“Those politicians who, over the years, engaged in corruption, will, from this evening, have reason to be very worried because they know their sins will never go away.”

It’s hard to believe but those words were uttered by then prime minister Joseph Muscat on May 30, 2013, a few weeks after Malta became tagħna lkoll.

Endorsed by an unprecedented electoral majority, Labour promised a new beginning, where what is right would be celebrated and whoever engaged in corruption would be heavily punished. We were made to believe that the cabinet of ministers was serious with this pledge.

The reality couldn’t have been more different.

While Muscat and his cabinet were duping us with a fairy tale of how they were raising the bar for themselves to send a message that there is nothing more important than honesty in politics, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were busy opening bank accounts in Panama and facilitating corrupt deals at all layers of government.

Not a month goes by without new revelations highlighting what is now known to all, that Labour in government has been nothing but an unbelievable act of greed, manipulation and corruption.

The latest indictment comes from a report commissioned by the government itself: the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry, confirming all that we already knew and laying the blame for the journalist’s murder squarely on the Maltese state for the culture of impunity that was fostered from the highest layers of Muscat’s administration.

And we find ourselves facing yet another moment of incredulity. Those who were elected on the promise of fighting corruption are now being held collectively responsible for creating a situation in which corruption became the norm and the interests of the crooked gang that installed itself in Castille dwarfed any other.

Robert Abela wants us to believe that he has what it takes to break away from something that he himself helped put together- Chris Said

Prime Minister Robert Abela, who was Muscat’s legal adviser from June 2017 to January 2020 and who attended cabinet meetings in that period, had no choice but to address the nation and apologise for the mess his party has put the country in. But a more serious politician would have gone a step further and apologised for having witnessed such a meltdown while in Muscat’s cabinet without having ever uttered a single word.

So we are in a situation where the country has been greylisted by the international community for failing to take action against corruption and money laundering, redlisted by the United Kingdom as a country that is not serious about doing what is right and with a prime minister who is unable to turn the page.

By branding himself as the continuity candidate in the post-Muscat leadership election, Abela chose to keep a foot in the past and another one in the present. He now wants us to believe that he has what it takes to break away from something that he himself helped put together.

Even against the rosiest economic scenario, our country is facing a nightmare. Add to that the state of our finances, with soaring debt and deficit levels, a global economic outlook that is very much linked to an uncertain global pandemic, a drop in investment and concerns by more companies that are considering relocating and what you end up with is the perfect storm.

Malta’s reputation is in tatters and our prime minister lacks the credibility to change course.

With Malta having joined the likes of Syria, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Sudan on the FATF grey list, it should come as no surprise seeing our prime minister tolerating his sitting minister of justice exchanging hugs and emojis with the person accused with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. 

We have heard Abela say the government is taking the conclusions of the Caruana Galizia public inquiry seriously, that steps will be taken and that accountability will be restored.

However, Abela’s credibility is now lost.

We have had enough of rhetoric.

It’s only a question of time until the disaster that Labour brought to this country will be felt by all. The country needs to start afresh and the sooner a Nationalist Party government can start rebuilding this country into a thriving and modern democracy, the better it will be for all.