Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi found Robert Abela abused of public funds, failed to respect the separation between the role of MP and cabinet member and trampled on the impartiality of the public service. The commissioner offered to close the case if Abela would only apologise, acknowledge breaking the ministerial ethics code and bind himself not to repeat the same breach in future. Abela refused.
Isn’t this the same Abela who brags that he respects the institutions? Wasn’t he the one who accused others of attacking the institutions? Now he’s insolently disrespecting the commissioner’s office by refusing the commissioner’s request for an apology.
Abela insists on checks and balances but, to him, that only means he’s got the right to dominate and defy the institutions.
Abela is completely unrestrained. His arrogance is staggering. No checks and balances apply to him. He’s assumed unlimited powers for himself. He behaves like an autocrat, not a democratically elected prime minister.
Abela’s own government website points out that Malta is a democracy with separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. It clarifies that “the separation of powers is in effect so that no part of government becomes limitless and totalitarian in such a way as to harm democracy”.
But the legislative branch, our parliament, is just a rubber-stamping joke presided over by a sycophantic speaker who’s made it his life’s mission to please Abela.
Abela simply changes inconvenient laws as he pleases. The magisterial inquiries reforms went through parliament at breakneck speed.
The opposition’s voice in parliament is simply drowned by Abela’s super-majority. Abela’s MPs are either part of the executive or bought with government positions. Nobody dares express dissent. Those who dare are swiftly silenced with an ambassadorship in Geneva. After all, every man has his price. As Abela quickly discovered, that price is pretty cheap because it’s not coming out of his pocket – it’s coming out of ours.
The judicial branch has no power over Abela either. The executive is meant to implement the judiciary’s decisions. But Abela simply ignores them or boldly defies the more annoying ones. The capitanerie restaurant, intended for Abela’s friends, Paul and Mark Gauci, tal-Gedida, is still standing despite the court’s decision. Ian Borg still enjoys his swimming pool, despite the court’s judgment that it shouldn’t exist. Joseph Portelli’s illegal developments were sanctioned in defiance of the court’s decision that they’re illegal.
Even worse, Abela regularly resorts to public intimidation and harassment of the magistrates he dislikes. He accused one of “political terrorism”. He called another lazy. He uses his party media machine to vilify and demonise them, even harassing their family members.
Abela doesn’t even have to worry about any police action despite the multiple NAO reports highlighting potential criminality by government officials. Angelo Gafà is hardly tripping himself pursuing evidence of criminal abuse by our government.
Nobody can stop Abela. He knows it and he flaunts it.
His utter contempt for the standards commissioner was evident in his arrogant response to the commissioner’s request for an apology: “My position is identical to the one I expressed in the other case K/052 (complaint 141).” That translates into: “I’m not going to apologise like I didn’t apologise last time round – and you can’t do anything about it.”
No matter how much power Robert Abela hijacks, deep down he knows that all autocrats fall- Kevin Cassar
Abela knows the standards commissioner is completely powerless. Abela knows exactly what happens next. The commissioner forwards his report to the parliamentary standards committee where Abela’s MPs will vote against endorsing it while the opposition MPs will vote in favour. Anġlu Farrugia will then cast his deciding vote and bury the case. The speaker will use the same excuse he’s used before – the guidelines on government advertising don’t have any legal standing.
The standards commissioner has been insisting with Speaker Farrugia to include those guidelines in the ministerial code for years. In July 2023, the commissioner told Farrugia “this situation should be addressed with urgency”. Farrugia just ignored him. He’s still ignoring him two years later.
Abela isn’t just insolently defying the commissioner. He’s breaking the law. In a judgment on inhibitory injunction 1768/2024/1, the court reiterated the principle that ministers should not appear in government adverts. But Abela couldn’t care less.
In his promotional video boosted on Facebook with taxpayers’ money there’s a whole lineup of ministers – Abela himself, Jonathan Attard, Miriam Dalli, Anton Refalo, Alicia Bugeja Said, Roderick Galdes, Clayton Bartolo, Glenn Bedingfield, Joe Etienne Abela and Omar Farrugia.
Abela is determined to keep using taxpayers’ money for political propaganda and to keep defying the judiciary. He insisted with the commissioner that it’s his government’s duty to “keep the public informed of its work”. He arrogantly declared that publishing that blatant political advert paid by taxpayers was “exerting his right to maintain communication with the public”.
Abela’s contempt knows no limits. He turned his guns on Karol Aquilina who lodged the complaint. “Today’s complaints are part of a series of most deplorable strategic manoeuvres, adopted by an exponent of the political party in opposition with the entirely abusive aim of creating a chilling effect on the government’s duty to deliver information to the public,” Abela wrote.
He added “the only abuse that should be rebutted in this case is that which was perpetrated by the complainant who is trying to muzzle the government in its communication with the public”.
How a photo of Refalo sitting next to Bugeja Said constitutes “communication with the public” is hard to grasp. What useful information a photo of Abela standing next to Attard communicates to the public is a mystery.
“The complaint is frivolous and unfounded,” Abela decided, “and should be rejected.”
The man Abela fought so hard to appoint standards commissioner disagreed. The complaint wasn’t frivolous. In fact, it was justified and Aquilina was right, according to Commissioner Azzopardi. Abela breached the code of ethics – four different articles of it – article 4.9, 4.10, 5.3 and 7.4.
The prime minister should be setting the example, humbly accepting the commissioner’s judgement and apologising. Instead, he’s viciously attacking the complainant, defying the commissioner and ignoring the courts.
Clifton Grima and Alex Borg have now followed suit, mimicking the insolence and disrespect of the prime minister.
Abela’s contempt and intimidation reveal his paranoia and insecurity. His bullying isn’t a sign of a strong, confident leader but the mark of an insecure, prickly authoritarian watching his back.
No matter how much power Abela hijacks, deep down he knows that all autocrats fall. It’s not a question of if but when.
Kevin CassarKevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.