Deputy Leader Alex Agius Saliba was out defending Labour's decision to deploy Neville Gafa as the party's "new weapon" in Gozo. For those who've never heard of him, Gafa is a shady character who gained notoriety through his involvement in a health visa scam and the subsequent alleged attempt to cover it up by offering witnesses hundreds of thousands of euro for their silence. He was later pursued by health authorities for allegedly claiming thousands in unjustified overtime payments. Chris Fearne fired him from the health department while Gafa's friend Joseph Muscat pretended he didn't know where he was employed. In fact he was working at Muscat's OPM. Now Gafa has transformed himself into a blogger who harasses, bullies and intimidates not just Labour critics, but also Labour ministers such as Owen Bonnici.
In a shameless admission of Labour's contempt for basic decency Agius Saliba embraced Gafa's return to frontline Labour. Agius Saliba commented "the party never stopped anyone contributing....except for those found guilty by the courts, we have always been open to anyone who can help".
Agius Saliba has truly hit rock bottom - "it's not illegal, so it must be right". He cannot distinguish between what's legal and what's right. Labour's bar is so low that everybody and anybody is welcome - except maybe convicted criminals. In Labour's Malta no matter what you've been up to, prosecution is extremely unlikely and conviction an absolutely impossibility. Between police inaction, the AG's nolle prosequi, flawed indictment sheets, inexperienced prosecuting lawyers facing armies of top defence lawyers, Labour intimidating the judiciary and harassing key witnesses nobody gets convicted. So everybody's welcome to Labour - including Neville Gafa.
Agius Saliba demonstrates a total lack of moral judgement. Moral principles should be the foundations of our society. They should guide us in deciding what's right or wrong. Not everything that's wrong is illegal. Agius Saliba uses the "it's not illegal" principle to justify his morally questionable actions. It's the tactic used by those who want to wriggle free from the discomfort of bad choices.
Agius Saliba fails to understand that many things that are wrong, immoral and harmful are legal. When greedy politicians and corrupt ministers use loopholes, off-shore accounts and other schemes to enrich themselves they may not be breaking any laws - but they're cheating society, deceiving the people who trusted them with power. Hiding away money in offshore tax havens, behind layers of companies and trusts at the other end of the world in the most secretive jurisdictions can't be moral. Earning tens of thousands of euro from a company siphoning public money from a deal within weeks of stepping down can't be right. It might be perfectly legal - but it's wrong, it's immoral. Even slavery was legal in many countries for many centuries. That didn't make it less despicably revolting or inhumanely cruel. If Agius Saliba lived in 19th century America, Labour would be a slave-owner and Agius Saliba would be defending Labour's right to own slaves because it was legal.
Agius Saliba lacks the fundamental understanding of this distinction. He's trying to give a pass to those who do something that's legal but which makes the rest of the country flinch morally. There is no law or legal enforcement to force people to act morally. But we do expect and hope politicians exceed the basic legal standard and rise to a higher ethical and moral norm. Agius Saliba is an elected representative. He should promote citizens' best interest, the highest ethical and moral standards. Instead he chooses the basest.
More alarming than Agius Saliba skirting the rules is the ease with which Labour supporters invoke the "it's not illegal" excuse to defend their political idols.
Agius Saliba is wrong on all counts. Not everything that's legal is right. Political parties shouldn't embrace anybody just because they're not criminal convicts. Besides his statement that "the party never stopped anyone contributing....except for those found guilty by the courts" is a total lie. Labour expelled several key people who were never convicted. Labour did have a conscience once. Robert Abela kicked out several high-ranking officials from the party, not because they were convicted, but because they crossed the line. He was right then - Agius Saliba is wrong now.
Keith Schembri was forced out. He resigned his party membership but commented that he considered his "membership in the party to be removed". Economy Minister Chris Cardona called for the former chief of staff to be expelled immediately. "Lines have been crossed and as deputy leader of the party I love so much, I cannot remain silent....the party must send a strong signal, otherwise, it will be an accomplice", Cardona wrote. Schembri hadn't been convicted of any crime - he still hasn't.
The irony is that Chris Cardona himself was kicked out of his deputy leader role. He was named in connection with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia but was never convicted. Yet Abela asked Cardona to resign.
Rosianne Cutajar resigned from Labour's parliamentary group, minutes before an executive committee met to kick her out. She was given an ultimatum by the Prime-Minister to resign or be expelled. Abela commented publicly that every MP should "recognise their responsibility" and that "nobody is greater than the party or the country". Cutajar hadn't been found guilty of any crime. Yet Abela forced her out. She called her forced resignation "an inhumane, vindictive, personal attack".
Silvio Grixti, the Labour MP accused of involvement in disability benefits fraud, was forced to resign by Abela. Grixti hasn't been convicted of any crime. But Abela did the right thing and removed him. He didn't let Grixti "contribute to the party" as Agius Saliba now proposes.
Konrad Mizzi isn't a convicted criminal. Yet Labour's parliamentary group and executive kicked him out when he refused to go quietly. Abela commented that Mizzi's expulsion was due to his ties to the Panama papers and Yorgen Fenech's 17-Black. Abela commented "I am not judging him legally, I am judging him politically".
Labour no longer judges politically, morally or ethically. Labour only judges legally now, according to Alex Agius Saliba. Labour welcomes everybody except convicted criminals. Chris Cardona would argue Labour is now an accomplice. That's Malta's real crisis - a ruling party that operates according to a system entirely devoid of values.