Unjust. That’s how Labour had the cheek to try to spin the news of the international community warning investors to think twice before betting on Malta.

It is unjust. However, not towards the government that brought the shocking condemnation upon itself by embracing corruption but towards the hardworking Maltese people who trusted Labour with their future.

This is not the start of the quasi-post-pandemic, pre-electoral, feel-good campaign Labour strategists at Mile End were hoping for. So much for all the glitz around the launch of the 10-year economic vision for Malta, reminiscent of that other vision some time ago to turn the country into the world’s first blockchain island. They did nail that pretty quickly, didn’t they?

With Malta becoming the European Union’s first, and only, member state to be put on the FAFT grey list, with the likes of Uganda, Syria, Panama, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, for its tolerance of financial crime, dark clouds loom on our economic horizon.

Those who think that Malta making it to the FAFT grey list is some sort of good news for the Nationalist Party know little of how the economy works. The effects of the greylisting might not be felt in the immediate future but, like a wave forming out at sea, it will eventually crash onto the shore and it will not be a pleasant sight.

With one decision, the international community threw into the skip Labour’s narrative of narratives: that Malta is the best in Europe and the envy of mother earth. It also laid bare many other truths.

Just like Joseph Muscat had rallied the troops against Malta’s membership of the European Union, echoing his master’s voice that we would be swallowed by the bigger fish, Robert Abela’s first move was to pull out of his hat that most Labour of warnings: that bigger countries are out to get us.

To address the country from Castille, he put on a black tie with the eight-pointed cross of the Order of St John, supposedly for the international community to take note of, reminding the world that, just like the Knights Hospitaller stopped the Ottomans in the 16th century from conquering Malta, we will not surrender to the FAFT. Vote Abela, get Grand Master Pinto da Fonseca.

With Malta becoming the EU’s first, and only, member state to be put on the FAFT grey list, dark clouds loom on our economic horizon- Chris Said

And, as if someone missed reading through the script, Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo spelled it out for us: the bigger countries are playing the bully against tiny Malta.

Because, suddenly, the narrative that we are the best in Europe and the envy of the world wouldn’t have worked.

There’s even more irony in the fact that the European Union’s first country to be globally greylisted happens to be the same country that has been selling the European Union passport to shady billionaires, oligarchs and friends of dictators since Labour took office in 2013.

One can only wonder: what is going to be left of Malta’s reputation when the time comes to send Labour back to the opposition benches? How longer can we keep tarnishing Malta’s image in Europe and around the world?

Seeing the reaction by Labour stalwarts following the FAFT decision shows that, despite all the sleek branding and sophisticated marketing it employs, deep down Labour remains as inward-looking and insecure as Muscat was when he urged Malta to stay out of the European Union, failing to understand Malta’s role in a globalised world.

Just like Alfred Sant had once enlightened us how, as the sly southerners that we are, we can still go around some rigid European Union rules by “inbażwru ftit ’l hawn u nbażwru ftit ’l hemm” (“cheekily cut a few corners here and a few corners there”), the international community cannot take Labour seriously.

So expect more Order of St John insignia coming out of the wardrobe in the months to come as a fortified Malta prepares an assault against the bullies of this world for trying to damage our ranking as the best in Europe and the envy of the world.

If it weren’t for the jobs of our hardworking people that are now at stake, the unnecessary hurdles we are putting in front of our companies and start-ups dreaming of making it big locally and abroad, the embarrassment for our country and entire European Union, and the generations it will take to rebuild the reputation of our country, it would be laughable.

Clearly, it’s not.

Chris Said, Nationalist Party spokesman on Gozo