In a long-term struggle, it is difficult to imagine what ‘the end’ would actually look like.
Cinematic tradition tends to favour climactic endings. The hero squares off against the great villain. Armies collide on vast battlefields. The earth itself stops to watch as great dramatic tension peaks and then plateaus.
In real life, it is often far less glorious. Most times, there is no great, soaring moment of resolution. There is no time for a great speech in which the protagonist gets to affirm their unflinching quest for truth and justice. Rather than suffer a decisive defeat, the evildoer often gets to slither away, living to screw us all another day.
It was always a bit too far-fetched to think that disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his cronies would be slain like some metaphorical dragon sitting on top of a pile of gold. It was never going to be cinematic. It was always going to be a long trek.
The legal slog through the courts was to be expected. What threw me off is the way that the Labour government seems to just have given up on the one thing it was elected to do: governing.
You would think that Labour’s embattled Cabinet members, hand-picked civil servants, and the party’s internal machinery would go into overdrive trying to keep the sutures of their bleeding empire intact. You would expect piles of lawsuits claiming innocence, red herring narratives meant to displace reporting, and an attempt at showing unity in a time of evident crisis.
Unity within Labour was never driven by a sense of real purpose. It was always driven by the same instinct that governs how pigs gather at the trough – the heavier pigs are more dominant and get to eat first, while the rest fall in line accordingly. Set pieces that give an impression of unity are even more important when you can’t even pretend that you care about the mission you are supposed to collectively be a part of. Muscat knew this well, and went to pains to orchestrate it. Prime minister Robert Abela can’t even be arsed, and his tribe can’t seem to stop whispering about his demise.
In fact, this was arguably one of the quietest summers Abela has ever had, notwithstanding the fact that the country positively feels like it’s fast becoming a toxic cesspool leaking gallons of scandal everyday.
This week, we got to hear from our prime minister when he decided it was appropriate to shame criminal lawyer Jason Azzopardi (without having the guts to call him out by name) for having the audacity to state that a murder suspect who asked for a presidential pardon would have only done so if he was ready to admit guilt. Azzopardi, who spoke about the alleged mastermind of Daphne’s murder Yorgen Fenech during an interview with Lovin Malta, referred to the sizeable amount of evidence which points towards Fenech’s guilt and inferred that said evidence seems to imply Fenech is the sole mastermind.
Azzopardi, whose comments were deemed to be prejudicial by judge Edwina Grima, was effectively censured for doing so since the judge ordered the news portal to remove the part where Azzopardi speaks about Fenech. Abela, who must have been overjoyed that the courts ruled against one of his sworn enemies just this once, mocked Azzopardi as someone who “acts like a paladin of the rule of law” only to then “make declarations that contaminate court procedures.”
Funny how the prime minister of a mafia state thinks it’s only natural to pick the side of the alleged mastermind of a murder rather than that of the criminal lawyer who represents the family of those who bear the victim’s legacy.
The last time Abela uttered a soundbite that was actually picked up by the mainstream press was his unsubstantiated promise to give us the truly biggest, most mega-sized, humongous tax cuts ever. Like a cynical, lab coat sporting scientist who knows all too well how the rats in the cage will behave, the prime minister responds to crises in what has become his party’s default MO: dog whistling us about the budget in the same exact way that scientist might shake a jar containing the rats’ favourite treats, just to get them all riled up.
Almost 24 hours after Times of Malta and OCCRP published yet another damning piece of the hospitals concession puzzle – which exposed how Accutor, the same firm that had engaged Joseph Muscat on a €15,000 a month retainer for “consultancy work” shortly after he resigned in disgrace, was set to be used to quietly rake in money from a secret 30% cut from Steward Healthcare’s profits – we’ve heard absolutely nothing from Robert Abela.
Abela’s government is impotent in the face of such damning revelations. The prime minister’s only response to this scandal to date was to launch a blistering attack on the independence of the judiciary (only to then laud the courts whenever he feels he can use a judgement to discredit his critics). Ever since the governing party realised that this cheap electoral tactic turned out to be a complete disaster, we’ve heard nothing.
And so, rather than stand their ground and fight for their survival, the Labour Party seems far keener on simply waiting it out, milking public coffers as much as possible throughout this legislature and ignoring the general public’s dire need for real governance in the process. They are on auto-pilot mode, an exit that is somehow even less dignified than the death by a thousand cuts suffered by Gonzi’s last administration.
The only reason they’ve been getting away with it over the past few months is because civil society has gone dormant. I say this with a heavy sense of responsibility and a hefty dose of disappointment. The government’s torpor seems to have spread to us, a soporific mist that plunges the unsuspecting into an unsettling slumber. The end isn’t a climax – it is a sleepover.
For whatever reason, we seem to have collectively given up on the very real need to hit the streets again. To be clear, we asked around to see what’s going on, but failed to get answers from most organisations previously involved in organising acts of mass civil disobedience. I fail to see one good reason why we shouldn’t be doing that with increasing fury and intensity, and will be chasing this matter to the ends of the earth.
I fail to see why we are allowing one scandal after the other to hit us in the face every single morning while individuals who are doing something tangible to fight back are left to toe it out alone against a much bigger enemy. We are talking about a fight that has literally claimed lives already. Candlelit vigils after yet another one of us gets blown up won’t get us anywhere beyond providing a space for remembrance and grief. Despair must end, and tactics must begin.
Now more than ever, duty calls.
