When God created humanity, He was so pleased He bestowed it with everything that existed on earth. Except for one thing – the apple. This apple exception kept fermenting in humanity’s mind and, after a while, humanity went for the forbidden fruit.

This is the first human lesson taught in the Bible: that humanity will go for what is forbidden, what it cannot have.

The second lesson taught to humanity is that jealousy exists even among two brothers. In fact we read in the Bible that one of two brothers killed the other because of extreme jealousy.

These two lessons to humanity remain to this very day and are a present reality. Wanting what one does not have and being jealous are two evils humanity never got rid of.

There are examples of such instances even in Malta’s political history. Lord Gerald Strickland had been shot by a fanatic Nationalist supporter who swallowed the propaganda lies against him. A certain Ettore Bono had also made a sworn statement, written by Nationalist ministers, stating that he had seen Strickland in masonry frock. This happened on the eve of an election which Strickland lost although he was the favourite.

We also experienced the Church oppression with regard to those who opposed its self-given right of absolute rule over the Maltese people. It condemned Strickland, who made his biggest political mistake when he recanted. Former Nationalist leader Enrico Mizzi had also questioned the Church’s authority but his stand lasted for one day before he also withdrew what he declared and what he stood for.

We had both the Church and the Colonial government exiling Maltese patriot Manuel Dimech to Egypt who, because of his writings, was considered to be a menace to both.

When former prime minister Dom Mintoff and the Labour Party disputed the absolute authority of the Church, the ecclesiastical authorities, through Mgr Michael Gonzi, excommunicated all Labour followers, even going as far as burying them in an animal graveyard.

These are some of the infamy coups that occurred in the past.

We are, or have been, having such experiences again: people wanting what they cannot have and killing out of jealousy. The latest was the infamy plot carefully planned by those who believe they, and only they, have the right to rule. This was an infamy plan based on falsified documents containing accusations against our Prime Minister, his wife and his family.

An empire always crumbles from within

It is now very clear that a female blogger wrote before checking her sources. She dished out information coming from a foreign woman whose imagination appears to run riot with conspiracy theories based not only in Malta but also in Russia. This source conveniently left Malta and, later, Russia claiming her own safety and that of her family was not guaranteed.

She found the complete support of a dysfunctional section of Maltese nationals who badly wanted to take over power. In her murky plot she also had the full support of one of our own members of the European Parliament, David Casa who even went so far as to travel to Greece twice to swear before the judiciary that her life will be in danger if a request to extradite her to Malta was upheld.

Casa and his fellow companion, Roberta Metsola, are regularly and continuously doing their utmost to damage Malta’s reputation overseas, as long as their aim of bringing the present government down is achieved.

Then we had former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil who, I imagine, considers that only he has righteousness. All others are wrong and only he is right. This brings to my mind another fable.

Once there was a king who used to go round the country in the ‘nude’ believing he had and was wearing the best clothes heaven invented. The local people used to applaud and praise him for his fine apparel. This happened on a daily basis. Until a child innocently shouted out to his parents: “Look, that man is nude. He is not wearing any clothes.” It was then that the king finally realised he was naked and it was useless for trying to cover himself because now everybody had seen he was nude.

This is just another example of what is happening in our world.

There are then hyenas, wolves and haters who join in the hunt. These follow blindly the nude king and the underhand queen in whatever they say and do. But they also have their own versions of ‘cardinals’ whose minds and hidden hands try to add spice to the coup.

One such ‘cardinal’ was Pierre Portelli who added more wood to the fire by submitting documents that now turn out to have been forged. Being a journalist, one would have expected him to have conducted more investigations into any documents.

The same must be said about the original instigator, Daphne Caruana Galizia, who some were ready to nominate for ‘sainthood’, also naming halls and conferences for here. All this without even blinking an eyelid.

But this comedy is not finished yet. Another coup is at hand. After the damning conclusions of the Egrant magisterial inquiry were published, the Nationalist leader (if he can yet be described as such) took the first step to ask Busuttil to resign from the Nationalist parliamentary group. This was refused outright.

Now begins the second and most interesting part.

Reacting to the declaration by his leader and the party executive council, Mario de Marco wrote publicly: “Not in my name.” He was immediately followed by Beppe Fenech Adami and eight others.

So I ask, as, indeed, many others are doing: are these two once again trying to overthrow Adrian Delia as leader and bring back the old guard, that is the de Marco and Fenech Adami families?

It is becoming a never-ending story. An empire always crumbles from within. History repeats itself.

The famous words uttered in Roman history E tu, Brute remain actual even today. One’s enemy is always from within.

Lino DeBono is a former Labour MP.