You can tell a lot about a leader based on how he reacts to crises and criticism. Bad leaders react with great rage, they thirst for vengeance, they attack their adversaries, they accuse their enemies of doing the wrong they themselves are guilty of. And that's exactly how Robert Abela reacted to 2024's crisis of the year concocted by his two ministers, Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri.
Robert Abela went on the offensive. The whole issue was just PN spin, he claimed. He accused Repubblika of being the extremist faction of the Opposition. He defended the behaviour of his ministers. A simple apology would suffice, Abela insisted. Both ministers will retain their cabinet post, he firmly declared.
The whole country warned him. The few sane voices within his own party advised him against defending their flagrant abuse. Abela wouldn't listen.
He's incredibly vain. He thinks he knows best. He feels he doesn't need to listen to the voices of objection and protest because he thinks he's smarter, better, more brilliant and more loved than he actually is. Epictetus states that it is impossible to learn that which you think you already know. And Abela thinks he knows everything - and never learns.
His ego is inflated by the coterie of sycophantic yes-men he's surrounded himself with. Those people who nestle around him want something from him, depend on him, and tell him what he wants to hear. Their dishonest grovelling isolates him in a bubble of unreality where all he can hear is the clapping and cheering of his adoring public. He's caught in the dictator's trap where those around him, scared of his temper and aware of his fragile ego, only tell him what he wants to hear. The people are clapping - so he's an amazing leader, he's doing a great job, the polls are great.
He's built an entire structure - the PBS and his own party media machine - that gaslight the entire nation into believing that this irresponsible man-child is amazing at his role.
A good leader needs to know the objective facts and have the courage to deal with unfavourable and difficult situations - and resolve them. A strong leader doesn't ignore crises, doesn't pretend there's no problem. But that's exactly what Robert Abela does, every time.
In a decent civilised country any one of the litany of Labour's scandals would spell the end of Abela. But this is not a sane country. This is not normal, and it keeps getting more and more abnormal.
There was a time, early in Abela's premiership, when it seemed Abela was listening to the adults in the room. As years rolled by Abela stopped listening. He's become increasingly arrogant, belligerent and offensive. And that's when the wheels began to come off as they invariably do for such leaders.
The saying goes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The truth, as Robert Caro argues in his Pulitzer prize winning book The Power Broker, power doesn't corrupt, it simply reveals. Power didn't corrupt Robert Abela. It simply stripped away the varnish revealing the real person beneath. And it's not a competent, open-minded Abela that emerges. It's a vain, arrogant, egotistical Abela. And those traits will spell his collapse.
Beneath what looks like confidence, hides his profound insecurity and paranoia. His obstinate rigid decisions fragment as they clash with reality. He removed Justyne Caruana, only to reappoint her, only to have to sack her once more. He doggedly resisted a public inquiry on Jean Paul Sofia's death only to bend over backwards and surrender. He insisted Clayton Bartolo would continue as Minister and now he's not only sacked him but kicked him out of Labour's parliamentary group. He's flooded the country with third country nationals and now he's suddenly and unilaterally decided to stop issuing work permits for drivers. Massive tracts of public land were handed to his friends for development, now he's decided that public land should not be given to developers. Everybody warned him the hospitals' deal was a scam - he wouldn't listen until it was too late.
Abela is unfit for his role. He delays and procrastinates, he digs his heels in, until he's with his back to the wall when he finally makes a screeching U-turn. Everybody told Abela he should sack Clayton Bartolo and Clint Camilleri. Instead he defended them. Abela's defence of manifestly unethical behaviour shocked even members of his own party. But Abela can't stand anybody challenging his decisions. For what felt like an eternity he stuck his neck out for his ministers. Now he's just pitied and scorned in equal measure.
Invariably, as happens with all bad leaders, Abela's support will erode. First it wanes slowly, then it collapses suddenly.
The whole Clayton Bartolo saga is depressing and disheartening. It leaves the whole country saddened at the perilous state which Abela's moral ambivalence and weak leadership has brought us to. Abela's election as party leader five long years ago brought a ray of hope that after the years of chaos under Muscat the ship of state could be steered back into tranquil waters. There was a collective sigh of relief that after that close shave with utter disaster, the young lawyer would bring the country back to its senses, would start afresh, would honour the noble promises of meritocracy, fairness, justice and decency.
Instead the country drifted into deep despondency as it watched that young lawyer, who held such promise, prioritise the wrong things. He's strived for personal power and wealth. He couldn't figure out what was important. He couldn't choose the right path. He betrayed the national interest. He let his ministers and their partners plunder the state, hand out public land, multi-million contracts and direct orders, sanctioned irregularities for their friends and financial backers.
We've seen this before. 2019 and 2020 are still fresh in everybody's mind. We all know there is only one way Abela's premiership will end - in shame and chaos. This is what bad leaders do - they destabilise, they jeopardise, they demolish everything they touch before they're buried in their own hubris.