Labour veteran Joe Debono Grech seems to justify corruption… provided Labourites benefit. At least, that is what a normal-thinking person would conclude after hearing what the former MP and cabinet minister said at a political event in Gozo.
“People say all [politicians] are corrupt and they’re right. But we got nothing out of their corruption. At least, we gained something out of ours,” he said, to applause.
Debono Grech even quoted a passage from the bible: “Christ said there were two thieves. The good one and the bad one. We’re with the good one.”
“I am no thief,” Prime Minister Robert Abela replied when approached about it, adding the Labour Party had renewed itself to do away with such language.
Forget the irony that the same person who pledged continuity should speak of renewal, this was another occasion where Abela, as party leader, appears to have lacked foresight.
He certainly exercised no circumspection in allowing his predecessor, Joseph Muscat, to feature in certain Labour activities at the height of the electoral campaign.
In Debono Grech’s case, it is not his mere presence that is damaging but, rather, his ‘colourful’ language, something he is renowned for and which, to an extent, was a hallmark of his during his heyday in politics.
Though known to be a religious person – a sizeable statue of St Helen, the patron saint of his beloved Birkirkara, occupied a prominent place in his ministerial office – Debono Grech’s fiery political speeches used to be flavoured with abrasive statements.
Together with the late Danny Cremona, Debono Grech would often serve to ‘entertain’ the huge crowds attending Labour mass meetings, especially when unforeseeable circumstances delayed the running order, like the late arrival of Dom Mintoff.
Of course, entertainers are not barred from politics. Just to mention a recent and living example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a comedian before he became a politician, now proving himself to be a towering world statesman.
What one must watch out for, however, is serving politicians becoming comedians.
There were instances when Debono Grech went beyond his caustic talk. Mentioning two instances – one occurring just a few years ago and another dating back to the 1980s – should suffice.
In a rowdy sitting in parliament in late 2015, he was heard uttering threatening words at former Labour MP Marlene Farrugia after she crossed the floor. He later apologised.
Beyond politics, at the national stadium in Ta’ Qali, he was seen among a group of people who entered the match officials’ dressing room and threatened and attacked the referee during the interval of a football game between Sliema Wanderers and Birkirkara FC in early 1986.
This track record, to use a term that is very common in Abela’s vocabulary in this electoral campaign, should have raised the alarm the moment the prime minister learned about Debono Grech’s appearance at the Xewkija event.
He now has to go beyond condemning the language used by Debono Grech. He must also qualify what the staunch Labourite, who spent more than five decades representing the party in parliament, meant by Labour being the good thief and that the party had “gained something” from corruption.
As for Debono Grech, it would be good were he to acquaint himself also with what the present head of the Catholic Church thinks about corruption.
In an official video themed ‘Say no to corruption’, Pope Francis called to action “those who have material, political or spiritual power” and to pray so that they “may resist any lure of corruption”.