"In everything we have done, we always had our vision that a Labour government puts the people first," Prime Minister Robert Abela claimed in his Sunday sermon. "Labour governs for the whole population".

This is the same Robert Abela who brought back the pugnacious and divisive Neville Gafa into the heart of his own Office of the Prime Minister in Castille.  He's brought back Chris Cardona to advise his government. His energy Minister, Miriam Dalli, just appointed James Camenzuli who is charged with fraud and other serious offences, as the new Chairman of Petromal Co Ltd, the government company which owns Enemed.  He's also CEO of Projects Plus and Chairman of the Regulator for Energy and Water Services (REWS). Is Abela governing for the whole population with these appointments?

Was Abela putting the people first when he gave away a large tract of green land in il-Qortin to developers despite the vociferous protest of residents of the area? Was Labour putting the people first when it gave three of our hospitals to be run privately? Did Abela put the people first when he gave his 31-year-old assistant at his legal firm 11 government appointments?

Was Abela governing for the people when he gave away for peanuts a public alley to enable Anton Camilleri tal-Franciz to execute his massive development in the area? Was he governing for the people when he refused to take Manoel island back from MIDI group, only to make a screeching U-turn when "the people" mounted fierce protest? Was he governing for the people when he obstinately refused pleas for a public inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia's death?

But facts are fragile.  Events are just as fragile.  Robert Abela knows that all too well.  So does his Labour party.  If it were up to Labour they'd pretend Labour always puts the people first, always governs for the whole population. They'd pretend Labour was the party that took Malta into the EU. If there were no record of Labour's hostile opposition to joining the EU, it would be easy to believe it.

Facts can be extraordinarily inconvenient to those in power. Labour has an interest in concealing or even destroying certain facts. "The chances of factual truth surviving the onslaught of power are very slim indeed, it is in danger of being manoeuvred out of the world, not only for a time but forever", Hannah Arendt wrote in her essay Truth and Politics.  She argued that once those facts are lost no rational effort will ever bring them back.

The biggest threat to facts is what Arendt called "organised lying". A concerted effort to undermine the factual character of human events. Facts are a check on the operation of power. We can argue about the meaning of facts or their relative importance, but what we cannot allow to happen is for Robert Abela to dispute the existence of facts altogether.

That's why the truly independent media is so important. That's why institutions of learning like the University have such a crucial role. They diligently document the facts. They maintain a public record of events. The objective of Labour is to lie the inconvenient facts out of existence. The purpose of constant lying is not to replace the truth with a lie, Arendt argued, but to undermine the factual character of reality itself. The agenda of organised lying it to make facts seem like matters of opinion. "Once facts turn into opinion then there is no factual basis to reality...no agreed upon basis for human action".

Facts can be challenged with a simple "that's your opinion". Alternative facts can be produced. Labour, through its control of its powerful media machine and the public broadcaster, ensures that those alternative facts are repeated so often that they trump reality.

In Labour's hands reality has become malleable, it can be shaped and reshaped according to Abela's whims.  After trying to ram his obscene planning legislation through parliament he claimed he always wanted to have public consultation from day one. 

"The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the world is being destroyed", Arendt pointed out.

Abela's brand of leadership is so dangerous because it threatens the true account of events. He's able to manipulate the truth by constantly hiding the facts, refusing to divulge information which should be in the public domain, using public funds to hound small media houses who mount brave efforts to extract the truth from his government. Abela resists even the most basic questions of public interest.  He's refused to divulge details about the huge costs he's inflicting on the state through his frequent use of private jets for travel. Between January 2024 and June 2025 Abela used a private jet 20 times.  Abela frequently takes with him on his private jet unnecessary personnel, such as his personal photographer, burdening the state with even more unnecessary costs. Yet Abela refused to divulge details about those costs, and the names of officials and family members who accompany him on those trips.

Abela has an intense aversion for the facts.  He treats facts like enemies. He buries facts so they cannot undermine his alternative facts. He has the capacity to say things and claim he never said them or that he said the exact opposite.   He can rewrite history to serve his interests.

He categorises specific groups of people as threats - traitors, enemies of the state, the establishment, haters of their own country. Political opponents, anybody who criticises him or his government, is a fair target for abuse and intimidation.  Even commenting about the dumping of gravel at Ta'Qali is met by threats and intimidation. Even Rose Vella, the deceased mild-mannered mother of the assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, isn't spared the disgusting abuse of the OPM's customer care coordinator.

That's why we need to speak up for facts. That's why we need to relentlessly document what they say, what they do - because maybe years, weeks, sometimes days from now they'll try to convince us they never said those words, never did those things. Documenting the truth stops us doubting our own sanity, stops us questioning our own memory. No we didn't misunderstand, didn't forget. That's exactly what they said, what they did - and now they're claiming they never said it, they never did it.