Truth is always the first culprit of authoritarian regimes. In Malta, we are going through the early formative stages of an authoritarian regime with a democratically elected criminal organisation that is subverting democracy and has captured the state. The characteristics are all there. We have a similar system to a one-party state with a feeble opposition that exists for the sake of formality, with the Party in power having captured all state and government institutions including partly, the judiciary with its corrupt elements. Participation in the economy by locals is structured in a corrupt rent-seeking regime that rekindles memories of colonialism and colonial dependence.
Robert Abela makes no pretenses for ruling Malta like a king. He even expects gratitude and thanks for charity and benevolence as he builds an economic policy of state dependence and precarious jobs. He thinks, acts, and rules like an authoritarian figure and an organised criminal, and this should come as no surprise because this is the way he has lived his life. Or rather, Robert Abela rules Malta without any regard for the rule of law seeking first and foremost his own interests and those of his organized criminal network.
I was made aware that Malta was sliding into authoritarianism with a violent event that shattered what many like me had taken for granted: the bombing and murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia that eliminated Malta’s 4th pillar of democracy. This event made me aware that our democracy may be at risk. It was a late alarm bell for me, that for a long time had distraught me with feelings of culpability about my complicity in having supported a criminal organisation in government. Others in the Labour Party did not share these feelings, like today’s Justice Minister, Jonathan Attard who rejoiced Daphne’s murder with chants of “minced meat”.
So, of course, I am not surprised that today, Robert Abela announced Joseph Cuschieri’s and Rosianne Cutajar’s return to government and in Labour, respectively. Joseph Cuschieri has been appointed CEO of Project Green replacing Steve Ellul who is contesting the MEP elections. He was appointed by Joseph Muscat as the CEO of the Malta Gaming Authority and subsequently as CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority. Eventually, it was revealed that Joseph Cuschieri was a rogue element who traveled with Yorgen Fenech to Las Vegas in 2018, and was removed by Robert Abela as part of a pretend “house cleaning” in the aftermath of the collapse of Joseph Muscat’s Government. As the top regulator at the MFSA, Joseph Cuschieri’s disgraced Malta’s financial services sector and was part of the reason why the country was blacklisted by the FATF.
Not content with the announcement of Joseph Cuschieri’s return, Robert Abela also let slip that he will be “considering” Rosianne Cutajar’s return to the Labour Party because according to him, she had suffered the equivalent of “capital punishment” for a politician, and that it would be cruel for him to keep her out of Government. Rosianne Cutajar needs no introduction to the readers of this website. Yet, it is good to remind readers that as of very recently, Rosianne Cutajar contract with the Institute of Tourism Studies was described as fraudulent by the National Auditor, and instead of being under criminal investigation by the police, Rosianne Cutajar will be rewarded with her return to the Labour Party.
At the end of his announcement, Robert Abela made an explicit reference to me saying that I am, literally, in his own words, “ultra-cruel” (ultra-krudili). Even this is not surprising, and not because this isn’t the first time that Robert Abela vented his contempt at me in public, apart from doing it regularly in private. A conventional psychologist would call this “gaslighting”. In politics, we call this the subversion of democracy and the criminal and authoritarian contempt for free speech and the press. Let’s be very clear here. Robert Abela is not just welcoming literal corrupt individuals back into the Government, but also welcoming two individuals with ties to the alleged mastermind behind Daphne’s murder, Yorgen Fenech, while simultaneously making a direct attack on the free and independent press.
We’ve seen this already. As a historian, I am not impressed, moved, or least at all surprised by this blatant criminal behaviour, yet the chilling effect is still there with the blatant message of approval and support for murderous criminality. It’s there both in its material element and in its ideological belief. They genuinely and ideologically prefer to get rid of the free press by preserving themselves and their criminal activity. This is the ideology of a Mafia or an authoritarian State.
When the leaders and members of the Italian Mafia were brought to justice in the 1980s with the Maxiprocesso, their defense was universal in rhetoric and substance. We are just ordinary people with ordinary families going on about our lives. Why is the state so cruel to bring us here in cages and humiliate us in public?
This defense didn’t hold most of them were sent to multiple life sentences in prison for murder, kidnapping, extortion, and a multitude of other crimes.
As an optimist and a patriot with a deep love for my country, I do not doubt that Malta’s Maxipocesso moment is inevitable. Robert Abela does not govern the country like a normal Prime Minister, he governs like a criminal authoritarian who slowly and gradually is accumulating more power at the expense of the State and society. He will dance on this tightrope for his survival, but on a long enough timeline, among all the criminals and dictators in late modern history who ruled their nation, only Stalin made it out to the end, and even he, had his legacy ruined as soon as he was dead.
History has many ways how it can funnily predict the future.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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