Balzan councillor Andre’ Grech has resigned from the PN.  Why? Because the party failed to punish Therese Comodini Cachia for criticising former leader Adrian Delia. “I cannot be part of a party of haters,” Andre’ Grech commented.

Andre’ Grech believes that political parties are there to stifle their MPs, to throttle them into silence, to bind them to a supreme oath of loyalty to the party which extinguishes their duty to their conscience. Grech expects the party to chastise Comodini Cachia for expressing her disgust at Delia’s court theatrics.

Delia personally cross-examined a journalist. The case revolved around allegations that Delia messaged Yorgen Fenech during a parliamentary debate about 17 Black. Delia badgered the journalist with quick fire questions including whether the journalist was in parliament, whether he knew who was in parliament, forcing the journalist to reveal what evidence he held?

The former leader’s hostile interrogation of a journalist sits uncomfortably in the context - Delia’s links to the man accused of masterminding a journalist’s assassination. When Delia’s own hostility towards and harassment of the murdered journalist is added into the equation, Delia only damages his party further.

What was more disconcerting was the news that party leader Bernard Grech summoned Therese Comodini Cachia. President Mark Anthony Sammut commented “the case is closed”.

The PN was a democratic party. It valued openness, discussion and self-criticism. The leader could be criticised, even openly.  And so could the former leader.  When party colleagues, including MPs, behave badly, others should not only feel free to voice their concerns but should feel obliged to do so. When MPs’ actions are indecent and damaging to the party’s democratic principles, others should condemn them and take action.

This is what distinguished the two parties.  One is democratic, the other autocratic.

For Labour, the Leader is God.  Nobody challenges him. Nobody disputes his decisions, no matter how malignant. Nobody criticises him, no matter how atrocious his behaviour.  Party unity and cohesion override national interest.  Partisan interests override morality.

It is this culture within Labour that led the country to the dark place it is in. The rule of law has been trampled on. Due process has been entirely circumvented, yielding the rotten Vitals, SVPR and Electrogas deals. Regulations have been ravaged as hundreds of incompetent persons of trust have been recruited. Rules have been persistently flouted as direct orders are showered onto Labour’s chosen ones. The Prime minister and his chief of staff communicated regularly on WhatsApp with unsavory characters.  The man accused of murder was the guest at the Prime Minister’s private party. The Prime minister travelled with him to attend Pilatus chairman’s wedding in Tuscany. Zammit Lewis dined with him, shared hundreds of messages and denied having any relationship with him. Rosianne Cutajar accepted his tens of thousands and lied about it.

Yet not a squeak from Labour.  Not a single voice of dissent, of disgust, of protest. The consistent message is “the party is united”, “the movement is strong”. Loyalty to the party and to the leader eclipses decency.

Labour suppresses dissent within its ranks to hide its dirty baggage. Unable to dislodge Joseph Muscat, forced to continue to defend Konrad MIzzi it prevents any examination of its collective conscience.

There can only be one consequence to Labour’s rigid autocracy - Joseph Muscat.  And the spineless entourage that silently witnessed the looting of the country in quiet acquiescence or passionate support. Robert Abela, another product of that system, was among them, and now seamlessly perpetuates Muscat’s filthy legacy.

The Labour Party enabled Joseph Muscat - and still does. It provides him cover from justice and immunity from prosecution by shameless threats of anarchy. Labour enables deceit, perverts truth, and desperately conceals reality, aggressively denying every freedom of information request.

We don’t need another Labour Party. We need the opposite.  We need a party of dissenters, free thinkers whose hegemonic voices create a chorus of decency. We need a party which represents the diverging views, philosophies and interests of a proudly European country. We need a competent party whose commitment is primarily to the truth, justice and decency. We need a party whose members can be trusted to do what is right, even when it harms their party.

When David Thake’s VAT issue surfaced, he was gone.  Humans err.  But when they do, some have the decency to bow out.  Others hang on.  Rosianne Cutajar is still there, after her “stern reprimand” for gross ethics violations.  Cutajar lied to save her skin when her transgressions were nothing less than vile and is now promoted to chair the health parliamentary committee.  Abela buys her loyalty.  She will be forever indebted to Abela for pardoning her, even when her sins were mortal. This is what he’s doing with Edward Zammit Lewis.  That is what he tried to do with Justyne Caruana. That is the ethos of an autocratic party - protecting its own, buying their loyalty and glorifying the personality cult of its Leader.  The Leader rules unchallenged, unrestricted by norms of decency and whose word is power.

Labour protects its leaders for far too long.  Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici stayed on after the traumatic 1980s and cost Labour another drubbing in 1992.  Alfred Sant stayed on and cost Labour the 2003 and 2008 defeats. Joseph Muscat stayed on well beyond his time, and still lurks in the shadows, controlling the ‘movement’ he feels he owns and damaging his country further. Labour puts the party above national interest and its leader above the party, above the law.

Despite the murky proximity of Muscat’s Castille to criminality and the serious allegations about Muscat, Labour fails to ask the basic question - how did we get this far? Why did nobody speak up or take a stand? Why was the mastermind of Electrogas, Vitals, Mozura not kicked out? Why are we still defending him?

An autocratic party will always produce a Muscat. More autocracy is the last thing the country needs.