Prime Minister Robert Abela may understandably be unwilling to say when he plans to call a general election. However, by the time that happens, he must make it amply clear the Joseph Muscat chapter is closed once and for all and right all the wrongs perpetrated between 2013 and late 2019.
Abela has to prove that when he speaks of continuity he is referring to economic prosperity and the standing this country enjoyed before Muscat and his greedy associates blew it.
Muscat persisted in his devious ways when everything indicated that good governance was going to the dogs and that the rule of law was becoming the rule of delinquents. He dug in his heels and continued to behave in après moi, le deluge fashion and continues to do so.
Not even the benefit of hindsight and the damning findings of a public inquiry spread over more than 400 pages would make him repent. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Rather than acknowledge the huge damage he caused the country and move out of the way completely to allow his successor to start a clean sheet, Muscat threatens he can still call the cards.
When asked in the recent Times of Malta interview whether he considered a possible return to politics, Muscat defiantly replied: “If they keep annoying me, I do not exclude it.” He did exclude contesting in the next election or making a bid for party leadership in the future.
Irrespective of what exactly he meant and who he had in mind when he referred to “they”, his statement is troubling, to say the least. It is disconcerting to all law-abiding citizens and should be more so to the Labour leadership and the party itself.
Be careful how you tread for I will be back to haunt you and, given the great support I still enjoy, also dethrone you, if need be, Muscat seems to be saying. He made it clear in his interview that he does not “ditch” people, implying that he does not expect others to dump him either. Considering that for, seven years, a handful of powerful men – both in a political and financial sense – were able to make him shine even if he was an emperor with no clothes, it would be wrong for Abela to discount talk of a possible return as being “speculative”.
Unless he knows something the rest of us do not – like, say, some form of deal with the ‘devil’ – then it would be naïve of him to simply argue, as he did the other day, that “Joseph Muscat resigned from his post as prime minister and MP, so his position today is crystal clear”.
Muscat has showed, time and again, and continues to do so, that his personal survival is first and foremost. That is why some genuine Labourites feel he betrayed them and their party.
Abela must give weight to the political ramifications of Muscat’s continued presence, not just physically, but more so, in the minds of the party grassroots.
He may be trying to deal with Muscat by practically denying his existence or sweeping his figure under the carpet.
Muscat represents an ‘inglorious’ recent past for Labour and if Abela wants to really move forward he must somehow ditch him, certainly by proving that his predecessor’s politics no longer represent the party.
As the election looms closer, it becomes more imperative for Abela to show he is the party leader and not a reflection of his disgraced predecessor.