Imagine a crime story where the main protagonists are the law breakers  – murderers, money launderers, corrupt businessmen and politicians – and the police. 

What is different in this story is that the police and the crooks are not on opposite sides. Instead, they are protecting each other.

The police are making sure that the ‘who, why and how’ of the crime remains unsolved. Sounds like a good plot for a movie.

Sadly, this is not fiction. This is Malta under a Labour government.

For those like me who remember the 1980s, we feel as though we are living through a déjà vu. It is as if we are sitting through season two.

In season one, we saw the commissioner of police killing a person while “interrogating” him in the police depot and then saw his officers disposing of the body.

We saw criminal gangs and police officers joining forces to try and stop lawful demonstrations against a corrupt government.

We saw the commissioner of police masterminding a frame-up and the arraignment of the innocent man for the murder of an equally innocent man shot by the criminal gangs the same police forces had been protecting.

Season one ended with the commissioner of police finally being tried and jailed for the murder.

Season two kicked off with the return of Labour to government in 2013.

Many believed that Alfred Sant had tried, and to a certain extent managed, to distance the Labour Party from the criminal elements that controlled it in the 1970s and 1980s. But with the change in leadership that saw Joseph Muscat take over the Labour Party from Alfred Sant, a new class of criminals took over the Labour Party.

In the old Labour Party, criminals were allowed to rake in fortunes from trading permits, smuggling, building permits and other crimes while the people were left in relative poverty.

This created a sense of resentment among the people. And it was that resentment and the senseless murder of Raymond Caruana to make people realise how bad things were, how criminality was being given a free rein.

How Malta had lost all democratic credentials.

In 1987 the people voted, albeit marginally, to oust the corrupt Labour government.

It seems that the Labour Party learnt a valuable lesson from those days. They realised that corruption works best when people are happy. So, after returning to power in 2013, they gave the people what they wanted.

Labour created a sun to keep the people busy making hay while criminals made off with huge fortunes made from selling off state assets on the cheap, money-laundering and other white-collar crimes.

Despite the investigative work of journalists, including Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the protestations of the opposition, the police and the Office of the Attorney General failed to take action. Now we know why.

In court, witnesses are giving accounts repeatedly referring to a deputy leader of the Labour Party, a police commissioner, a deputy police commissioner, a security detail of the prime minister, the chief of staff of the prime minister – who, if these witnesses are to be believed, were in cahoots to commit a crime and then cover it up.

I will not go into the merits of the case nor into the criminal proceedings.

What is different in this story is that the police and the crooks are not on opposite sides- Mario de Marco

I will, however, state that factually, Chris Cardona, Lawrence Cutajar, Silvio Valletta, Kenneth Camilleri and Keith Schembri remain free men. The only reason why Cutajar is finally being investigated is because a magistrate of the court ordered the investigation.

No one in the police force or the Office of the Attorney General felt the need to call in the ex-police commissioner and formally interrogate him in connection with any crime related to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and its attempted cover-up.

And let us not forget about Joseph Muscat. He is the common link between all these persons.

To date there is nothing that links him directly to any crime. But one has to put this into context. That context is that the police have shown little enthusiasm to investigate high-profile cases involving those in power. This was one of the conclusions of the Moneyval report.

Unless these high-profile cases are investigated and action taken swiftly, Malta will become a blacklisted country with all the ramifications that this brings about to our financial services sector and beyond.

The responsibility for all this mess lies squarely with the Labour government members. From Prime Minister Robert Abela, then special adviser to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, to Edward Scicluna, Minister for Finance, silent as a mummy as our country was being robbed of its assets and finances to placate, recruit and employ criminals, right down to the last government backbencher, they are all guilty of standing by while our country was hijacked by criminals.

Post-COVID-19, the sun is not shining so brightly and people might have more time to focus on the truth that was hidden behind the feel-good glare.

Which explains why the government is so desperate to instil that feel-good factor once again.

Its very own survival depends on it.

Mario de Marco is Nationalist Party spokesperson on finance.

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