Sustained coordinated threats against anyone that demands justice are very real and they are nothing new. Daphne Caruana Galizia was on the receiving end of a hate campaign that lasted a decade.
In the last couple of weeks, I have been threatened with criminal action by the FIAU, civil action by Keith Schembri’s lawyers representing Pilatus Bank and have been accused of singlehandedly being responsible for the Standard and Poor’s downgrade by Professor Edward Scicluna.
The professor has been under fire for a number of weeks now. He is politically responsible for the MFSA and the FIAU, both of which have failed miserably in their handling of Pilatus Bank – a failure that is well documented in the report issued by the European Banking Authority.
The FIAU and the MFSA continue to fail today in their handling of Nexia BT that appears to operate in an alternate reality – an apparent perk of being the service provider for people in the Office of the Prime Minister.
This week, the Professor took to Facebook to spew the Labour Party’s preferred narrative and accuse me of working against Malta’s interests. He published an article he penned for the Orizzont where he argued that it was my dark magic that led to the Standard and Poor’s downgrade as a result of the Pilatus Bank fiasco.
The Facebook post is pinned permanently to the top of the Professor’s Facebook page as a constant reminder that any consequence of his dereliction of duty should be blamed on the traitor.
The post generated some 60 vile and hateful comments. It is not only the call for my hanging that the Professor endorsed. He was quick to show his approval for most of the vitriol.
The call for my hanging did not come in a vacuum. It is the result of a coordinated and sustained attack on me that has been ongoing for some time – to label me a traitor to my country that is deserving of punishment.
And on that subject, how exactly am I the traitor? I am not the one that set up secret structures in which I intended to deposit €150,000 monthly that I would steal from the Maltese people. I am not the owner of 17 Black. I did not allow a bank to establish itself in Malta with criminal funds. I did not use the bank to launder money for my associates and me. And I did not look on as our institutions were emasculated and captured to protect those responsible for these acts when they were exposed.
I would be happy to debate any of these points with the professor, but he knows all too well that there is very little that is debatable. It is why he chose to attack my character instead and portray me as some sort of an all-powerful evil manipulator.
This is not about one solitary like. It is possible the professor did not read what he was endorsing, but he must have understood the general vitriol beneath his deceitful post. He has to understand that that was precisely what his post encouraged, and he does have a responsibility not to incite hate speech.
Six hours after I called him he said it was a mistake, but he left the post there. He also left his endorsement on the other vile posts. It was only after 48 hours that the many hateful posts with his endorsement were removed.
There is some consolation in the fact that the professor, although quietly, corrected his numerous other ‘mistakes’.
I love my country. It is why I continue to defend it against those who seek to exploit it. It is why I continue to insist that the integrity of our institutions is restored. And it is why I will continue to work until those that have truly betrayed the Maltese people are brought to justice.
In previous years, I have tried to appeal to the professor’s sense of reason in view of my having perceived him as a man of integrity. I know that many, even on my side of the political spectrum, felt the same. It is now clear that our perception had no basis and the reality is an incredible disappointment.
Another line of attack is the effort by the Labour Party to portray me as being at odds with the PN. This is nonsense. My only concern and focus is my work. I am fortunate that my work has been supported by all previous leaderships of the party as well as that of the current leadership under the stewardship of Dr Adrian Delia. And for that I am immensely grateful.