Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, declaims the immortal bard in his Henry IV and, yet, despite the unrest and worry that wearing a crown entails, like Henry, who wrested the crown from his hapless cousin, Richard II, we must collectively confess that, at one point or another in our lives, we have all wished, in true blue Napoleonic fashion, to place that diadem upon our own heads.

... an out-of-court settlement gives a clear message that the only way of expecting justice is to avoid court altogether- Kenneth Zammit Tabona

Since 9/11, the world and Europe, especially, which has had to play its very, very expensive part in the never-ending war on terror, has receded and we have reached a stage where the good ship Europe in the midst of terrible storms is going to have to jettison its cargo and its passengers to keep afloat. Should Greece be abandoned to sink or swim it will be, more than anything else, a clear indication that the European Dream has once more been shattered. The dropping of Greece from the European concert and the simultaneous acceptance of Turkey will throw time-honoured alliances in the dustbins of history and turn Europe on its head.

Against this menacing background we have a government that, in 2008, promised the world and heaven too to retain that famous diadem for another five years. Little did it realise that, despite all odds, it was the then Leader of the Opposition, who, having clung on to the leadership for 10 extra years, put all chances of the Labour Party being a serious contender in jeopardy.

The slim Nationalist Party majority was the result and this same slim majority has proved to be the government’s undoing, and will, eventually, be its nemesis. Only last week, at the time of writing, the Speaker threatened to suspend our firebrand backbencher Franco Debono whose questionably well-intentioned broadsides have seriously undermined Malta’s political and economic stability.

This is becoming embarrassingly ridiculous as Parliament has become a joke, an undignified battleground where it is rather difficult to tell who is on whose side. It is though most unfunny in an age when Europe looks as if it is on the verge of collapse. Rather like a Punch and Judy show, whenever the Prime Minister receives a buffeting, as he just did by the intrepid Dr Debono, the one who gets the flak is the Leader of the Opposition. Most times, he is a bemused bystander merely observing the internecine strife imploding within governmental ranks and, as anyone would at times like these, simply biding his time.

I sometimes wonder what goes through Joseph Muscat’s head as these shenanigans unfold and backlashes like the sudden realisation that the present government has, in fact, aided and abetted the so-called highway robbery of the then National Bank shares by Dom Mintoff and the Malta Labour Party government of the day in the 1970s by delaying justice and thereby denying it. A whole generation has practically died off since these people were summarily dispossessed to ostensibly save the bank after an “orchestrated” run threatened to destroy it.

As we all know, the PN has held the reins of power since 1987 with just a short PL blip in between. The case has been dragging on since then. Now, one of the main shareholders has come out with guns blazing demanding justice, accusing the PN government of being an accessory to highway robbery.

Who knows what a PL government, which may well be a reality in less than a year’s time, will do if faced with a situation like this? We may know more by this morning as a shareholders’ meeting was called yesterday. There seems to be a move to accept an out-of-court settlement, which I find scandalous. Should that happen the reputation of our law courts will reach yet another nadir as it was incapable of dispensing justice which is its raison d’être.

Accepting an out-of-court settlement gives a clear message that the only way of expecting justice is to avoid court altogether. This will not do at all.

Dr Muscat has declared that he will accept whatever the court decides. He has not shirked the past. He freely admits that the track record of the Mintoff years was not the greatest and, as Sellars and Yeatman would admit, not a Good Thing.

At the same time, Dr Muscat has absorbed the “old guard” within his ranks, possibly to show that the new PL is an inclusive and not exclusive party, quite unlike the one Dr Debono claims the PN has become. In fact, this inclusiveness has become another source of ammunition by Dr Muscat’s detractors. Yet, I would be very surprised indeed were any of the “old guard” to receive portfolios in the long run.

However, that is completely by the by as the upshot of today’s train of thought is whether or not, like the Earl of Richmond after the Battle of Bosworth Field, Dr Muscat really wishes to retrieve that battered diadem from under what I think was a thorn bush!

Does he really wish to portray himself as the leader who will command the Red Sea to open a path of dry land like Moses? Does he really expect us to believe that he will walk on water and in a thrice address our environmental issues, our energy crisis and retain economic stability?

He may, with great effort and a vast amount of goodwill, be able to pull all this off and more as long as he has no Franco Debono-like poisoned chalice in his baggage train.

I would, however, feel very uneasy were Dr Muscat to begin making electoral promises which, as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry roundly declared only last week with reference to the Gonzi PN ones of 2008, are totally unsustainable.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.