On Tuesday, we heard Prime Minister Robert Abela state for the first time that justice needs to be done with Daphne Caruana Galizia and her family. This was quite a climb down from the usual posturing we have been accustomed to for the past four years from anyone connected to the Labour party and government. I had a distinct feeling of déjà vu. 

Abela’s routine reminded me of Joseph Muscat’s press conference which was held on October 16, 2017, on the day Caruana Galizia was killed. Muscat had made the right noises saying that “freedom of expression was attacked” and that he will leave “no stone unturned” while sporting a deep farrow.

He subsequently obstructed repeated calls for a public inquiry until Caruana Galizia’s family wore him down and he had to relent. Who can forget his mantras “Ħallu l-istituzzjonijiet jaħdmu” and the “case is solved” when referring to the corruption and murder of Caruana Galizia? Abela was his consultant at the time.

Abela’s press conference was held on the evening Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, pleaded guilty to murdering Caruana Galizia, securing a plea bargain after nearly three years of resistance from the Muscat and the Abela administrations. We were regaled with the usual triumphalism that this development illustrates that “the institutions are working”.

No, prime minister, had the institutions worked, Caruana Galizia would not have been killed and your former client and friends in government would not still be free. But Muscat must have been nodding somewhere and saying: “Bravu”. May I remind you that, after the Caruana Galizia family finally secured the public inquiry, you repeatedly tried to shut it down, prime minister?

The other common theme running through both press conferences 40 months apart is that Muscat and Abela seemed to speak favourably about Caruana Galizia after years of leading the charge against her. But don’t be fooled by semantics. Both played the “Look, how magnanimous we are” card when their backs were against the wall.

Muscat knew that Daphne’s killing was the beginning of the end for him. Likewise, Abela knows that this is a watershed moment and it spells trouble. Both have denied that politicians had anything to do with the assassination of the fiercest critic who uncovered rampant filth and corruption in their government.

It appears that Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà is singing from the same hymn sheet. ‘Case closed’ indeed. Now who said that before? What happened to the promise you made in August 2020 that prosecutions linked to money laundering are imminent, commissioner? No evidence linking politicians in this case too? Wednesday’s arraignment was also so reminiscent of the theatrics of the raid on the potato shed in December 2017.

Prime minister, why don’t you admit that Daphne was killed because of her investigative work into your former boss and colleagues?- Alessandra Dee Crespo

So, forgive us if we’re cynical.

More. Muscat and Abela went to tell their tall tales on TVM flanked by the paraphernalia of state. Pure theatre. Playing a part. Keeping to a tight script. So they dusted their performance with the markers of statesmanship: national TV, national flag, EU flag and the ‘right’ discourse. Both were united in their purpose to hoodwink the nation. Right.

Prime minister, now that the “institutions are working”, why don’t you go a step further and admit that Daphne was killed because of her investigative work into your former boss and colleagues? How else would you explain the concerted effort to thwart any semblance of justice for Daphne and her stories? Now that the institutions are working, how about really going after those who conspired, plotted, and covered up the crime? Why has it taken weeks for a member of your cabinet who took money and other favours from the man accused of masterminding Caruana Galizia’s assassination, to resign? Incidentally, was Rosianne Cutajar present during the cabinet meeting that decided on the pardon for il-Koħħu? How’s that for working institutions, eh? Amazing.

How about apologising to the family for the heinous accusation repeatedly levelled at Matthew Caruana Galizia, that you never shut down, that he killed his own mother?

It’s easy to talk the talk, prime minister. Now you must walk the walk. And that means facing the truth and denounce the past and your part in it. There can be no unity in this country until all the institutions you claim to be working really work for the good of the country and not for a select few with deep pockets and loose morals.

Today, the President of the Republic is hosting a national unity conference because, as George Vella put it, “people are sick and tired of fighting”. Well, the people are actually sick and tired of the widespread impunity enjoyed by your colleagues and friends, prime minister.

On the billboards advertising this conference, the organisers quoted a line from our national anthem: “Seddaq il-għaqda fil-Maltin u s-Sliem.” But the anthem also says: “Agħti kbir Alla, d-dehen lil min jaħkimha.” And that means to finally stop protecting the interests of your party and start safeguarding the common good, prime minister.

We are not the enemy for wanting to live in a better country, for demanding standards from our elected officials. For demanding truth and justice. As always, Daphne put it best: “It is not those who remark on the immoral acts of others who are wrong or in the wrong but those who commit those immoral acts in the first place. Unfortunately, Maltese culture favours topsy-turvy reasoning, in which those who do something wrong... must be protected by others in a collusion of secrecy masquerading as decency.”

Time to walk the plank, prime minister.

Alessandra Dee Crespo is president-elect, Repubblika.