The Second Coming of Muscat

Joseph Muscat is neither the first nor the last. Silvio Berlusconi entered politics to dodge prison. He stayed in politics till the day he died. He knew that while he garnered votes no one would dare arrest him. He also knew that the day he put his feet up, he’d get into trouble.

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Politicians rarely admit they are ambitious. When they first contest an election, they say they are doing it reluctantly: “the Leader needed me” is a typical excuse. Joseph Muscat said he “can’t ignore the people”.

No doubt tens of thousands out there think he’s a hero, like people think a football coach who returned their time to winning after thirty years is a hero. For many their party is not an ideology or an electoral program. For many their party is their family colour: their identity. Being Labour or Nationalist is like belonging to a saint: you die as you’ve lived, unlike others, hating and loving not really knowing why.

Some will call my comments elitist: that I’m mocking people who vote in a certain way as uncouth or uninformed. Everyone is free to justify their choices in the manner they choose.

But those celebrating Joseph Muscat’s candidature at the European elections and the people who delight in voting for him are ignoring reality. While Joseph Muscat is exploiting that blind loyalty.

Joseph Muscat is now saying he cannot ignore the people’s call for him to re-enter the fray. Who was he ignoring when he resigned as prime minister four years ago? You can bet that all those who will be voting for him in May hoped he would stay on in 2019. Why did he quit?

In 2019 he said he had always meant to leave at that time. He said he hadn’t resigned because his ministers dumped him. He hadn’t resigned because of people marching in the streets. His story was that his decisions about his career were not based on what people wanted, but on what he wanted. He wanted to leave so he left.

Now he is justifying his actions on the people begging him to come back.

Let me list some reasons why Joseph Muscat should not be back.

Two years ago, three judges he hired to investigate the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia reported on what Joseph Muscat had done when he was prime minister. Let us stick to their list.

One. When Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were exposed for having set up secret companies in Panama, Joseph Muscat did not fire them. He defended them. Indeed, he kept them in government until about 5 days before he resigned. He says they did nothing wrong. Now that he’s coming back, are the people also calling for the return of Schembri and Mizzi? Robert Abela says no.

The fact he did not fire them when he was prime minister is wrong. The public inquiry called it an illicit act.

Don’t forget that he didn’t merely keep them on after the Panama Papers emerged. He didn’t let them go when we learnt their companies were to receive payments from 17 Black. He didn’t let them go when we learnt 17 Black belonged to Yorgen Fenech.

The inquiry said this wasn’t some error of political judgement. This was a cover-up to protect people who allegedly committed serious crimes. To cover up a serious crime is a serious crime. When a prime minister does it it’s a serious abuse of power.

Two. Joseph Muscat concentrated power in the hands of his friends and left even senior ministers outside his decision making. Muscat took power away from elected people and gifted it to his friends. When he testified in the inquiry, he did not defend the actions of his appointees. He distanced himself from them. First, he undermined democracy and supplanted it with an oligarchy of his friends, and then, when it suited him, he fended for himself instead.

Three. Joseph Muscat was a close friend of Yorgen Fenech. Muscat defended this friendship and said this is the right way of doing things. The inquiry called this type of intimacy – this subterfuge and cover kissing between politics and their funders – is ground made fertile for corruption. The night before Yorgen Fenech’s arrest Joseph Muscat was communicating with him. He was quite literally passing information on police work to a wanted man. If you do it, you’d be in prison.

Four. Joseph Muscat led the systematic intimidation of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He directly blessed the threats of UK lawsuits from the company that sold Maltese passports. He failed in his obligation to protect free speech. Worse, he intervened to undermine it.

This is what the public inquiry said: “These decisions by Joseph Muscat strengthened the impunity of those people involved in the intrigues between politicians and big business that were the subject of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s writing. Elements of organised crime, whoever they may be, relied on this impunity. This impunity certainly facilitated the assassination.”

What does this mean?

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It means that three judges appointed by Joseph Muscat found Joseph Muscat gave free reign to the mafia. Mafiosi corrupted Muscat’s ministers and Muscat left the ministers in place. When a journalist exposed them, they killed her, knowing that while Muscat was in place they could do as they pleased.

When Daphne Caruana Galizia used to write these things they called her crazy, a liar, a witch, or worst of all, a Nazzjonalista. But they still killed her to shut her up.

Then we started saying these things and they said we were crazy or Nazzjonalisti.

Then the police arrested Yorgen Fenech, and a chill fell on the country. Everyone, but the utterly obsessed, whispered what they never wanted you to think: Daphne was right.

Keith Schembri resigned. Konrad Mizzi resigned. Joseph Muscat resigned.

That didn’t mean he’d had enough. On 12 January 2020 Robert Abela climbed the steps of Castille as prime minister. He hadn’t been calling Castille his own for a week when Joseph Muscat showed up accompanied by the Steward people. A week earlier he was negotiating with them as prime minister. Now he was negotiating with the government on their behalf.

That alone was unacceptable. But Joseph Muscat does not work for free.

Not much later, a Times of Malta investigation, found that he was being from Switzerland: not by Steward, mind you. But from the company Steward paid when Joseph Muscat authorised them to buy three Maltese hospitals.

Four other judges – three of them the most senior of the land – found the sale of the hospital was an act of fraud; the product of collusion between government officials and private interests: the same sort of intimacy between government and owners the public inquiry described as fertile land for the growth of corruption.

Joseph Muscat lives like a millionaire though he spent his life in politics. An honest life in politics makes a rich man poor. A political career that makes one rich cannot have been honest.

We tend to admire other people’s money. It’s not envy as much as genuine admiration. We call people who made money wise, industrious, concerned for their family. It doesn’t matter if they cut corners.

Daphne once wrote that you’ll find corruption anywhere. What’s special about us is that our attitude to corruption is corrupt. People who cheat their way up deserve our congratulations. Look, a wise guy.

Some would call this elitism as well. Those who play the holier than thou are envious failures. Do you know who wants you to think that? One who would cheat you and expect your applause.

Joseph Muscat abused his power to protect his friends. He took payments to abandon three public hospitals. It will take a generation to reverse the damage. And he let a journalist be killed because that benefited him.

And now, to avoid any consequence, he’s holding an entire country hostage. Starting with the Labour Party.

Is it easier to understand now why most Labour MEPs are hanging their boots or considering their exit in any case? Is it easier to understand why anyone fired from Abela’s government for cheating and stealing is being brought back and given a medal?

Because for Joseph Muscat to be an election candidate, the wrong must be made right.

I spotted a lament making the rounds that some people are angry that Europe might “accept” Muscat. As if we were children complaining about mummy letting us eat so many sweets that we got a tummy ache. Who we choose to represent us is our business and no one can interfere. That is independence and democracy: the right to choose as we please.

It is also a responsibility. If our choice is someone self-evidently corrupt who has already besmirched our name in the eyes of the world, nobody is to blame but us. We choose the representatives we deserve.

How corrupt is our attitude to corruption? The answer to that question will be in the second coming of Joseph Muscat.

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MANUEL QAL, Season 1 Episode 4

Written by Manuel Delia
Video Production: Michael Kaden / NEWZ.mt