Scotland has Robert the Bruce. We have Robert the Honest. “I was honest, like the government I lead was,” Robert Abela declared with a straight face on the anniversary of his ascent to power. “That is how we will continue to be.”
If Prime Minister Abela truly intends to continue to be as “honest” as he and his government have been this last year, God help us.
Does Abela genuinely believe he and his government have been honest? Does he know what honesty is?
Honesty is about integrity, truthfulness and straightforwardness. It is an absence of lying, cheating and theft. It means being trustworthy, sincere and fair.
The whole country yearns for it because it is the rarest of virtues in our government. From one saga to the next, we have witnessed blatant mass deception, duplicity, cynicism, obscenities, falsehoods, secrecy and callous cruelty. One member of government outshines the next in the dishonesty stakes.
Minister Ian Borg was condemned by a court for masterminding a diabolical plan to rob a mentally ill person of his inheritance. And Borg secretly transferred huge swathes of land to the hunters’ and trappers’ association.
The Planning Authority ombudsman condemned him for “the devious manner” in which he applied for a planning permit, intentionally omitting important details such as the fact that his development would take up fresh land. Borg’s application was submitted using “stealth and dubious methods”.
Last week, Borg denied uttering profanities even though his blasphemy was clearly audible on tape. Yet, he first stated that he had uttered a word he made up (“ha qalanqas”) and, later, dishonestly claimed the tape had been tampered with.
Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar failed to declare a €50,000 commission on a promised sale of property to Yorgen Fenech in her declaration of assets. She concealed her relationship with the alleged mastermind behind Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and, presumably, contributed to cabinet decisions regarding presidential pardons in the case.
Justyne Caruana, Minister of Education, concealed her husband’s close relationship with Fenech. She too, as part of cabinet, contributed to decisions regarding presidential pardons.
Minister Edward Zammit Lewis stayed at the luxury Hilton Evian-les-Bains Hotel, France, belonging to the Tumas Group and failed to own up. When his escapade was revealed, instead of admitting and apologising, he abused journalists asking legitimate questions.
He concealed his WhatsApp communications with Fenech and failed to recuse himself from cabinet decisions relating to pardons. He made sure that his best friend, Joseph Muscat, escaped censure by the parliamentary standards committee despite Muscat twice being condemned by the standards commissioner for his reprehensible actions.
If this is Abela being honest, what would his dishonesty be like?
Minister Silvio Schembri erased thousands of companies from the Malta Business Registry and made it practically impossible for access to information about erased companies. His outrageous abuse of Department of Information statements to heap ridicule on his political adversaries is still under investigation by the commissioner for standards.
The Institute of Maltese Journalists condemned him for “bullying members of the press” and “instigating hatred” when he uploaded a maliciously edited video to mock and harass a journalist.
Minister Carmelo Abela viciously recalled Caruana Galizia’s son from his diplomatic posting in India within hours of taking up his ministerial post, in what looks like a case of pure vindictiveness.
Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri derided journalists as a “bunch of imbeciles” as he climbed up the stairs to Abela’s office for daring to ask him a question. He appointed his own brother-in-law on the board of directors of a state company (Pitkalija Ltd). His dishonest defence was that he was not related to him at the time because he had not yet married his sister, which he did only three months later.
This is not honesty, Abela. This is dishonourable treachery of the worst kind. Your government is not honest. And neither are you.
From concealing his tax returns immediately predating his foray into politics to contacting the tax commissioner about Bernard Grech, Abela reveals his penchant to stoop as low as necessary to succeed.
There is nothing noble or honest about his cravenness. Despite having served as defence lawyer for the Maksar brothers he failed to recuse himself from the cabinet decision about the pardon request for il-Koħħu, who was willing to reveal the Maksar brothers’ involvement in other serious crimes.
Abela cynically coerced Gavin Gulia to submit his name for the casual election to replace Edward Scicluna, only to ask him to go back to his Malta Tourism Authority post and make way for another of his handpicked acolytes – just minutes after Gulia took his oath. Abela appeared to have kept his plan secret even from his own parliamentary group, causing Glenn Bedingfield to make an utter fool of himself.
He nominated Konrad Mizzi head of delegation to the OSCE, before having to backpedal as the seething public anger boiled over. He strived tirelessly to shut down the Caruana Galizia public inquiry with threats and intimidation – to stifle revelations of the evil cowardice of his master and his inner circle.
As a long parade of ex-Super One journalists appointed to positions of trust denied knowledge of everything and everyone before the inquiry board, Robert the Honest chuckled lamely to himself – not a finger lifted to remove them from their well-remunerated posts or plead with them for the truth.
Loyal civil servant and public health consultant Kenneth Grech was summarily axed from his crucial role as COVID-19 response team leader at the worst of the crisis just after he had displeased the supreme leader.
Abela’s “proud team member”, Matthew Bongailas, was awarded €2 million in 15 direct orders in the last few months. Bongailas’s company was only registered last year and has no track record whatsoever but that does not matter if you’re Abela’s “team member”.
If this is Abela being honest, what would his dishonesty be like?
“With me, you know where you stand,” Abela pompously declared. We certainly do.
Kevin Cassar, professor of surgery and formerPN candidate