Public opinion surveys keep giving Prime Minister Robert Abela a good lead over his political adversaries. However, he knows that this popularity has not been achieved on his own merit alone, and that he inherited most of it from his predecessor Joseph Muscat, who still enjoys massive support within Labour ranks. 

Abela clearly lacks Muscat’s charisma. So he seeks to endear himself to others by his extravagantly histrionic behaviour and inappropriate, colourful comments. A case in point was his audacious declaration that “waves are only found at sea”, in reply to the warning given by health professionals about the prospect of a second coronavirus wave.

During a visit to Libya last May, Abela and his entourage choose to expose themselves to a high risk of contracting the coronavirus by blatantly failing to comply with basic preventive measures.

Abela, together with Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, set a bad example to their own countrymen when they kept close proximity to Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and other Libyan officials without wearing a mask. Their omissions become even more serious when considering the increased vulnerability to the spread of the virus in Libya as a result of the destruction of health infrastructure by the ongoing civil war.

However, quite astoundingly, on their arrival in Malta, Abela and his delegation were exempted by the Superintendence of Public Health from following the 14-day mandatory quarantine period imposed at the time on all arrivals from whichever country.

The lame excuse offered for this scandalous exemption was that the period of time spent abroad by Abela and his dele­gation was very limited, and that the trip was an urgent one intended to provide an essential service on a national security emergency.

By the weak position that it adopted, the Superintendence of Public Health has rendered itself derelict in its duty of protecting the health of the public at large by controlling the spread of the virus. If anything, it confirmed that in Malta there are laws for the gods and laws for the animals.

The same lack of compliance with ba­sic precautions to prevent COVID-19 trans­mission occurred in the course of a subsequent return visit to Malta by a Libyan official delegation. On his arrival at the airport the Libyan prime minister was wearing a mask, but Bartolo and Camilleri who welcomed him did not feel the need to take the same precaution.

Robert Abela opted to stay out of sight during the last press conference where Chris Fearne tried to repair the inflicted harm- Denis Tanti

Not only has Abela persistently failed to observe elementary measures intended to decrease the risk of spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing and wearing a mask, but he also came out with the idea of introducing a mechanism that will refund fines issued to people for breaching health regulations. This move has been widely considered as an insult to frontliners in the fight against COVID-19, and a cheap way of winning the votes of the fined offenders.

During the weekly mass political gatherings, Abela plays the untouchable as he persists in ignoring scientific advice, and is copied by his audience. However, Abela would not dare defy the mask-wearing guidelines in the presence of other EU leaders. In Malta, anything goes for him, but not in Brussels. In fact, Abela was seen wearing a face mask in the public for the first time during his attendance at the recent EU summit.

Abela has forged ahead with his plan to keep the country open for business by playing down tailored infection prevention measures on COVID-19, and has appointed his disgraced predecessor as his advisor on the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. This has led to the current spike of COVID-19 cases.

The Medical Association of Malta accused the Office of the Prime Minister with continued interference in the work of the Superintendent of Public Health and a chorus of condemnations by various organisations of health care professions have followed. Even Charles Messina, the Health Commissioner in the Office of the Ombudsman, has supported the direction from the health authorities.

Abela, who is renowned for the pomposity with which he addresses long press conferences on COVID-19, transmitted directly on the state-funded Television Malta during prime viewing time, had opted to stay out of sight during at a press conference where Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne tried to repair the inflicted harm.

Abela reached an over-the-top theatricality during one of his marathon press conferences, as he launched a frontal attack against civil society movement Repubblika. In a melodramatic tone he insisted that “there were some who want to see (him) serve life in prison” with a clear reference to Repubblika. He ignited the xenophobic sentiment as he painted the movement as an enemy of the nation after they had spoken out on behalf of the voiceless migrants who were left to die of thirst at sea on Easter Monday, following a cabinet decision to prevent rescue vessels from bringing people rescued at sea to Malta.

Abela’s theatricality reached a level of comic absurdity last month when he announced he had set a deadline for a missing memorandum of understanding between the government and Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) on the privatisation of the Gozo, St Luke’s and Karen Grech hospitals to be found. This document had been previously requested by Auditor General Charles Deguara in connection with the investigation held by his office into this shady deal, but was denied by Abela’s predecessor Joseph Muscat under the pretext that he had no idea where it might have been.

As if Abela had some form of magical power, abracadabra, the lost document appeared just before his deadline expired. Yet, he neither said where it had come from nor gave the names of the government officials who had signed it.

Abela has not proved to be his own man as he keeps governing under Muscat’s shadow. His theatricality may suffice to please blinkered Labourites and the party faithful, but he can be sure that he will not be able to continue fooling all the people all the time.

Denis Tanti is a former assistant director in the health ministry.