La Piovra: The Octopus, was an Italian television drama series about the Sicilian Mafia. It dealt with the intricate correlation between the local political class, businesspeople and the criminal underworld.
Tragically, beyond any television series, the Mafia phenomenon is a stark reality. It is a well-organised obscure criminal state within a legitimate state. As much as the octopus tentacles reach far and beyond, the Mafia infiltrated, paralysed and conditioned every level of Sicilian administration for decades.
Both Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two distinguished magistrates, paid a hefty personal price in uncovering and cutting off Piovra’s grasp.
Do we have our own Maltese Piovra?
Daphne Caruana Galizia, as a professional investigative journalist, had the audacity to uncover a series of scandals, shady dealings and apparent criminal relationships confirming our worst fears. She revealed that the emperor and his cronies had no clothes on! She exposed that there was/is a murky relationship between a number of politicians and compulsive greedy unscrupulous businesspersons. Together, they slyly engaged underworld characters and other white-collar mercenaries to do their filthy works and consolidate their decadent prosperities and clout.
So, as much as Falcone and Borsellino became a threat to the Sicilian Mafia’s fortunes, so did Daphne. Thus, she was brutally assassinated. The aftermath revelations derived from the ongoing public inquiry and court procedures are attesting that she was right all along.
We are living within a mafia state. Our institutions are jeopardised.
Only the blinkered are unable to see that there are crooks wherever you look now. If our institutions were truly working, as the government wants us to believe, many would not still be roaming around with impunity. Compare and contrast this with French institutions. Former president Nicholas Sarkozy was found guilty of trying to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about an ongoing investigation.
If our institutions were truly working, many would not still be roaming around with impunity- Albert Buttigieg
Living up to their name, crooks disguise themselves well. They constantly seek to be in the good books of those who hold power. Like an octopus whose tentacles reach far and near, they creep into every level of administration. In covert meetings, they push their hideous agenda. Through expensive gifts, favours and subtle networking, they jealously guard and promote their strategic positions.
They keep an open eye on the opinion polls, just in case they need to switch alliances. They have no political convictions but hold only to political opportunism. They go out of their way to ensure that a number of ‘politicians’ are in their pockets. In return, these ‘politicians’ secure their own political survival. Their mutual ethos is you scratch my back and I will scratch yours.
Tragically for honest Malta, this is what has happened to the Labour Party. After 25 years in the political wilderness, Joseph Muscat and his cronies wanted to assure themselves of a convincing victory that had to pave the way for their glorious and opulent future. Setting up an alliance with dubious murky characters and promising to generously massage their inflated egos was a secure way to achieve such a milestone. It was a win-win situation for both sides. Only Anġlu Farrugia raised an eyebrow or two, to be then accompanied to the door.
In doing so, Joseph ‘ix-xiħ’ and his movement signed a Faustian pact. Subsequently, the Labour Party became unrecognisable, stopped being a voice of the left and became a gravy train for villains and opportunists.
The rest is history that has unfolded in ongoing episodes of scandals and repulsive revelations. The vile plan was working superbly well, if it were not for Daphne to upset their apple carts and for the truth to do a comeback, as it usually does!
Now, a good number of high-ranking Labour politicians, ministers, a former prime minister, their associates and other senior government officials are under an enormous shameful shadow of accusations in which they, directly or indirectly, colluded with criminals.
Such shocking allegations and revelations not only put the Labour Party to shame, notwithstanding the margin of its majority, but also embarrassed honest Labour supporters, undermined our trust in the political class and severely tainted our democratic credentials.
Where does this leave honest citizens? Omertà, a code of silence, is what makes the Piovra’s tentacles go forth with strength. Thus, the civil society must speak out loudly. We must raise our voices without trepidation. We must name and shame evil men. Silence is betrayal of the common good.
Let us then be firm in believing that evil men and their wicked ways always come with an expiry date.
Yes, there is hope. Yes, we shall overcome. Truth has never let us down.
Albert Buttigieg is mayor, St Julian’s and PN candidate.