Malta is once again at a crossroads.  The people too are beginning to get a sense of the impending fate that we find ourselves facing once more.  We have been there before, in 1996-1998 when the Labour government led by Dr Alfred Sant was caught in the cross fire between Mintoff’s meddling and post-Mintoff’s legacy, having to call an early election which he went on to lose to the Nationalist party and return to the premiership of Dr Eddie Fenech Adami.  The Nationalist party then went on to create a stable and long-term prosperity and leadership that lasted until the post-EU membership and a vacuum that gave the right opportunity for Joseph Muscat to be invented and shaped into whatever political figure suited you.

It was like the embodiment of the perfect woman.  She could take whatever form you wanted.  If you were a hunter, you could go hunt as much as you like.  If you had a stall at the Monti, you could come right under Renzo Piano’s newly installed Parliament and Valletta’s city gate and show your undies to the tourists and locals. 

Electricity could be generated in the most fantastical of ways.

If you were a middle-class leftie you heard that a new dawn was about to arrive where a utopia of governance was being unwrapped and gifted to you.  This would be a government of accountability, transparency, of meritocracy and have a power couple at the top in the form of Joseph and Michelle.

Certainly, during these past 7 years, the Labour clan could relate and try to emulate the rise in power and status of the shiny couple who turned all they touched into gold and accumulated popularity and a sense of  happening that really transported the ordinary into the special and touched the imagination of those who had been led into thinking they were entitled by association and now had a part in the most radical transformation of Maltese society and their prospects of changing into the Muscat generation where everything is positive and anything is yours.

Nobody stepped in their way.  They started as they meant to go on, entitled to absolute power, full control of the system from the top positions to the most basic jobs, in unassailable partnership with the Chief-of-Staff Keith Schembri and the plucked maverick Konrad Mizzi with Muscat’s wife Michelle leading the way with her soap-opera, where spending is a must and holidays become a life-style of luxury and show. 

Nothing has interfered with this new life-style for the Muscats.  On the contrary, with their instagram photo posts they want to continue to be in the limelight and make clear that they have achieved that VIP status and rub everyone’s nose in it.

Holding the vault keys for them is Robert Abela who shows continuity in his jaunts to Ragusa to trot on and off his luxury yacht and keep on pushing the positive feel.  As Malta was sinking fast in the water of infection, Robert rode the waves and wore the T-shirt. 

The fact of the matter is though, that his ice-cream has melted, the boat is tied to a foreign country’s pontoon, VIP or not, and people here are quickly losing patience and favour with the part-time PM. 

He is now stripped of authenticity, an inflatable substitute for Joseph and Keith.  He is out of his depth and no longer credible in what he does and says.  People in Malta have a radar for this sort of fake.  For a long time they were led to believe that they could trust their radar and what it was telling them about the gang at Castille and that none of the allegations surrounding them were to be believed.  But things have changed.  Even the most obtuse and the most loyal supporter cannot deny the revelations happening before them.  One after the other the lies are being exposed, the criminals have nowhere to run and there is no doubt that those who are still left to their own affairs should actually be under strict interrogation and facing serious charges. 

The crossroads lies before us.  The era of corruption and false glamour that can cause harm not only to the economy but also to the future of our children and to what is left of the country we knew before.  Or to a break with the horrors perpetuated by Joseph Muscat and his kitchen cabinet, together with the minions that scurry in the kitchen picking up the left-overs and baking bread. 

The new road will not be easy and will not be ready yet to make the transition smooth.  It will require trust and a clear commitment to long-term change that will bring our country and its people towards a fresh start, to recover our dignity, our good reputation and our well-being.  Hopefully our sanity too which is sorely tested.

We hope that what remains of democracy in Malta will survive the months ahead and we can hope to choose the right road when the time comes.  The life around us at this time is quite unsustainable and it will take a great unified effort to correct the harm and the damage done in these past years.  We know that some of the tragic events cannot be forgotten and undone but we can hope to have a part in righting the many wrongs that have been left like empty bottles of wine, no matter how expensive, thrown about. 

We are actually already on the way because what we have now is an absence of leadership, a toy for Muscat and Michelle to play with whilst the citizens take matters into their own hands.

The level of crime and violence that is being perpetuated around us on a daily basis is boiling over and reaching all areas and all kinds of victims.   From the family dispute to the lawless behaviour on the streets, mindless acts and traffic accidents that leave families in misery, without any kind of justice from the police.  Arms are everywhere.  This is the result of two weights and two measures, of lies and false management.  The reality is not matching the fake image of Malta as the Best in Europe. 

The only figures that are striking at the moment are those that display the inadequacy of governance in the handling of the Covid 19 and in the number of overseas trips carried out by Joseph Muscat and Michelle, by Konrad Mizzi and by Robert Abela.

It is important that we understand that meddling is going to get us nowhere.  Those who have lost their place should stay well away and out of the limelight, whilst others who have been tasked with running the country should know their place at this crucial time for Malta is here and to entrust responsible people to do a good job without interference from inexperienced meddlers.

Time to move on.