As the situation unfolds dramatically by the hour, thanks also to that investigative work that was supposed to be done by the police but, instead, is being done by honest journalists, it is becoming more and more obvious that Malta needs to oust the present government and aim for a new, clean government.
The continuous incapability (or is it unwillingness?) of Robert Abela to take proactive action rather than react when it is too late makes him unfit for the job.
The past five months have revealed Abela for what he really is: a weak prime minister without a real moral compass, acting not in the interests of the Maltese, but, rather, in the interests of scoundrels, the likes of Muscat-Schembri-Mizzi, and of powerful ‘blackmailing’ lobbies, such as the developers, the hunters and the big hoteliers.
To put it mildly, Abela has been duped various times during these five months.
He hit the road running… with one gaffe after another. I will not mention his continuous arrogant undermining of the instructions given by the Chris Fearne-Charmaine Gauci tandem during the coronavirus heyday.
Instead, I will limit myself to a few examples of gross mishandling of critical issues that have to do with the corrupt, unethical lot running the country during Joseph Muscat’s premiership.
To start off with, just a week after being sworn in as Malta’s prime minister, on January 20, he allowed Keith Schembri to travel to Tunisia (and who knows to whatever other follow-up country?)
At the same time, Abela never realised that Konrad Mizzi had carved out for himself the cushy €80,000 salaried job as Malta Tourism Authority consultant. It was only Times of Malta that outed him last January 27.
Then, on January 24, he appointed supposedly disgraced former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar as a government consultant earning €31,000 a year.
In the meantime, he continued having full faith in Chris Cardona as deputy leader of the Labour Party for months, until he was forced to kick him out because of events.
Not content with having let the ‘Kasco’ mastermind of all the Labour Party dirty dealings travel to the North African state, Abela allowed his former disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat, to travel to Miami on March 8, the day of Malta’s first registered COVID-19 case, maybe in order to fix up his financial affairs? Maybe in Panama, one hour’s flight away? This was not enough for Abela. Less than a week later, on March 13, he again allowed Muscat to travel during the full COVID-19 pandemic to London.
Robert Abela is a weak prime minister without a real moral compass
This time, it was together with his wife and young children, instead.
Was this risky journey to the European COVID-19 hotspot (and financial capital) absolutely necessary?
At the end of April, Neville Gafà said he had assisted to help out in Abela’s migrant pushback attempt to Libya.
A few days later he started paying Labour Party donor Michael Zammit Tabona €9,000 a day for the use of the Captain Morgan vessels in another failed pushback operation.
On June 18, Abela’s Labour Party was amply rewarded for the prime minister’s generosity with taxpayers’ money, since the Captain Morgan owner and staff donated €108,000 to the PL.
A tit-for-tat bilateral agreement?
This is just another blatant ‘in your face’ example of financial abuse by a political party.
And then, the cherry on the cake: at the beginning of May, he employed former disgraced Muscat as an economic consultant.
For all this, the Abela government has to go.
Could it be substituted by a PN government? It should, but in reality, as things stand in the PN camp, it cannot. Make no mistake: Malta can never have Adrian Delia leading it as prime minister.
Delia is disqualified for his proven past and present record. The past holder of a secret bank account in Jersey and the present heavily indebted Delia can never be our prime minister.
After Muscat, after Abela, Malta cannot afford to have a blackmailable prime minister.
With Delia and the likes of Kristy Debono and Hermann Schiavone, the PN bowl beggars of the 17 Black account owner, PN cannot be trusted with leading the country.
Until the PL and the PN make a clean sweep of their stables, what is desperately needed at next elections is a coalition of honest independent candidates for a ‘Better Malta’.
The Maltese electorate must be provided with the choice of voting for clean independent candidates if we aspire to have a ‘Malta Aħjar’.
Arnold Cassola, former secretary-general of the European Greens