“The horror, the horror” were the last words he uttered. Kurtz, the main character in Joseph Conrad’s novel the Heart of Darkness, travelled deep into Africa to source ivory but was overcome with greed, driven by his conviction that everything belonged to him.
The Heart of Darkness is a story about how blind pursuit of power and wealth poisons values and how corruption spreads like a contagious disease infecting hearts and minds. It is about how unlimited power leads to unlimited corruption. It is a lesson of the tragedy that invariably befalls Kurtz and others like him - total loss. Loss of fame, loss of wealth, loss of power, loss of dignity.
Conrad’s novel is more relevant today than it was in the 19th century when he wrote it. Born in Ukraine of Polish nobility, Conrad’s parents conspired against the Russian rule of their homeland. They were arrested and deported to Northern Russia when Conrad was only four. By the age of 13 he’d lost both parents. Conrad experienced repression first hand. It made him recognise the capacity of human beings for evil. In 1890 he travelled up the Congo river, experiencing greed and corruption. It would be his inspiration for the novel. He witnessed brutal abuse of natives while white Europeans made off with over 140 tonnes of ivory in just two years.
In his quest for wealth Kurtz becomes unhinged. He enslaved the natives, working them to death while remaining completely indifferent to their suffering. Kurtz finally loses everything - including his mind and his life.
In our own country we have witnessed the steady erosion of Labour’s altruistic ideology. The 2013 anti-corruption, meritocratic battle cry has been drowned by the overwhelming rapaciousness and materialistic endeavors of Labour’s core group, aided and abetted by opportunistic ‘businessmen’ making hay while the sun shines. The brooding darkness of those greedy corrupt leaders aspiring to control everything and everybody has snuffed out the light. Freed of all restraint, without compassion, their sense of right and wrong is lost. The benevolence of socialism has flowered into the criminality of Labour’s squalid projects.
The country is now condemned to witness its own prime minister partaking in that orgy of greed. Abela and his family could not want for anything. They earned over 17,000 euro per month from the planning authority and thousands more from ARMS, Air Malta and the Environment ministry. Despite their young age the Abelas possessed more than one large property. And a luxury yacht.
Yet Abela couldn’t restrain himself. Granted the opportunity to gratify his insatiable lust, he succumbed completely. He entered into a business deal with his client, Christian Borg who though still in his twenties possessed unexplained obscene wealth. Borg paid Robert Abela 45,000 euro.
Abela entered into a contract to buy a plot of land in Zabbar in June 2018. That very day Christian Borg, now investigated for kidnapping, money laundering and organised crime, received planning authority permission to build nine apartments and garages on that land he had no claim to. The lawyer for the planning authority which issued Borg’s permission was Abela. He was simultaneously Borg’s lawyer. Abela passed on that Zabbar plot to Borg, aged 24, who bought it for 315,000 euro.
No wonder Abela was so ruffled when the information surfaced. His palpable hostility towards the journalist, his desperate attempt to kill the story, his reference to “just a small plot in Zabbar’ was hysterical panic. He pathetically stonewalled all journalists daring to ask about his deal with the alleged kidnapper. Newspaper editorials demanded Abela stop hiding and come clean. That won’t happen, especially after his resounding electoral victory. Barely days after Abela’s triumph, Labour brazenly awarded Christian Borg’s company a quarter million euro contract. Abela defended the award of that contract falsely claiming it was the court that ordered it.
As Ukraine faced barbaric hostilities, Abela insisted Malta would keep selling its passports to Russians. Russian oligarchs could still berth their super yachts safely in our harbours. Fleeing Ukrainian refugees would still have to pay 100 euro per day for their quarantine accommodation. Malta would offer cancer treatment to Ukrainians - but only five at a time.
One part of the nation feels a moral shock - because something altogether monstrous, intolerable to thought and odious to soul has been thrust upon it. Abela’s excesses elicit the most intense revulsion. It is the filthiness of a lack of restraint and a callous coldness arising from an inner core of hollowness.
When challenged about his deals with Christian Borg, Abela deflected “This is just spin and only spin”. A lie has the taste of death about it - it makes one miserable and sick, like biting into rotten meat. He defended, “I’ve paid my taxes on it”. That’s hardly the point. Due diligence wasn’t his responsibility, he rebutted. He didn’t care whether Borg’s money came from crime as long as he made 45,000 euro.
It is his atrocious judgement that raises most serious concerns. It is the money grubbing miserliness, the unquenchable rapacity, the amoral voraciousness. Why would a wealthy MP and a respected lawyer violate his professional code of ethics, his basic human decency to contaminate himself by striking shady deals with the dredges of society? How can somebody who sells his soul for a few thousand euro be trusted with leading the country?
As prime minister he is now reduced to attacking journalists, escaping questions, avoiding interviews and hiding the truth. Institutions are used to cover up for him, denying freedom of information requests and ignoring journalists’ questions.
This is our prime minister. This is the shame Malta lives with because the nation has endorsed it.
The country faced a battle of opposites - decency against hollowness, restraint versus debauchery, civilization versus lawless impunity, light versus a heart of darkness. And Malta chose to ignore “the horror, the horror”.