It’s been six years since Daphne Caruana Galizia’s brutal assassination.  And nothing’s changed.

Everything the public inquiry identified as a contributing cause of that heinous crime still flourishes in Labour’s Malta. If anything, it got worse.

The inquiry identified a culture of impunity as the main reason behind Caruana Galizia’s elimination. And who created that impunity?  According to the Board it was the Prime Minister, his Office, his entire Cabinet, the police, the security services and the institutions.

The report described the inaction of the police as “a certificate of inefficiency and incompetence, if not worse”. “Everything depends on the discretion of the Police Commissioner to act as expected of him, something that in Caruana Galizia’s assassination, the Commissioner certainly failed to do”.

“The Police Commissioner, security services and regulatory authorities showed a lethargic inactivity not only by failing to investigate serious allegations of illegalities but also by refusing to investigate other allegations of illicit and bad governance - this cannot be explained by simple incompetence or indifference”, the report noted. It condemned senior police officials who “acted in manifestly illicit ways, if not illegally, to favour and assist suspects or to mislead investigations by directing journalists onto false leads that bore no link to what really happened”.

What’s changed? Nothing. We still have a police commissioner who wilfully ignores the damning evidence against Silvio Grixti, Ian Borg, Konrad Mizzi, Anton Refalo, Silvio Schembri, Ray Mizzi, Sonya Abela, Rachel Debono, Rosianne Cutajar, Michael Farrugia and plenty others involved in Labour’s rotten schemes. We still have a police force that prosecutes those who were sucked into Labour’s rackets while protecting Labour’s top brass.

The inquiry report commented that a “state of defacto impunity developed because the public administrator failed his duty to apply the law and regulations equally with everybody”. Nothing’s changed.  The police commissioner still picks and chooses who to prosecute and who to exonerate.  The police force still picks who to investigate and who to leave well alone.

“All the evidence revealed an extensive culture of impunity not only for the highest officials in public administration including ‘persons of trust’, but also a restricted circle of politicians, businessmen and criminals,” the Board noted. Nothing’s changed. Except the police commissioner and the Prime minister.

“The Board identifies the responsibility of the ex-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for what happened”, the Inquiry report read. “The decisions of the Prime Minister together with the confidence expressed by Parliament, strengthened the culture of impunity”.

Joseph Muscat is gone. Instead we have Robert Abela who shamelessly and publicly exerts all his power to sustain that culture of impunity. “Ian Borg was just doing his job,” he declared after Borg’s messages to Clint Mansueto with names of candidates sitting the driving test were revealed. Abela heaped praise on the very customer care officers who fast-tracked candidates for driving tests and pressured Transport Malta officials to ‘help’ them. He jumped to the defence of Labour officials working at his OPM who referred citizens to Silvio Grixti to provide them with forged certificates to get disability benefits they weren’t entitled to.

Abela is broadcasting his expectations to the police. He’s sending a message to the Commissioner - “I will protect my people, they did nothing wrong, don’t dare touch them”. He doubled down at his Party General conference insisting Labour’s devious schemes were intended “to help the people”. That’s a clear message to the nation and to law enforcement agencies:  my officials, my ministers, my MPs, my customer care officers have my protection.  Abela bestows impunity to his chosen ones.

Abela is truly living up to his promise to be the continuity candidate. He’s propagating the impunity the inquiry board identified as the cause of the dark evil that exterminated the journalist.

“The culture of impunity was sustained through a web of control that was created to concentrate power in the hands of a few people,” the report concluded. Abela has done the same. He’s stuffed his party, all government entities, boards, the national broadcaster, regulatory bodies and authorities with his sycophants ready to do his bidding.

He knows the institutions are completely corroded. Yet he brags “the institutions are working”. No, they’re not, the inquiry retorted. “The way in which practically all the country’s institutions failed to react appropriately was impressive….The inactivity of the Police Commissioner and senior police officials was shocking.  Similarly deplorable was the near total inactivity of regulatory institutions like the MFSA and FIAU”. The police, the FIAU, the BCA, the OHSA are worse than useless. The police not only “took practically no action to avoid or minimise the risk (to Caruana Galizia) but on the contrary some of them were instrumental in escalating that risk”.

That is a chilling reality we still face - a police force that not only fails to protect the innocent but compounds their risk by shielding and favouring politicians, businessmen and criminals who collude to ensure their own impunity.

That damning report gathering dust in Robert Abela’s drawer didn’t just blame the Prime Minister and the police. It blamed the whole of Labour’s cabinet. “No member of Cabinet can be exonerated of his duty to assert his will by taking the necessary action,” the report declared. The board condemned the Cabinet’s inaction in the face of the Panama papers and 17-Black revelations as inexplicable. It denounced “the whole Cabinet and parliamentary group (who) continued to give their support through votes of confidence” to Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

“All the ministers were subscribing and consenting to the Prime Minister’s decision to let everything go by”, the report noted. Nothing’s changed. Abela’s ministers are doing exactly the same. Some through tacit approval, others through vociferous support, back Abela’s open declaration that “they did nothing wrong”.

“For the Board, the root cause of the culture of impunity was the erosion of values that should guide the public administrator and the failure to distinguish right from wrong”. Nothing’s changed.

The Prime-minister declares rampantly immoral and criminal behaviour is “just doing their job”. And all his MPs sheepishly back him up. As for the police, they continue to work at demolishing the rule of law. Nothing’s changed - a life sacrificed in vain.