This has been a remarkable year for Malta. It may also be said it was going remarkably well for the Prime Minister and his government until recent events.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister deftly sidestepped serious accusations of wrongdoing, called an early election which he won handsomely, presided over a booming economy which no doubt had a lot to do with his electoral victory. It now seems he may have been in the running for the EU presidency or, at least, evidently that tasty carrot had been dangled within sniffing distance by wily president Jean-Claude Juncker.

That of course would explain why Joseph Muscat was in such a rush to embrace so-called EU progressive policies with fanatic zeal and alacrity. Obviously feathering his nest with hastily put together legislation cynically using the sympathetic catalyst of the LGBT bandwagon as the vehicle to endear himself in Brussels.

However, perversely as it may sound, it was the Nationalist Party which delivered the Prime Minister his greatest triumph since the election by gifting him Adrian Delia as leader of the Opposition.   Following a farcically lengthy and pontifically complicated process, the PN eventually produced an heir apparent.

Much to the gleeful disbelief on the government benches, the highly respected and competent Simon Busuttil was replaced by a political novice some say with a shadowy and controversial background.  Soon after, Malta was robbed of one of the most admired and respected investigative journalists. A wife, a mother and fearlessly implacable nemesis of all dodgy politicians was brutally assassinated for her investigative work.

Despite Muscat’s rebuttal, Daphne Galizia’s murder is a defining and blackening point in Malta’s rich history. It was a moment in time when politicians, leaders from all walks of life needed to stand up and be counted, an occasion which challenged leaders to demand action and provide satisfactory answers to the nation with Churchillian vim. It was a time for statesmanlike leadership.

Delia confers with the Prime Minister immediately after the bombing but agrees with him not to disclose the nature or the content of their discussions. Given this is possibly the most significant event in recent Maltese history, with circumstances so heinous it was reported globally by the world’s leading media sources, also that Daphne Galizia had questioned the integrity of both Muscat and Delia, the decision to keep details of that meeting confidential beggars belief.

Sunday’s march for Justice attended by thousands of deeply concerned Maltese citizens from all walks of life and different shades of the political spectrum was shunned by Delia apparently due to the laughable excuse he did not wish to create controversy.

In short, like Muscat he ducked for cover thus exposing his own vulnerability. Delia is the leader of the Opposition. By definition his business is to challenge and deal with controversy. Busuttil had no qualms about attending and delivered a most eloquent and fearless speech underlining the quality of the leadership loss to his party and a glaring contrast with the new.

Except for some notable exceptions within its ranks, the PN is currently a party representative of mediocrity, a party bereft of policy or ideology bankrupted of credibility by a core rabble mob whose destructive individual ambition matches their absolute lack of ability and foresight.

It’s what has confined the party to irrelevant obscurity and likely in the fullness of time to lead to total annihilation. The PN has reached rock bottom and rightly deserves to remain in political wilderness for a generation.

An online petition is doing the rounds calling for support for Joseph Muscat and referring to him as Malta’s saviour

According to media reports, there is an online petition doing the rounds calling for support for Muscat and referring to him as Malta’s saviour. In the current difficult circumstances, I suspect the Prime Minister is more embarrassed than grateful for such an untimely choice of title.

However, given it’s been put out there it begs the question: what has Muscat saved Malta from exactly? The floodgates immediately open. Saved from the choking clutches of the rule of law, particularly grateful are the car bombers and those who are now free to hijack any opportunity at illegal activity.

The principle of ministerial responsibility was spiked through the heart and speedily dispatched to an unmarked grave. Patronage and pork-barrel politics just weeks prior to an election were resuscitated in timely fashion and duly commissioned to take a leading combat role against the ethics of a democratic process during an election called expeditiously early to divert the public’s attention from serious allegations raised by Daphne Galizia.

The doctrines of separation ofpowers and the independence of the judiciary were napalmed into oblivion despite a Constitution designed to protect those institutions. Good governance was stifled soon after the government was first elected.

Malta is now truly free of those vital checks and balances developed by the Westminster system over five centuries as this government and saviour Muscat deemed them superfluous and obviously may have cramped his style.

Both the Prime Minister and the President have recently made laudable comments about their support for Maltese institutions. Institutions are stablevalued recurring patterns of behaviour as well as public bodies establishedto support and uphold laws (apologies to Wikipedia).

In Malta none have escaped the sharp scythe of Muscat and his ministers. The army might as well be called his personal army. Enough has already been rightfully said about the nepotism and incompetence in the police force without adding to it, the judiciary which under any half-decent democratic system should be truly untouchable but is now littered with patronage, appointed judges and magistrates whose experience and competence or lack of it was clearly not part of their selection criteria. They are unarguably conflicted in matters involving the government but they continue to act regardless under the benign eye of the Ministry for Justice and Attorney General.

With those institutions well under his thumb, Muscat and his ministers have truly gained immunity. Other than that as the Prime Minister maintains, everything is perfectly fine in Malta now that it has been saved.

Anthony Trevisan is a businessman passionate about environmental issues particularly as they affect Malta.

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.