Joseph Muscat, the former prime minister, criminally oriented and dangerously connected with the business and criminal Mafias, has fallen from grace.
Yet, he is not exonerated. He has managed to retain his parliamentary seat with the blessing of his former cabinet members and the present incoming ambitious new prime minister.
Instead of becoming a normal citizen like you and me, subject to criminal investigations aswell as to potential perjury charges together with Karl Cini, Keith Schembri and many other businessmen involved, he will continue to steer away from being charged.
Yet, this immunity will not last forever and, since prescription for crimes by public elected officials had been eliminated by Muscat himself, this may eventually prove to be his downfall, in the longer term. The Buddha was known for his patience and this is the lesson for our outgoing prime minister.
For the incoming upstart who appeared from nowhere with parental credentials that seem to carry him along, there is one other lesson that the Buddha has taught the world, and it is the following: “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth… not going all the way, and not starting”. The Buddha said it all 2,500 years ago.
Our new prime minister immediately decided not to start on the road to truth because he preaches continuity in the same criminal and tribal path of his predecessor, mentor, idol, friend, client, employer through direct orders…
On the other hand, the small changes to the cabinet, eliminating or moving to minor roles some of the protagonists of the past six and a half years of the plunder of our national assets, gives a slight hope that some feeble steps have been taken in the right direction.
Buddha was known for his patience and this is the lesson for our outgoing prime minister
Yet, one may question whether this is not just a sinecure, “bżar fl-għajnejn”, to distract our attention from the plan – to continue along the same path with the business friends, the backshish, the secret Panama, Dubai and Virgin Island accounts, the same Electrogas deal, the same DB high rise in Pembroke, the same Zammit Tabona high-rise office block on what is solely a tourist activity lease, the same police chiefs, army chiefs, AG, PA board, and so on... With Buddha’s patience, Malta awaits your decision, dear new prime minister.
Why did you not go to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memorial or to her family to beg forgiveness for her brutal Mafia-like car bomb assassination under the watch of your mentor and predecessor?
When are you going to start clearing Malta’s name in the corridors of power in Europe?
I spent five years of my life, from 1992 to 1996, in Brussels following the disaster caused by your mentor’s mentor, the magnificent Dom Mintoff.
Such was the damage to Malta’s name that it took several years to begin to repair it. And even though some repair to the damage was successfully carried out, the Europeans knew in their heart of hearts that this was just an Elastoplast-job covering the wound but not eliminating the causes. We had attacked the symptoms but failed to cure the patient.
In 2013, when a second plundering crusade started, the Elastoplast fell off and the wound reappeared, and the Europeans, who had always told us in the 1990s, in spite of our determination to persuade them differently, that they did not trust Malta and the Maltese, may be proven right.
Please do something now to convince them they are wrong.
Remember, as Fra Cristoforo told the villain Don Rodrigo in I Promessi Sposi, “in quanto a voi, sentite bene quell ch’io vi prometto. Verra’ un giorno!”
The Europeans have many powerful tools to operate against Malta included in Article 7 procedure. The EU can eliminate Malta’s voting rights in the European Council, and they could stop the payment of EU funds until Malta returns to good governance and proper application of the rule of law.
That would be the day!
John Vassallo is a former ambassador.