Last month a Maltatoday journalist confronted Robert Abela: "Aren't these crooked priorities? How can you justify rushing through this (magisterial inquiries) reform while all other reforms are still in the air?" The Prime Minister hit back - "I think your question is crooked (bazwija)".
Abela launched into a prolonged rant, bragging about his "great" and "holistic reforms". He chased his own tail, justifying why he'd still done nothing, almost two years after he promised to stop developments while appeals are underway. "The suspension of development during an appeal is only one reform," Abela commented, trying to conceal his blatant protection of his friends and party funders - the developers.
The whole country knows why Abela hasn't kept his promise. The entire nation knows which side Abela's on. He's not on ordinary citizens' side - he's with Joseph Portelli, Michael Stivala, Paul Attard. He is after all one of them - a developer in his own right.
"So what's holding you back?" the journalist insisted. Abela's excuse was as pathetic as it was cynical. He didn't keep his 2023 promise to pause developments during appeals because he's defending Maltese families. "There are thousands of people in Malta, amongst them families, who have a permit issued on some plot they own and who want to develop that land on the basis of a legitimate permit but there may be somebody who in a frivolous and capricious way lodges an appeal to delay the development by a year to 18 months," Abela explained.
According to Abela it's families who are responsible for the massive overdevelopment. And he wants to protect them from those capricious jealous neighbours who frivolously want to delay their projects. There you go, that's why Abela hasn't implemented his promise - he's defending us, Maltese families, since we all own land we're desperate to develop.
Abela really thinks we're all fools. The reason he hasn't done what he promised in 2023 is "because you have realities of different stakeholders with different expectations," he commented. This is a Prime Minister who listens, who takes note of "different expectations of different stakeholders" - but only if those stakeholders happen to be developers and Labour funders. If you had any doubt it's the developers' interests Abela's protecting, he added "there are discussions that still need to mature to ensure that those who have a right to develop aren't faced with vexatious and frivolous appeals because ultimately it's the permit holder who pays and not those lodging abusive appeals".
That's always the bottom line for Abela - money and profit. The poor developers end up paying the price for their delayed projects. So Robert Abela is protecting them from those nasty abusive people who keep lodging appeals
"Then you've consulted on this," the journalist quickly interjected. Beaming stupidly Abela replied "We spoke to several stakeholders," completely oblivious of the trap he'd walked into. "So on the reform (magisterial inquiries) you tabled yesterday, who did you consult?" the journalist challenged.
Abela was floored. You could hear his jaw drop in sheer panic. He hadn't consulted anybody - and ignored everybody. "One second," he mumbled, "yesterday was just the first reading, the draft hasn't yet been presented". And then off he went on another hysterical rant - "what happened around Christmas was flagrant abuse of the tools of justice - ministers, their wives, one of them pregnant, permanent secretaries - we saw abuse of the tools of justice so the arm of the law doesn't reach those it should reach - we must stand up to this flagrant abuse". His rage at being humiliated rendered him incoherent.
Who are these people Abela wants the heavy arm of the law to strike down? "The mask is slowly slipping - unfortunately in this country we have members of this civil society organisation who are using their organisation not to promote the rule of law but to abuse of it, and to secure for themselves impunity from the law using the tools of justice," Abela rambled on, increasingly erratic and extreme. "A small clique of people today is trying to hijack the institutions and terrorise them in a way that the arm of justice doesn't reach them". That's pure projection, the psychological defence mechanism of attributing to others, one's own deplorable thoughts and traits. "...if somebody repeats the statement that Malta is a Mafia state, they have one finger pointing at Malta and four at themselves," he added.
The journalist wasn't letting go - "Why is it that after more than a year this hasn't materialised but in less than a month the other became a reality?"
Abela completely lost it: "They were investigated on the basis of a blog of fake news, the Shift news - they specialise in reporting falsehoods - we want to stop abuse of magisterial inquiries".
"Any updates on the white paper on media reform?" the journalist prodded. By then Abela had blown all his gaskets. "We had everything ready," he yelled "but you had the usual people who militate in this famous civil society group who told us no, it's not enough". "Those people...are nothing but hypocrites," he raged. "I am telling them they are hypocrites, outside parliament where I don't have parliamentary privilege... they stopped us, and now they're telling us enact that law because it's better than the EU directive..... unfortunately in this country we have hypocrites running around....all the usual forces, the dark forces, stopped us introducing it".
The Prime Minister kept digging. "You're a genuine journalist representing a genuine media house," he told the Maltatoday reporter, "but you should scrutinise this phenomenon of Shift News, and others like them, whose only agenda is pushing lies and deceit".
"I will totally protect my two ministers, their wives...Let me be very clear, they'll need to go over my dead body". A veritable master class in calm, unifying, conciliatory, diplomacy and strategic priorities. Me first, me second, my ministers third, their wives fourth and my friends the developers fifth. As for the citizens he should be serving, they don't even feature on his priority list.