Joseph Muscat’s conversion to destructive neoliberalism went deeper than people realised. A few days ago, Anna Khakee wrote an article in the EU Observer posing the question: “Does Malta’s Labour Party now belong in S&D?”

She was challenging whether the Labour Party was still at home as a member of the Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament; whether they still share its values.

I consider it a very valid question indeed, especially given what I learned in recent months, thanks to Partit Demokratiku’s membership of Renew Europe – formerly ALDE.

Apparently, Muscat hired Sandro Gozi as a liberal adviser, whom he shared with France, because he planned to pull the Labour Party out of S&D so as to join Renew Europe and take his place as a liberal in Europe.

Perhaps these intentions were linked to his future ambitions for a European job, having lost his friends within S&D, where he was long opposed by MEP Ana Gomes.

In any case, it is clear that Muscat ultimately betrayed the founding principles of the Labour Party through his neoliberal agenda.

Although the two leadership contenders for Labour made a show of embracing him during his farewell tour, the fact that they are distancing themselves from his actual work tells a different practical story for his legacy.

Malta and Gozo were put up for sale during Muscat’s tenure, and there were many buyers to be bound, from as far afield as Azerbaijan and Russia.

Muscat’s followers followed him as if he were a god, despite his betrayal of the party’s principles and the breaking of his promises.

Thanks to party propaganda in particular, he managed to build a fervent cult of personality around himself, to the point that he could do no wrong at all.

The sort of god he became was not a benevolent one but…driven on by personal desires and destructive flaws

Yet, the sort of god he became was not a benevolent one but the sort one finds in mythology, driven on by personal desires and destructive flaws. We now know that the assassination plot against Daphne Caruana Galizia was put back into action as soon as it became clear that Labour was going to win the 2017 election. Muscat’s refusal to take action against corruption in his administration, for whatever reason, led to the death of a journalist, and the sale of our country to shady businessmen.

One is reminded of a poem by Allen Ginsberg where he writes about the Canaanite god known as Moloch, depicting him as a metaphor for the cruelty and mechanisation of civilization.

“What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smoke-stacks and antennae crown the cities! Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the spectre of genius!”

So powerful was this cult that practically none within the Labour Party dared to challenge him, save for Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia, who paid a dear price for their honesty.

Thus, even when the country had taken a blatantly wrong direction, and even when many of those high up in the ranks of the Labour Party questioned what was going on, still they said nothing. It is evident now that they harboured serious doubts all along.

Of course, for many of those seeking justice, it is far too late now. Many more followed blindly, and some have woken up to the cruel fact that they had been deceived.

The pantomime will go on for now, at least until after the Labour leadership election. Afterwards, one hopes, there can be healing – otherwise, Muscat’s legacy will stand like a towering monument in a desert, as per Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias.

Yet, both candidates are promising to remove the police commissioner, and are hinting at far-reaching reforms, despite not attacking Muscat’s legacy directly.

Over time, history will remember Muscat’s cult for what it is.

To avoid it from ever happening again, however, drastic reforms are needed far beyond what are being promised by the Labour leadership candidates, despite the fact that I welcome their promises and hope for better times ahead.

Malta and Gozo need party financing reform, which may be on the agenda, but the country also needs reform in the media sector.

Abroad, there are stringent laws which prevent political party propaganda from growing too powerful, especially against party-owned television.

Our country desperately requires such reforms so as to prevent another cult of personality from growing, and adding another colourful character to our growing pantheon of political gods.

Malta and Gozo can ill afford, if at all survive, another Moloch.

Timothy Alden is a founding member of the Democratic Party.