As of now, everyone has read about the scandal on the driving licenses racket at Transport Malta. The previous Minister for Transport and the current Minister for Foreign Affairs is involved in the scandal by abetting it according to Whatsapp messages from Clint Mansueto’s mobile phone who coordinated the racket in Transport Malta. Clint Mansueto is currently being defended in court by Arthur Azzopardi, a lawyer who in the past had a connection with Keith Schembri.
Undoubtedly, Ian Borg’s position as a minister is untenable following the revelations, and the Prime Minister’s defense of publicly-funded “customer care units” is a scathing defense of corruption in our country. Customer care units are fronts for corruption, bribery, nepotism, and political favouritism and this is a well-known fact in our society.
At the same time, there will be very serious consequences with Ian Borg’s resignation and it may not be in the national interest. Yes, and I don’t mind being the harbinger of bad news about bad news. There is nothing that excuses Ian Borg’s behaviour as Minister for Transport, so I won’t be doing that. This is not a defense of Ian Borg. What I will be doing is presenting to the public another side to Ian Borg’s story which is by far much more serious than the driving licenses racket and concerns our national security. Also, for the sake of keeping the integrity of my work, I’m taking the liberty of writing this article without express permission from anyone.
Around two weeks ago, Ian Borg was in a meeting with Robert Abela who asked him to tell Sylvio Grixti to stop speaking to the press. Ian Borg replied to the Prime Minister by telling him “After you used him, you can’t expect me to tell him to shut up, tell him that yourself.” Robert Abela left the meeting fuming.
Ian Borg is considered a threat to Robert Abela and is deeply hated by his ally and clique insider Silvio Schembri, for obvious reasons. Silvio Schembri is the anointed successor of Robert Abela and Ian Borg is considered the main competitor to Silvio given that Miriam’s career is considered to be over with her disastrous legacy in the energy sector. What’s even interesting, is that Castile, Robert, and his clique, knew in advance that the story on the Transport Malta racket and Ian Borg was going to be published today in the Times of Malta, as if someone had tipped them off, but I don’t think that anyone did. Castile probably got to know because someone asked permission to leak the chats which have been under the possession of the police for more than two years by now.
Initially, Ian Borg chose to take on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to try and take a step back in the political shadows. This was after his predecessor jeopardised Malta’s national security multiple times apart from tarnishing our international standing by opposing sanctions on Russia and promoting “diplomacy” with a brutal invader that was at the same time slaughtering and burying civilians in mass graves. Evarist Bartolo was totally unfit for purpose as Minister for Affairs and some of his decisions verged on the insane such as when he temporally gave up Malta’s maritime border security to Turkey during and after the Turkish navy unloaded troops and weapons in Tripoli. Varist, who worked in the education sector most of his life and has pretenses of being an intellectual, was totally oblivious to concepts such as national security, international political leverage, diplomacy, soft power, hard power, etc… I don’t like using the word “geopolitics” because it is abused by the pseudo-expert idiots who believe in the emerging “multipolar” world order, hence why they suggest the need to accept Russia’s brutality in Europe. Varist is a “geopolitics” idiot.
On the other hand, the Labour Party is still stuck with the old and orthodox concept of “neutrality”, yet the biggest problem with this idea is that the concept of neutrality wasn’t a unilateral position in global affairs. Malta’s foreign policy of neutrality was directly linked to its unofficial and official membership of the third international political family: the non-aligned movement and these included countries like India, Indonesia, Egypt, and eventually even China. Yet, by default, this third-political alignment only existed by the fact that there were two major global superpowers competing against each other. Nowadays, things are very different.
First of all, we no longer have two superpowers. We have a superpower that is being challenged by China which is building an anti-Western coalition around it, and Russia is part of it. Nowadays, Russia’s economy is heavily dependent on the Chinese economy with the Chinese Yuan becoming Russia’s major foreign currency import. China has aspirations of becoming a superpower to challenge the international rules-based order, bring the USA to the table, and like old imperialists, discuss the state and the future of the world on an equal playing field. The Chinese feel entitled to this global power and their most basic justification is that they are more than one billion people, so surely, they believe they should have more weight in global affairs than Europe and the US combined. The geopoliticistas, like Varist, will tell you that we should open up to China’s aspirations and engage in constant positive diplomatic engagement. At best, this kind of reasoning is naively stupid, but at worst, it is evilly corrupt.
