Even in the most well meaning circles I frequent, I often sense a certain naïveté which I think needs to be addressed.
Over the past few days, I’ve seen and heard a lot of chatter about prime minister Robert Abela’s ludicrous suggestion that he is considering reinstating disgraced former Labour Party loyalist and currently ‘independent’ MP Rosianne Cutajar.
A lot has also been said about the equally ludicrous appointment of disgraced former MFSA CEO and Yorgen Fenech’s bosom buddy Joseph Cuschieri as the farcical Project Green’s newest CEO, the same greenwashing agency which was set up so Labour MEP hopeful Steve Ellul could effectively conduct a public relations campaign financed by the public purse.
The fact that these two sickening developments occurred within less than a few hours of each other almost instantly enraged a wide segment of the public. Rightfully so, because the government going full steam ahead with its plan to unravel the fabric of our country should piss everyone off. While the trolls will always be trolls, the fact is that these two appointments have really struck a raw nerve, which is as it should be.
However, there is also an undercurrent of incredulity among the horrified, baffled observers watching this shit show unfold. After over a decade of this nightmare, people still have the capacity to be shocked at the brazenly corrupt behaviour of the Labour Party as if it were new, as if we didn’t already have a litany of examples in which this behaviour was out in the open for all to see.
The only function I want this column to serve is for it to act as a reminder of just how long we’ve been dealing with this kind of behaviour and why, rather than just shocking us into silence every now and then whenever it peaks with something as obviously corrupt as the reintegration of Cutajar and Cuschieri into the party’s protection racket, it should have shocked us all into action an equally long time ago.
Given that my job is to track the moves that are being made within Malta’s political jungle, I think I should spell it out as clearly as possible – the Labour Party, the same one that bends over backwards to reassure you it is your greatest friend and protector, is and always has been public enemy number one. The minute it was taken over by disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his corrupt benefactors was the minute we were cursed with such bleak prospects for the future.
We are not dealing with a political party here. We are dealing with a criminal organisation, and I will never stop saying this until it goes through everyone’s head and starts coming out of their earholes. It is time to clear out all other interpretations of who we are dealing with here and focus on the very real, very severe implications of the situation we’re all in.
It is time to forget about the possibility of negotiating at the table with the Labour government. It is time to stop pretending we can trust anything they have to say or anything they project towards us and our collective assessment of their abilities. It is a criminal organisation in which might rules right, in which nothing is off limits as long as it serves a swipe at more power, and in which there is no trace of anything resembling democratic spirit.
Any other perspective is either bought and paid for or delusional. And before anyone accuses me of saying this out of some sort of deranged spite towards the Labour Party’s great and wonderful “economic miracle”, know that I am not the type to use forceful language lightly. This is a perspective that is informed by years of keeping my ear to the ground and a constant, ongoing assessment of reality.
I do not have the luxury of turning my eyes away from the news when it becomes too heavy. My obligation is to understand it and write about it, and this is exactly what I’m doing with this column. I am reminding anyone who comes across these words that none of us afford to look away, none of us afford to just abandon our democratic duty to fight back. We owe it to ourselves and our future.
There will be no great leader to sweep away all our woes – this stultified, post-colonialism fueled heap of a country must learn to govern itself, or otherwise remain content to perish slowly as larceny eats away at the foundation of everything we stand on.
