Joseph Muscat is paid tens of thousands of euro by Michael Stivala the Malta Developers Association President to be his consultant. He's been paid tens of thousands more by Fortina's Zammit Tabona. So Muscat just couldn't stop himself diving right into Robert Abela's planning legislation debacle. Finding Abela on the backfoot and facing open criticism by his own senior party officials, including Party President Alex Sciberras, and his own MPs - Edward Zammit Lewis, Miriam Dalli, Chris Fearne - Muscat couldn't resist plunging the dagger into his successor's back.
Joseph Muscat publicly declared that Robert Abela made an absolute mess with his planning legislation. Muscat heaped ridicule on the beleaguered Prime Minister. He called Abela's performance a "froga medjatika" - literally translated that's "a media omelette". Muscat, the man accused of money laundering, fraud, conspiracy, bribery, and corruption in public office, lambasted Robert Abela, calling his decision to publish his planning proposals on the Friday but only talking about them on Monday as "senseless". "The narrative" according to Muscat, "had already taken shape and the government is now at a huge disadvantage to convince genuine people that the changes are essentially good".
Muscat admitted in his lengthy social media post that Abela's changes aren't "good". Muscat confirmed that Abela's proposals will preclude the court from revoking permits, reducing its current powers and only allowing it to send the case back to the Planning Tribunal. Muscat commented that "The Planning Authority cannot become the Court". Muscat also criticised Abela for giving Clint Camilleri the power to reactivate expired permits. "The NGOs are right," Muscat stated, "this power should not be introduced".
Muscat knows that what Abela is proposing isn't right. He's stated it publicly. Yet what seems to trouble Muscat is not that those proposals are detrimental to the common good or that they're a blank cheque to the developers. What Muscat is most critical of is Abela messing up by letting the narrative slip away from him. Muscat is objecting not to the proposals themselves but the fact that by publishing the proposals on Friday and only starting to discuss them on Monday, Abela lost the opportunity to dupe the public into believing his proposals "are essentially good".
Muscat is the master of duping the nation. Even now, thousands are still clamouring for his return to front-line politics despite his cynical betrayal of those very supporters. Muscat has the cheek to accuse Abela of making a hash of his communication strategy ("zelaq fin-nixef"). Muscat never did that. People still believe him despite promising the nation that he would build a new hospital for Gozo and that St Luke's would be radically refurbished. He promised that St Luke's and Gozo's new hospital would be "at par if not better than Mater Dei Hospital".
Muscat never consulted anybody. He never asked the people what they thought about handing Karin Grech, St Luke's and Gozo General Hospital a private company. Muscat never even spoke to the medical, nursing or allied health professionals about his shady decision to execute his well-planned roadmap. He didn't even solicit the views of experts in the field or the general public.
Everybody knows what Muscat's backroom deals led to. Everybody can see St Luke's still falling apart. The entire country knows no new Gozo hospital was built. What we do know is that tens of thousands of taxpayer euros were siphoned out to Swiss company Accutor AG which then redirected that money into Joseph Muscat's bank account. Muscat had the brass neck to turn up at Castille just days after his ousting to back Armin Ernst in securing a more favourable deal for Steward. Meanwhile Steward was making up damaging fake stories about Chris Fearne.
The same applies to more of Joseph Muscat's "great" projects. He promised that the American University of Malta will recruit four thousand students and if they didn't the facilities would be returned to government. He called the AUM deal "the greatest sustainable investment Malta's south has ever seen". He justified handing over public land in Bormla and iz-Zonqor to another dodgy character with absolutely no experience in the field of education - and we know what the result was.
Muscat didn't consult the public. He didn't speak to educational experts and University academics about his suspicious deal with the Jordanian Hani Salah of Sadeen Group. AUM is a loss making disaster that has failed to secure the necessary accreditation expected of a university.
Everything else that Muscat touched was a disaster - the Electrogas project, the Mozura wind farm, Pilatus bank. Everybody can see that. Yet Muscat is still idolised by thousands. He managed to make people disbelieve their own eyes. He convinced thousands of his exceptional competence and vision despite his colossal failure to complete a single legislature.
He still feels entitled to lecture his successor on how to deceive the people, on how to convince the public that his planning proposals are "essentially good" when he knows they're not. He still has the cheek to dish out advice when he's responsible for the multiple scams that left the country out of pocket of hundreds of millions of euro while his own personal wealth grew exponentially. Muscat prospered spectacularly, earning hundreds of thousands of euro, partly from state coffers and partly from the business moguls who benefitted so generously from his decisions while the nation watched its hospitals continue to fall apart.
Robert Abela continues to protect Joseph Muscat, through his media machine and party newspaper which viciously attack court experts involved in Muscat's prosecution, Meanwhile, as soon as Abela is down, out comes Muscat publicly attacking and ridiculing his successor's senseless utter mess ("froga medjatika" "bla sens") and for shooting himself in the foot ("zelaq fin-nixef").