Robert Abela flew into a rage. The Opposition decided to vote against Abela's latest constitutional amendments. Stomping his feet, Abela accused Bernard Grech of "stomping his feet". The master of U-turns denounced Grech for his "severe inconsistency". The notoriously obstinate Abela called Grech's decision "an act of stubbornness". Abela expressed outrage that the Opposition was presenting "stupid reasons" for voting against "important and neutral proposals" which "only benefit the people". He accused the Opposition of "voting against the people".
Voting against the people is when tens of thousands sign a petition in support of a public inquiry over the death of Jean Paul Sofia, when NGOs clamour for that inquiry, when the victim's mother begs Abela for it, when the Opposition presents a motion calling for it but a certain Robert Abela forces all his MPs to vote against it. His own MPs urged Abela to relent. They were being crucified by their own grassroots who felt Abela's position "lacked empathy" and that he was "coming across as cold and disinterested in what a grieving mother had to say".
Stubbornness is when your petty obstinacy unites the whole country against you such that a massive crowd of people gathered before the Prime Minister's office to express its wrath even after Abela made a screeching U-turn, tail between his legs and accepted a public inquiry. That's what stubbornness is. That's what voting "against the people" looks like.
Abela knows all about rejecting beneficial proposals. He's accusing the Opposition of "political vengeance", when he's the one who repeatedly forced his MPs to vote against all Opposition proposals that "only benefit the people".
When Graziella Attard Previ submitted a motion to amend regulations to improve work-life balance for parents and persons they care for, Abela shot it down. When Mark Anthony Sammut proposed amendments to regulations on electricity and water bills to spare the public from unfair payments, Abela torpedoed it. When the Opposition presented a motion to exempt COLA from income tax, Abela rejected it. When the Opposition came up with proposals to tackle the increasing cost of living by providing tax credits for SMEs and creating a national fund to support importers-exporters in order to reduce prices, Abela spitefully rejected them.
When the Opposition attempted to present a private motion to ensure the Caruana Galizia inquiry recommendations were implemented, Abela's government refused even to debate the motion. Abela ordered his MPs to vote against the Opposition's motion calling for the annulment of the Steward Healthcare agreement. Bizarrely Abela commented that "the Opposition is Steward Healthcare's best advocate" while admitting he would "continue talks with Steward Healthcare next week". Then, after months defending and praising Steward, Abela was forced to eat his words and cancel that contract.
"This is one of the worst episodes on display where the Opposition says no to everything," Abela commented. We all know who's the one saying no to everything.
"You want to decide what laws are enacted", he accused the Opposition. The truth is Abela has been rushing through parliament controversial laws that nobody supports and which certainly don't benefit the people. They only benefit Abela, his loyal friends, his former boss and former clients.
Abela passed a reform of drug laws allowing drug-related trials to be held without a jury, removing the possibility of life sentences. That reform ensured drug traffickers got a good deal. Abela fast-tracked a controversial law relating to freezing orders making it almost impossible for authorities to combat financial crimes such as money laundering and corruption. No prizes for guessing who those reforms benefit. Suffice it to say that it limited attachment orders to just six months and placed huge burdens on the prosecution to be able to freeze possible proceeds of crime. Yet Abela's justice minister insisted "a fair balance between public and private interests needs to be struck". Meanwhile Abela studiously ignored the Caruana Galizia recommendation to introduce unexplained wealth orders which would enable authorities to confiscate assets from owners who cannot prove their legitimate provenance.
In the face of universal condemnation, Abela pushed through controversial reforms to the magisterial inquiries law, denying people's right to request a magisterial inquiry. That's a significant erosion of our rights. It doesn't benefit the people. It benefits Abela's cabinet ministers; it shields him and his friends from investigation. Abela claimed that our right to request magisterial inquiries was "being abused". Without it we'd never have seen any indictments over 17 Black or the Vitals-Steward scam. Abela robbed us of our limited rights to seek justice. Now instead of going to a magistrate we'd need to go through a solid brick wall called Angelo Gafa.
Abela has been wielding his unassailable legislative strength to protect his friends from investigation from the very start of his ascent to power. In 2020 he passed legislation to shield persons of trust from investigation by the Standards Commissioner. His new law decreed that "persons of trust shall not be deemed to be public officers or public employees". As a result, the Standards Commissioner could no longer investigate their wrongdoing. The Commissioner himself labelled that bill "a major step backwards". .
In 2020 the salary bill for persons of trust at OPM reached €4.26 million over the course of one legislature. Amongst them were 6 messenger/drivers, 14 customer care officers, 2 communications coordinators and a huge list of other persons. In 2022 Miriam Dalli recruited 8 canvassers as her consultants with a bill of €2 million over the legislature. Since then the number of persons of trust has exploded - but nobody knows how many or who they are, because the master of transparency, Robert Abela, ordered his ministers to stop giving information about persons of trust. He's ordered all FOI requests to be rejected.
When that persons of trust bill was passed, the notorious Edward Zammit Lewis insisted "the new method will ensure greater transparency".
The Opposition is right to vote against. Abela cannot be trusted. His legislative amendments don't "benefit the people". On the contrary, they deprive us of our right to information, our security, and justice. Most of all they facilitate the siphoning of our taxes into the pockets of Abela's friends by ensuring their looting is beyond the scrutiny of the institutions. More crucially, the voting public never gets to know.