Back in 2013 as the Premier café’ scandal was being revealed, newly elected Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he had made a mistake, out of enthusiasm, and that he would learn from his mistake.

Words, like so much else, that have just gone with the wind.  Rather than any change towards responsible and transparent governance, a whole mountain of such mistakes kept piling up.  From one corrupt deal to another, one direct order to another, persons of trust installed in every crack and corner and a wholesale take-over of our institutions, the mistakes became the way and the means towards personal enhanced profiles for each and every crony of Muscat and his strategists. 

All of these mistakes may have finally toppled the man but the mountain remains standing.  Like the little bride and groom figures over a wedding cake, as it is sliced and cut and then the couple get to take the rest of the cake home. 

There were guests at that wedding.  Some of those too, have had time to have their cake and eat it and now, forced or advised to move on, they continue to benefit and keep their plate full.

The latest casualty is the ex-Minister for the Economy, Chris Cardona.  After spending the last 3 or 4 years, dealing with allegations that have been lodged against him, he has decided to change his stable and back the horse of private enterprise. He has resigned his seat in Parliament but remains Deputy Leader of the Labour Party for Party affairs. 

Malta’s reputation is in ruin and has become the cultural reference for Mafia, organized crime and money-laundering. 

Cardona dropped the libel case with the money garnish he had instituted against journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia when she had investigated and revealed the story about his being at the brothel whilst on government business. Therefore the charge was never disproved. In itself that should have been justification for a disgraced resignation.

The alleged link to the brothers accused of planting the bomb that killed Daphne served as a thread in a plot against him by other associates to frame him for murder, as he claims.

Nothing less, though, than others in the government of Joseph Muscat, such as Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri who remain unaccountable for their part and actions in the engineered rape of Malta.  Mizzi was another who sought to depart from his employment as a Minister or member of Muscat’s government with a complete package of financial security.  Schembri remains under the radar but his tentacles are everywhere.

You might also say that Robert Abela is another member of the Muscat government that has fixed a good package for himself.  He is Prime Minister. But there is nothing of this government that has anything to do with serving the country. It is a remodeled version of the one before it.  What it does not see is that where Muscat’s government would have something to sell the people, this one is totally out of touch, out of date and worth absolutely zero for the country. 

The only thing that could have brought some credibility to Abela and his cabinet is if they had seriously embarked on a complete re-working of the past “mistakes” that had brought us to the edge of insanity, by rebuilding, removing, replacing with credible alternatives all the incompetent associates and pursuing the elimination of criminal suspicions around persons and deals that are now holding our country to ransom.

The Prime Minister’s pursuit of rejected models such as push-backs for migrants, corrupt deals left to stand, maintaining the influence and control of appointments, expanding a fuel based economy by building roads and ignoring the needs of the environment are all so much part of another universe. Of that not-just pre-Corona world but also of that failed kingdom of Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi and there is nothing that convinces the nation that our real interests are being served by anything that Robert Abela does.

The Maltese are a resilient and proud people who strive to survive and succeed.  They are competitive and determined in much of what they undertake and it has produced some outstanding professionals.  That is why the country handled the virus with good results.  The future is dependent on us, the people, not on a model that resembles a record-player when everyone is now digital. 

So, either we will continue on, regardless of the hash-ups of Abela and his cabinet and create a new generation that reflects our true needs and desires or this government seeks a way of restructuring from the bottom up, leaving no stone unturned, as his ex-boss would say. 

We have now grown used to the sound of silence around us, the quiet streets and clean air and any voice that jarrs with this is quickly picked up and echoed into the emptiness.  Shady deals are so unwanted and pathetic at this time. This is a time of honesty, solidarity, acts of kindness and also of great anxiety and uncertainty. We simply cannot afford to be pussyfooting around on matters that have to do with basic rights and justice.

We are entitled to answers and to a fresh management, focused on getting things right and fair for all, not on going around in circles and perpetuating the failed model of Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi, the cabinet and the whole back bench of the four weddings and a funeral. If they are incapable of delivering, then an election is the only way to go.

So, Chris Cardona can fold his arms and look steady. That is the way justice is carried out in Malta. The reverse of it. The thing is that people now will be too busy doing something for themselves to bother with what Robert Abela or Chris Cardona are doing. It is clear enough, if you are not a vote-winning lobby group that interests the Labour Party, you are alone. We have some months of subsidized employment income and other benefit schemes, which is essential if any sort of economy is to survive but as for a vision and a commitment to renewal and reconstruction, the people are already way ahead of this putrefied caravan.