“There are no institutions - only the people exist”. You’d think that was Robert Abela in one of his wild-eyed wacky rants against the establishment. It wasn’t. That was Andreas Papandreou, the former Greek Prime-minister. He too railed against the establishment, accused his adversaries of national betrayal and opposed his country’s EU membership. He promised “to govern for the benefit of the common people”.
But just a few years later, 210 million dollars disappeared from the Bank of Crete and Papandreou was charged with embezzlement, kickbacks and bribery. He too claimed this was a political vendetta. He was later cleared.
Abela is emulating Papandreou’s classical populism - attacking the institutions while claiming to embody the will of the people and placing the people’s interests above the institutions.
Abela eviscerated the magistrate who conducted the Vitals inquiry. Now he’s gone a step further. When the court ordered the investigation of public officials who manipulated vulnerable individuals to fraudulently change their ID card address, Abela defended the fraud. “The court gave its decision - one may agree or disagree with it,” he commented.
This is not an opinion that one can agree or disagree with. This is a fact. People were forced to declare they resided at Binja Silvio Parnis when they didn’t. All 22 magistrates ruled in favour of the PN. All 99 individuals were forced to change their ID back to their real address. These are facts - they are indisputable. But Abela distorts even the solid truth to get his way. That is the hallmark of the authoritarian - the truth, factual reality, can be “disagreed” with, and the masses will believe everything and nothing. When even verifiable facts are disputed we no longer have any common ground left - and that’s exactly what Abela wants
Abela not only demolished the authority of the judiciary by asserting that court decisions have no value but attempts to annihilate factual truth itself.
When Abela insists that the magistrate’s inquiry counts for nothing, court rulings don’t matter, it’s the public 8th June vote that counts, he orders the nation to close its eyes to reality.
The shamelessly devious Roderick Galdes chimed in: “They have the courts, we have the people’s votes”. Abela and Galdes don’t care about the rule of law. The only law Labour respects is retaining power, abusively secured through patronage using state resources.
Takis Pappas, in his paper “Populists in Power”, outlined clearly the danger of populists like Papandreou and Abela. They destroy democracy.
Democracies feature several key components. They recognise that society is constituted by people of opposing conflicting views. Democracies recognise the need for political parties to behave moderately and seek consensus. They adhere to and safeguard the rule of law. Fundamentally they agree on the factual truth.
Abela embodies the anti-thesis of those principles. He contends our society is split by a single overriding unbridgeable rift between Labour and everybody else, a group he labels ‘the establishment’. He incessantly foments hostile conflict to widen that rift. He systematically undermines the rule of law, brainwashing his supporters that the courts are just a pliable tool in the hands of the evil establishment. Fundamentally he denies factual truth.
“Do you think Roderick Galdes’ position in cabinet is tenable?” Abela was asked. “What worries me more is the PN’s persecution of the 84 families,” he replied, “84 families were provided social accommodation of the highest level by this government but PN was against this project from the start”.
“It’s an opposition party that’s indifferent to the needs of that section of society… we are different, we gave those 84 families dignity,” he insisted.
The courts concluded those 84 families “were manipulated and exploited by those who were meant to safeguard their interests and well-being”. That’s not dignity, that’s exploitation.
“If the PN were content putting these people through martyrdom, it’s up to them. But now there are elections on 8th June”, the deceitful Abela declared. The ones who put those vulnerable people through “martyrdom” are those coercing them to make false statements and break the law.
This isn’t about a change of address. This was Labour’s co-ordinated orchestrated scheme that manipulated vulnerable individuals, desperate for a home, into committing a crime in order to criminally pervert the democratic process and retain Siggiewi’s local council.
It’s about Abela desperately denying the truth. He’s working up his supporters into a frenzy, inciting them against the very institutions that protect them against his autocracy and undergird our democracy - the media, the courts, the opposition. He’s defending his minister’s abuse of the most desperately vulnerable people to win a local council.
His uncontrolled state patronage is reaching its peak. Labour breaks the law but Abela portrays his patronage as the lifeblood of well-meant righteous social policies. “We gave those 84 families dignity….the only thing I’ll tell those families is remember what PN put you through”. The truth is that Labour exposed those vulnerable individuals to criminal prosecution.
An underprivileged majority, gratefully waiting for his handouts and gullibly swallowing his lies, has become the backbone of Abela’s populist rule.
Those still planning to vote Labour should remember Venezuela. There, another populist, Hugo Chavez polarised the nation, rewarding his supporters with the bounty of state clientelism, funded by oil money. When oil prices crashed Chavez had to keep spending to keep people happy. He coudn’t keep up.
The once booming economic situation turned dire and Chavez’s popularity plummeted. The only way to retain power was through crushing oppression and by dismantling the institutions protecting the people from him. Chavez died in March 2013 when Joseph Muscat rode to victory. Under the less charismatic and more autocratic Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela remains a severely impoverished country whose citizens are so deprived of their most basic freedoms and their vital needs that they will do anything to escape their own country.
Our Chavez is thankfully gone, but sadly we’ve got our own less charismatic more autocratic version of Maduro - Robert Abela, a proven liar and a cheat.