In 31BC, Augustus Caesar, known at the time as Octavian, became the first Emperor of Rome at the young age of 32 with the promise to restoring peace and security.
Following his decisive victory over his main rival politician Mark Antony and the conquest of Alexandria, he became the undisputed supreme ruler of Rome and all her territories. Earlier on, Octavian had removed his strategic political and military ally General Marcus Aemilius Lepidus from power, after an ill-judged political move that gave him the excuse he needed.
Octavian was a daring leader who knew how to influence people by appearing benevolent and good-natured. He acknowledged the sensibilities of Romans, who detested the idea of a dictatorship or monarchy. So he carefully played his political game to secure his position with the Roman public and the influential people around him, by outwardly demonstrating support for a republican system of government that upholds popular sovereignty.
He characterised all of his political stratagems as being for the good and in the best republic traditions of Rome, to appear that he was not aspiring to dictatorship or monarchy.
Octavian vested governmental power in the Roman Senate, executive magistrates, and legislative assemblies. He obtained the kingdom peacefully by political dialogue, through clever political manoeuvres and flatteries. While communicating his authority, he cleverly portrayed a subtle persona for himself to avoid looking like a king to most of his contemporaries.
Octavian also calculated the crucial role in the politics of Rome of the plebeians (average working citizens) and obtained their strong support by providing them with free grain and controlled food prices to keep them reasonably well fed.
In 27BC Octavian made a theatrical display of returning full power to the senate and relinquishing his control of the Roman provinces and their armies. However, instead of accepting the senate gave him the new title of Augustus so that he officially became Emperor Augustus Caesar. The power of both people and senate passed entirely into his hands.
Yet, he was careful not to refer to himself by the title Augustus or claim the title of emperor to himself at any time in public. He simply called himself Princeps Civitatis (First Citizen of the State) despite his de facto dominance over the Roman political system.
The economy flourished during Augustus’s reign, and he passed many sweeping reforms. He dramatically enlarged the Roman Empire, organised an extensive network of Roman roads and built many new aqueducts. He encouraged art, literature, and philosophy. His reign was also marked by innovation, yet he retained enough traditions to keep the populace satisfied.
However, in reality Augustus effectively headed an autocratic regime and retained his autocratic power over the Rome as a military dictator. Instead of forcefully imposing himself on Romans as their king, he did it slowly over time creating a new political hierarchy where the emperor was the one man who could rule the republic like a king.
Augustus was devious, untrustworthy, and bloodthirsty, and he paid little attention to legality or the normal civilities of political life, as he fought for dominance. Persons accused of conspiracy against him were tried in absentia and sentenced to death for treason.
Augustus’s government showed gross disrespect for the rule of law. Brutal punishments to enforce the law in the form of beatings, lashings, exiles from Rome, fines, and even cruel deaths were not the same for everyone according to the crime committed, but depended on one’s status.
The additional revenue generated has unfortunately not been translated into better living conditions for the poor and ever-rising number of workers on precarious employment
A wealthy patrician would receive no punishment at all or far less punishment than a slave would for the same crime. Hence, the old Roman law of the gods and the animals.
While history does not repeat itself in full details, it always shows some similar patterns from which one can draw parallels.
In 2004, at the age of 30 , Joseph Muscat was elected as an MEP. Four years later he won the leadership of the Labour Party and became leader of the Opposition with the promise of a new political season.
Muscat demonstrated great communication skills and conveyed a humble image of himself from his very first speech as Labour leader up to his 2017 pre-electoral speeches.
Before the 2013 election, Muscat quickly removed Anġlu Farrugia from his post of deputy leader for commenting that a magistrate was politically biased, thus quashing his ambition to become leader.
Muscat led an extravagant electoral campaign with funds alluded to have been obtained from deals struck behind closed doors on the fourth floor of the Labour Party headquarters.
The Labour Party obtained a landslide victory and strong mandate to head the government on promises made by Muscat of a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption, meritocratic equality of opportunity and transparency.
However, to the contrary bad governance and maladministration became the order of the day under Labour, with corruption reaching unprecedented levels. A collapse of the rule of law in the country took place as persons loyal to Muscat were put at the helm of the country’s key institutions responsible for the proper functioning of democracy.
Muscat consistently defended one of his ministers and his chief of staff who were caught with secret companies in Panama that were set up just after Labour came to power. He declared that they had done nothing wrong, giving a hefty push to the weakening of the rule of law.
Malta ended up humiliated during a European Parliament debate on November 14 that exposed the country’s precarious situation of the rule of law. Concern was quite rightly raised about the failure on the part of the police to investigate corruption involving certain individuals occupying high government offices, and lack of protection afforded by the State to assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who played a critical role in exposing the corruption within Malta’s political scene and the country’s links to offshore tax havens.
A resolution was subsequently carried by a large majority that called on the European Commission to establish a dialogue with the Maltese government on the rule of law in Malta and respect of European values.
While economic growth in Malta exceeded expectations and the unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level since Labour has taken government, the additional revenue generated has unfortunately not been translated into better living conditions for the poor and the ever-rising number of workers on precarious employment.
This income predominantly ended up in the pockets of a multitude of government consultants and politically appointed CEOs, who apart from receiving a handsome salary are further given a free hand to perform private work, that often creates a conflict of interest, in breach of provisions of the Public Administration Act and unimplemented Standards in Public Life Act.
Yet, the majority of the average working citizens and their families appear to be happy with their share of a thriving economy in the form of jobs and income, and fail to adequately realise the harm that corruption actually does to country as a whole.
More than 2,000 years have elapsed since Augustus Caeser ruled the Roman Empire. Yet, his intriguing spirit appears to remain rife among us up to the present time.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director (industrial and employment relations) in the Ministry for Health.