Now, China has a very strong foothold in Malta owing to historical relationships which go back to 1972. Shanghai Electric owns a third of Enemalta and they have directors sitting on its board. Last year, China exported to Malta a total of up to $601 million in oil, and it finds Malta important for its technological products, most of them produced by ST Microelectronics with Malta exporting in total to China in 2022 around $500 million worth of electronic components. During the Joseph Muscat administration, Malta sold passports to thousands of Russians and Chinese, and undoubtedly some of these have used Malta to move or transfer wealth. Russia also had plans to use Malta as an energy and trading hub, having registered a company for their Russian shipping registry in Malta, apart from Lukoil registering a company in Malta a month before Russia invaded Ukraine. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Robert Abela has had a history of corrupt dealings with Russian oligarchs buying Maltese passports.
Despite being “neutral”, Malta is considered a playground for rich Russians and Chinese along with their governments who have enough confidence in Malta to be able to penetrate its financial and banking system. We have trading relationships with Russia and China which aren’t straightforward forward but like Switzerland, Malta basks under the cover of neutrality to keep its dealings with China private. Malta hasn’t even been so forthcoming in collecting the riches of Russian oligarchs,and Malta is in fact, one of the top three Russian favourite destinations along with two other major Russian money-laundering hosts of Europe: Cyprus and Austria.
For those not paying close attention to the implications of all of this, when Evarist Bartolo was defending Malta’s right to sell passports to Russian oligarchs after Russia had invaded Ukraine, Malta was seriously projecting itself on the international stage as a rogue state. It was not so long after Malta was greylisted by the FATF. What we didn’t need at that point in time, was an eccentric Minister for Foreign Affairs making absolutely dumb statements on Malta’s foreign policy.
Somehow, Ian Borg was absolutely necessary to avert a disaster on the international stage, and to his own merit, he eventually came to several conclusions that were beneficial for Malta’s long-term national security. Contrary to the Labour Party, Ian Borg understood that in practice, our neutrality can not be applied either in a material way or in principle. Malta, like all other states in the world, right now has to make several foreign policy decisions that will define its trade, economics, and security for the years to come and this decision is mainly whether to support the international rules-based order or give leeway to China to change it. Ian Borg has taken the decision to align Malta with the international rules-based order, and that is by logic and principle, Malta will be opposed to China’s potential invasion of Taiwan. This is also why Ian Borg has changed Malta’s position on Ukraine by demanding a total withdrawal of Russian forces from all of Ukraine, including Crimea before any discussions for peace are held.
Ian Borg’s break from the orthodox principles of neutrality is not welcomed by the Labour Party and Robert Abela who prefer a more opportunistic vision for foreign affairs so that Robert’s criminal gang can act with even more impunity. As a village politician, it is harder to cut corrupt deals with Russians and the Chinese when US diplomats are breathing down on your neck – and this is genuinely the only reason why Robert Abela wants a freer hand with foreign affairs. The reality is that Ian Borg’s turn from neutrality is only possible due to pressure by US diplomats on Robert Abela to support international sanctions and the position of the removal of Russian forces from all of Ukraine. This situation has also enabled Ian Borg to hold discussions with NATO on Malta’s national security and to increase our collaboration. The reality is that there will undoubtedly be those from the left who will hold alarming calls about this news, but the reality is that “neutrality” does not guarantee security. And having a Foreign Affairs Minister like Varist who secretly outsources Malta’s national and border security to the Turkish navy, unilaterally and secretly out of sheer panic, is much worse than embedding ourselves in a legal framework that guarantees our security comes what may.
Today, the US government can have meaningful and substantiative discussions with Malta thanks to Ian Borg, since as you can all see, the Prime Minister is a total bogan with no clue whatsoever. Ian Borg, on the other hand, has matured from a village politician to someone who understands serious things. It is not my pleasure I had to break some heavy news on the back of a racket scandal, but I sincerely believe that there is some serious stuff that supersedes a driving license scandal – such as a total return to international corruption with non-Western states on the excuse of our neutrality. And for the record, to make it absolutely clear, this is not an exculpation of Ian Borg’s behaviour during his time as Transport Minister.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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