately compensated with some well-paid pseudo consultancies to guarantee his silence. He so far avoids proper investigation.

A country like Singapore was once known internationally as totally corrupt.

Things only changed for the better when a conscientious and serious police commissioner adopted a policy of not prosecuting small fish but using them to go after the big sharks in government.

This will never happen under Abela or any other ambitious leader hopeful in the present Labour Party. The Jean Paul Sofia saga is sufficient proof to us that all of them have no backbone.

Present day Malta is no different to what Singapore was like once. Half the new national debt over the past 10 years belongs entirely to a litany of corrupt deals involving hundreds of millions of euros.

Ten years ago, the then honest gentleman prime minister, Lawrence Gonzi made the following phrase in public: “Under a Labour government one is ashamed to be called Maltese.” Prophetic words indeed.

Since then, we have had two Labour prime ministers, Joseph Muscat and Abela, who have done their best to prove him right.

Malta needs saving.