The country is undoubtedly in crisis. And it is in crisis on several fronts.

First, politically. We are on the verge of entering a state of chaos as Labour MPs go into open rebellion against retaining in office Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, known as the great unifier, cannot resist that pressure for much longer if he wants to avoid splintering his party.

The cracks are already highly visible as prominent ministers hurl acrimonious accusations at one another. If Schembri and Mizzi do not go of their own accord, Muscat will have to wield the hatchet himself, however begrudgingly.

Unsurprisingly, Muscat yesterday got a unanimous vote of endorsement from his party’s MPs.

That, however, does not mean fair political weather will prevail. His MPs might have been temporarily placated but they know the storm is far from over.

Muscat’s closeness with Schembri and Mizzi means the questions he is evading – over why he is reluctant to sack them, what he may know and how long has he known it – will eventually catch up with him. There is no escape, and his MPs know that. The political crisis will be far from over after Schembri and Mizzi eventually go.

The country is also facing a crisis of governance. The minds of ministers and others who make executive decisions are preoccupied with trying to shield themselves from the political fallout and emerging from it as undamaged as possible. They are in a struggle for survival, hardly conducive to concentrating on the affairs of state.

The country has a constitutional crisis on its hands too. Whatever Muscat may say, the institutions are not functioning as they should. He himself proves it by his closeness to the murder investigation which should be utterly independent of any political influence, all the more so given the political implications it holds. 

This is a country where a minister and an official at his ministry were questioned by the police over the weekend, and yet, it appeared to be business as usual yesterday.

The nation is also in the throes of a worsening reputational crisis. Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne was right when he said the damage done to Malta’s reputation by those involved in the murder is “almost irreparable”.

In a normal country, heads would have rolled long ago, and those who did wrong would have been prosecuted. But this is not a normal country.

For the umpteenth time, the world’s media spotlight is on Malta. The reputational damage is not being caused only by those who carried out the murder and commissioned it. It also arises out of the perception that the political and institutional responses to the assassination and the circumstances that appear to surround it – financial fraud and corruption – have been manifestly inadequate.

Redemption has come in the form of the murder-related arrests – we have to pay tribute to the courage and determination of those police officers and investigators who were behind them.

But this does not diminish the fact that senior government officials with secret offshore accounts have never been hauled in for questioning, let alone prosecuted.

The ship of state badly needs to be steadied. Muscat could have calmed the heavy seas by sacking two colleagues when they were caught with their hand in the till. 

As a result, we are now faced with a multi-pronged crisis that only Labour itself can resolve.