Time and time again, I find myself perplexed by how people recoil in shock whenever our prime minister says anything.
A part of it must be due to the human brain’s tendency to compartmentalise. If we were to continuously process the man-made terrors that walk this earth on a daily basis, we’d all be checking into the nearest psych ward.
So instead, we digest in chunks. We read a news article, express some measure of outrage, and move on with our lives. One cannot possibly think of everything all at once.
The challenge lies in joining these disparate threads together – in spite of our tendency to break things down into smaller bits. Politicians like our prime minister know this, and seek to thwart efforts to make those connections.
Predictably, the prime minister’s fascist assault on the European Convention of Human Rights was swiftly condemned. Shock and outrage were not in short supply.
Context: on Monday, prime minister Robert Abela claimed that the EU’s charter of fundamental rights is “outdated”. This followed statements about how the right to seek asylum should only be protected whenever an applicant “deserves” it.
In Labourspeak, this translates to a concerted effort to undermine legal protections for asylum seekers and vulnerable populations. Abela seems to have the backing of Europe’s leading fascists, as evidenced by a high-level meeting with counterparts on the subject of migration (featured photo).
The prime minister intends to use Malta’s position as incoming Chair of the Council of Europe to drive his mad campaign against the right to seek asylum, even when an individual can prove that the conditions of their country of origin may pose a life-threatening risk.
Generally speaking, this escalation of rhetoric is perfectly in line with the Labour government’s approach towards migration. Abela’s disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat, was equally brutish towards asylum seekers.
Prominent rights advocacy NGO aditus foundation decried the prime minister’s “shocking ignorance.” Anti-corruption NGO Repubblika expressed its concern about the prime minister’s evident keenness to appease his fascist counterparts in Europe. The Daphne Foundation emphatically described the remarks as “a new low.” Human rights are “universal and indivisible.”
The prime minister is not ignorant of the fundamental human rights charter. He knows exactly what he’s doing. It is part of the government’s wider plan to directly undermine all avenues of accountability.
In this context, the outrage that followed the prime minister’s remarks is entirely justifiable. A feeling of disbelief can also be classified as a reasonable response. But there is nothing to be shocked about if, rather than compartmentalising every statement, we look at the whole picture.
Everywhere it goes, our government is adamant on one, singular approach: to defy jurisprudence and bend the judiciary to its will.
Abela’s disdain for every single courtroom he can set his crosshairs on didn’t start this week. It’s been out in the open since the last MEP elections. It already escalated severely in the government’s war against criminal lawyer and anti-corruption activist Jason Azzopardi.
To the Labour government, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about the Courts of Malta, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, or just about any other supranational authority. What matters is using politics to advance their own agenda.
The domestic version of that agenda is to eliminate a private citizen’s right to request a magisterial inquiry. The government claims it wants to safeguard the rights of individuals from “abuse” of proceedings.
The European version seeks to curtail the right of asylum seekers to escape torture and degradation. The government claims it wants to safeguard the country’s borders from “abuse” of proceedings.
The ultimate goal is one and the same: to give the Maltese government free rein to avoid accountability, both for the massive corruption scandals it is embroiled in as well as the countless lives which were lost because of its unconscionable pushbacks.
When combined with the Maltese government’s shameful refusal to signal unequivocal European solidarity in times of great uncertainty, one cannot but conclude that the government is no longer just dabbling in totalitarianism. It is sprinting towards it at full speed.
For what it’s worth, I’ve sent requests for comment to The Chamber of Advocates, the National Commission for the Protection of Equality, and the Office of the Ombudsman. It is extremely important that we hear what these institutions have to say about the prime minister’s remarks. Their condemnation (or lack thereof) is as significant as civil society’s rage.
One thing is for certain – Abela’s government cordons off asylum seekers in Libyan hellholes while using every avenue at its disposal to protect the highest crooks of the country.
There is no greater marker of the brittleness of someone’s mettle than using such vitriol against the vulnerable while laying out rose-beds for the corrupt.