Apologies in advance for the cringe-worthy wordplay in the headline.
The truth is, for someone as ridiculous, pathetic, and desperate as disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, nothing but the cringe-worthiest will do.
Of course, the Times of Malta, aided and abetted by other mainstream outlets who just can’t stop fawning at Muscat’s feet, are doing their damnedest to rehabilitate his image, steadfastly refusing to call him ‘disgraced’ and offering him plenty of column inches to write abysmal articles in which he can advocate for the EU membership of a rogue apartheid state like Israel.
Fortunately, one of the very first supporters of this project, Dr Andrew Borg-Cardona, took the trouble of fixing Times of Malta’s refusal to refer to Muscat as the disgraced crook that he is. Below, I am reproducing the screenshot lifted from Times of Malta’s epaper, as edited by Dr Borg-Cardona himself.
While I am sure this appeal is going to fall on deaf ears, I would like to urgently remind the editors of the Times that they bear a huge responsibility to represent things objectively. It is beyond obvious that Muscat’s column, which is quite possibly the worst take I’ve ever heard on Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinian people, should not have made it past your inbox. It should have gone straight into the trash folder.
But that’s not even what I want to write about today. If you’re a follower of this website, chances are you are also a follower of Repubblika and its assiduous former president, Robert Aquilina.
Translation: ‘Historic win! Joseph Muscat, who found himself with his back against the wall, withdrew the case he’d filed to stop a magistrate from criminally investigating him regarding the fraudulent sale of three Maltese hospitals. Expect the corrupt former prime minister to make other attempts to evade justice. He can make as many attempts as he wants. He will find us here to stop him.’
What I want to write about is Muscat’s laughable attempt at frivolously pushing out an inquiring magistrate who’s hot on his hospital-selling heels and how it careened off a cliff earlier this morning. His case, which is based on his flimsy narrative that the magistrate in question is colluding with the office of the state advocate and NGO Repubblika, has now been withdrawn at his own request. Muscat claims he will file a new case, which by the time of publication, had not actually materialised.
I will not deign a filthy liar like Muscat with the opportunity of reproducing his narrative. It is another straw man fallacy in which Muscat fakes his innocence when every ounce of evidence related to the hospitals deal to date clearly indicates that the only persons who benefited from the deal were the ones who cooked it in collusion with the government, the executive head of which was none other than Muscat himself, from start to finish.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – if Muscat has an issue with me calling him a filthy liar, I’d be more than happy to come prove it in court if he wishes to serve me with a lawsuit. I’ll count every single damn lie he told the public and bring it all with me in a nice, fat folder for him to chew on. That is, of course, unless he gets cold feet after he knee-jerks into indignant court action only to then withdraw it when it comes down to brass tacks.
The fact of the matter is this: Muscat is a cornered rat who knows that justice is stalking him like a drooling wolf on a wounded deer’s trail. The wounds are indeed self-inflicted, because one hollows out their solemn vows to serve the state dutifully at their own expense more than anyone else’s. A country that’s been robbed can, at some point in time, eventually recover from the robbery, though the process itself may be painfully slow. The robber must keep running, and does not afford to pause to rest. Eventually, we all run out of breath, and Muscat is no different.
Stripped of his vice-like grip over every institution in the country, Muscat now depends on dirty money for dirty lawyers who do his dirty work for him.
While he once was surrounded by throngs of adoring loyalists who would have put their head in an oven while screaming “JOSEPH FOREVER” without thinking twice, his political party remains uneasy about his desperate attempts at reentering the fold. While it is clear that there are elements of the Labour Party’s grassroots who still want Muscat’s comeback, the fact is that the buck stops with his successor, Robert Abela.
Abela is clearly unable to make up his mind about it, but judging purely from an analysis of personalities, it seems unlikely that he will want to put himself in a situation in which his corrupt predecessor is cast in the same spotlight he wants to be in himself. Abela does not have the support of the party’s grassroots and has stepped on too many toes within the party to risk the possibility of handing an olive branch to someone who is ultimately a potential threat to his authority.
If he has any sense at all – yet again another appeal to the void, but I shall try nonetheless – Abela ought to recognise that nobody will ever take him seriously until he cuts off Muscat once and for all. Abela must understand that all political pressure to protect Muscat from prosecution should cease at once and that his disappearance from Labour’s fold ought to come sooner rather than later.
Best go off for a quick Coldplay concert with the family while you still can, Joseph.
