Modern leaders survive not through terror but by convincing their people they are competent.

Robert Abela invested heavily in manufacturing elaborate state propaganda, censoring independent media and co-opting the informed elite to propagate the myth of Labour’s competence. That investment is financed by the taxpayer at the expense of the public’s living standards.

Like Alberot Fujimori’s Peru and the Viktor Orban’s Hungary, Labour’s Malta simu­lates democracy by holding elections Labour is sure to win, bribing and censoring the press and buying out an uninformed electorate.

State propaganda, led by ex-One Norma Saliba and reinforced by a well-funded party station, boosts the leader’s ratings as political opponents are harassed and humiliated.

The joint state-party propaganda strategy aims to convince the majority of Labour’s competence to govern and the PN’s chaotic incompetence. Others are manipulated into supporting Labour for purely selfish reasons.

Electoral choices are based on Labour’s myth of reducing utility tariffs. Meanwhile, the grossly corrupt Socar and Electrogas deals together with crooked ARMS’ bills claw back millions from citizens’ disposable income.

Common responsibilities of the executive, such as construction of roads and schools, are trumpeted as massive achievements for Labour.

Billboards broadcast the opening of the single new school opened in eight years of Labour government despite being delayed by three years.

Multiple professionally choreographed inauguration ceremonies costing thousands of euros are transmitted live on national TV.

In some cases, more than one inauguration ceremony is held for the same project to provide maximum exposure for ministers.

Vouchers are distributed to the public as a ‘personal donation’ by the minister whose face is splashed out on glossy leaflets, leaving no doubt where the public’s allegiance should lie.

Silvio Schembri not only distributed taxpayers’ money but used more of it to promote his ‘benevolence’. Thousands have been squandered on the glossy production instructing citizens how to download electronic vouchers.

Justyne Caruana featured in no less than eight colour photos in a glossy magazine called Eduka, printed by the General Workers’ Union press and distributed with its Sunday newspaper it-Torċa.

“We live on information, the addiction to information is like an addiction to drugs,” Fujimori’s notorious intelligence chief, Vladimro Montesinos, confessed.

Montesinos paid bribes to TV stations to influence their coverage. Our own Labour handed out hundreds of thousands to TV stations and newspapers in utmost secrecy. Nobody knows how much went to which stations. Saviour Balzan, for example, was paid thousands by the government for his Xtra discussion programme.

Through co-option and commercialised self-censorship, media owners, editors and journalists are rewarded for loyalty with state advertising contracts and, in some cases, even well-paid jobs.

Lou Bondi, that prominent Labour critic, has dissipated into oblivion thanks to his lucrative OPM and Arts Council salary. His partner,  Rachel Attard, former news editor of The Malta Independent, was awarded €43,000 in a direct order by the MFSA for public relations consultancy despite retaining a post with the newspaper.

The reality is that we are now in the company of Yemen, Panama, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Syria- Kevin Cassar

The biggest spend of taxpayers’ money is on persons of trust whose role is to contaminate social media with orchestrated government-friendly messages and active harassment and intimidation of those who express critical views. The number of persons of trust is a closely guarded secret as Abela’s government doggedly refuses to answer parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests.

In China, an estimated 20 per cent of all internet comments come from members of the ‘50 cent party’, so called because of the fee paid per pro-government post. What proportion of the local social space is occupied by government-funded posts is unknown.

Government advertising, production and broadcasting of distorted news stories, pro-Labour online media, the planting of stories in supposedly independent press and the hiring of internet trolls is being ratcheted up as the next election approaches.

In the meantime, Nationalist Party MEPs and other ‘enemies of the people’ are convenient scapegoats blam­ed for the manifest fail­ures and international condemnations the country endures as a result of the flagrant incompetence of its leadership.

Thus, the landslide rule of law resolution against Malta in the European Parliament was not the result of Labour’s atrocious failures but due to the PN MEPs’ treason.

Thus, the infringement procedures against Malta’s golden passport scheme was not the result of Labour’s avaricious disregard for decency but instigated by Malta’s enemy – the PN.

Thus, the worldwide condemnation of a journalist’s murder and the proximity of the police commissioner and assistant commissioner to those accused of her murder were not due to Labour but to the journalists’ family’s hatred of their own country.

Thus, the serious allegations about previous and current government ministers are simply conspiracies crea­ted by the opposition party.

And, now, Malta is grey­listed. But not because of Labour’s riotous corruption but because of Bernard Grech’s letter to the FATF.

If Joseph Muscat were so competent why did he not last a single full legislature? Why are those closest to him facing accusations or allegations of serious crimes – Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Adrian Hillman, Lawrence Cutajar, Silvio Valletta, James Piscopo, Joseph Cuschieri, Yorgen Fenech, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, Chris Cardona, Konrad Mizzi, Rosianne Cutajar and Carmelo Abela?

If Labour is so competent why has it committed so many illegalities – from the abusive appointment of Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi to the quarter-billion SVPR contract, to the Vitals debacle, the Mozura wind farm, the Electrogas deal, the SOCAR rip-off, the DB ITS scandal, the Mrieħel quad towers...

Why is Labour so desperate to keep so much concealed if it’s so proud of its record? Why cannot Abela answer simple questions truthfully?

If Labour is so competent how come Malta’s been greylisted? In Muscat’s fantasy, Malta is the best in Europe; for Abela, the best in the world.

The reality is that we are now in the company of Yemen, Panama, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Syria.

Labour’s grip on power desperately depends on two things: firstly, preventing the truth of its criminal incompetence from getting out. Secondly, ensuring that those fully aware of that incompetence continue to bene­fit handsomely from it.

The myth of competence is finally crumbling.

Kevin Cassar, professor of surgery and former PN candidate.