“A new government will administer the people’s funds with responsibility and care guided by the values of accountability and transparency.  Government will reduce wasteful spending and will do more with less.” This wasn’t one of the 1,000 proposals on Abela’s Malta Flimkien manifesto.

It was Labour’s pledge to the country before it gained power. It was Joseph Muscat’s key promise to the electorate in his 2013 Malta Taghna Lkoll.  “Labour - because Joseph can bring the change we need” shouted Albert Gauci Cunningham from one of Labour’s billboards. The change we needed never happened - the changes we didn’t came thick and fast.

Joseph Muscat smiled benevolently from that manifesto - “this is a clear roadmap of where we want to get to - it is not an auction for votes”.

Muscat promised open government committed to full transparency.  He promised “an independent fiscal council” made up of independent members including academics to increase transparency in the budget.  It never happened.

He promised a social impact assessment on government’s every major economic decision. It never happened.

He committed to open government.  “We will adopt the concept of open government - a process to strengthen transparency and accountability.  We will strengthen and improve access to information for citizens by online means that offer greater transparency”. It never happened.

“We will start a project so that taxpayers and consumers are given the right to elect their own representatives on public boards and entities”.  It never happened.

“Ordinary citizens will be represented on selection boards for major contracts”. It never happened. Not unless Brian Tonna counts as ‘an ordinary citizen’. He was on the selection boards of enough of those major contracts - despite being Keith Schembri’s and Konrad MIzzi’s Panama companies fixer - and the supposed owner of Egrant.

Muscat’s false promise of transparency and openness was just electoral bait. He had absolutely no intention of keeping that promise.  He’d barely been elected before he started negotiating the Cafe Premier deal on his personal e-mail. Transparency only works when you’ve got nothing to hide. You can’t have openness and transparency when you’re robbing the people you were elected to protect.

So Muscat and his kitchen cabinet made sure nobody found out anything about their mega deals - SOCAR, Electrogas, Vitals. Not even his own Minister of Health had access to the Vitals contract - only Konrad Mizzi did. Mizzi signed several Vitals side agreements without the knowledge of the responsible Minister. The Vitals contract was top secret. After months of pressure, a version of the contract was tabled in parliament. It was so heavily redacted it was not worth the paper it was printed on.  43 whole pages were deleted.   In those pages that weren’t, there were huge blank spaces.

When the NAO probed the Vitals deal, Konrad Mizzi refused to meet the auditor general or his staff. He did the same with the DB ITS deal. Yet in his Taghna lkoll manifesto, Muscat had solemnly promised “We will give the auditor general more powers to investigate, especially in the case of those who refuse to co-operate.  The Auditor General will be able to use those powers to reopen cases where crucial witnesses did not cooperate.”  Muscat was just bluffing.

Almost a decade later, Labour has learnt its lesson. While Malta Taghna Lkoll was stuffed with promises of transparency and open government, Robert Abela’s Malta Flimkien barely mentions the word “transparency”.  Only once does the word transparency in the 1,000 proposal manifesto refer to government’s commitment to transparency.  The other eight times transparency is mentioned, it refers to transparency of employers, electricity rates, food source traceability, electoral process and voluntary organisations.

And the reference to government’s transparency is as opaque as possible.  Proposal 905 reads “We will strengthen public standards by providing administrative support to the main authorities to guarantee good governance.  This should lead to strengthening of accountability and transparency amongst those involved in the executive leadership of the country, public entities and institutions”. A far cry from Labour’s 2013 commitment to openness and transparency. The only thing Robert Abela’s manifesto promises is that “we”, whoever that might be, will provide administrative support. And that should, not would, strengthen transparency. So don’t hold your breath.

We all know what that means. It is a categorical declaration that Labour intends to persist with its policy of secrecy, opaqueness and concealment. It is determined to continue to reject freedom of information requests, to fight the Data Commissioner’s rulings to release information, and to make it as difficult as possible for the public to get complete unfettered access to information. At least we can console ourselves that unlike Muscat, Abela won’t be breaking his promises - because he hasn’t promised transparency.

The sad reality is we know what Labour will be up to.  It will use secrecy as a weapon and a cover to engage in dodgy deals that benefit only its inner core and which will inflict severe and lasting damage to the country. Nobody, even in Labour, contests the harm the Vitals’ deal wreaked on the nation’s medical and financial health. Nobody even in Labour doubts the illegalities of the Electrogas deal. Nobody argues that the 100 million Vitals termination clause is a millstone Labour placed around the nation’s neck. All of this happened behind our back. Even behind the back of our parliament.  Even behind the back of our health minister and deputy prime minister.

Much more happened behind our back, a lot that we know of -  ITS DB, SVPR, SOCAR, hospital cleaning, harbour ferry services, Captain Morgan, Malta film awards - and much more that we don’t and which Labour is still battling to keep secret - like Saviour Balzan’s contracts.

Labour intends to keep hiding things from us.  For good reason. It hides them because it knows they’re bad. Because it doesn’t want us to find out Labour’s robbing us blind. The nation must fight for what Labour first promised - openness and transparency. Mabye that will shield the country from Labour’s worst abuse.