America is in uproar. Through intimidation, coercion and threats President Donald Trump silenced one of his critics , late night show comedian Stephen Colbert. He then targeted another comedian, Jimmy Kimmel, getting his late night show "indefinitely suspended". Trump celebrated Kimmel's cancellation and threatened others that broadcasting licences could be suspended if they keep mocking him. Throttling comedians is not what America does - it's what autocrats and military dictators do.

Bassem Youseff, an Egyptian cardiac surgeon turned political satirist and podcaster, was forced to flee his country for making jokes about Egypt's leaders. He was arrested and charged with insulting Islam and Prime Minister Mohammed Morsi. When military dictator El-Sisi took over, the hounding of Youseff intensified.  The courts levied a 13 million dollar fine against Youssef condemning his satirical shows and accusing him of disrupting the peace and inciting public unrest.  Fearing arrest he fled Egypt, ironically finding refuge in the United States of America.  He was given a resident fellow post at the renowned Harvard's Institute of Politics at the John F Kennedy School of Government.

But that was before Trump's power grab. Now Youssef fears being deported back to Egypt to face the brutality of El-Sisi once more. He's watching what he says, holding back from expressing political views. The outspoken satirist is censoring himself for fear of retribution from a prickly autocratic American president.

America laments the persecution of its political satirists by its infantile President. But here in Malta we don't even have political satirists, we don't do satire.  There are no late night shows ridiculing the government.  No cardiac surgeon dares mock Robert Abela.  And boy, there's plenty of material there.

Just take Abela's recent pantomime at the UN General Assembly.  The intonation was straight out of a show-and-tell event at a Kindergarten. The use of his hands made him look like he was waving an imaginary Torca (Labour's emblematic torch). He told the world that he "cried" when he saw Palestinian children suffering. You'd think he was in Gaza engaging in heroic humanitarian action.  He bragged on the world stage that he brought Palestinian children for treatment to Malta.  No more than a handful of Palestinian children have been treated here out of thousands of injured.  Abela exploited one of those child amputees for his political advantage. He used that child who'd lost his limb in tragic circumstances for a photo opportunity.

That's nothing less than flagrant abuse of a helpless child struggling with what must be an unimaginably traumatic experience.  That photo-op Abela staged, showing images of that child with his metal prosthetic limb, verges on the cruel.  The child's face wasn't blurred, his identity wasn't protected.  The child was in no position to consent to such blatant political exploitation.  If his parents agreed to their child's participation in Abela's propaganda video it was the result of a massive power imbalance - between the Prime Minister of the country treating their maimed child and the completely vulnerable parents of that severely traumatised victim.

There was absolutely no need to descend to such abject wretchedness.  The last thing a child who's lost his limb needs is being paraded on prime-time TV to make politicians look good. Where is the children's commissioner?

Robert Abela knows nothing about amputees.  He knows far less about the psychological torment of child amputees who lose limbs, not as a result of malignancy but because of war atrocities. Broadcasting images of a child with a missing limb and his bare metal prosthesis is as distressing to the young victim as showing images of his naked body in public. Such depraved abuse of child war victims is not only insensitive, it is cruel. Is there any red line Abela won't cross to boost his publicity?

Malta not only lacks political satirists, but Labour stacks the schedule of the public broadcaster with Labour diehards - like Luke Dalli.  Robert Abela now expects some return on the 102,000 euro he's paying Dalli as CEO of Arts Council Malta. Dalli got his post not because of his strong background in the arts.  He got his lucrative post because of his connections, because he had to be appeased to stop him bad-mouthing Robert Abela.

Dalli is notorious for his ONE TV show Tanatnejn which depicted Daphne Caruana Galizia as an evil witch.  Now Dalli gets his own TVM talk show "Bla Rispetti". Why? Because Robert Abela not only cannot stomach political satirists and critics but because he needs his ego massaged by sycophantic loyalists,  bought with hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' euro.

Labour has also given a certain Ricky Caruana his own TVM debate show. Caruana is a vulgar semi-literate who claims that he happened to be born a philosopher yet has no idea of elementary logic.  He brags that his charisma is "simple and natural".  He declared that his "success" lies in his "authenticity and charisma".  It's certainly not in knowledge, depth or wisdom, far less civility, wit and eloquence.

Caruana invited Robert Abela's wife onto his podcast only to make inappropriately suggestive comments about her appearance.  Caruana objectified the Prime Minister's wife referring to her as a "mazza" (mallet) - Maltese slang for somebody who's sexually appealing.  Instead of walking out, Lydia Abela played along with his demeaning trash. And for his crude obscenities and his expletive-laden vulgarity Caruana gets rewarded with a primetime slot on TVM.

This is what Labour promotes - a man who can barely write, in English or Maltese - and who can barely think straight. Just watch his podcast with another one of Yorgen Fenech's friends who was part of Joseph Muscat's inner circle - Planning authority executive chairman Johann Buttigieg. Buttigieg was reinstated at the Planning Authority despite telling Yorgen Fenech "we can do business whenever you like" while he headed the authority.  He advised Fenech which properties to take from Joseph Portelli - "take the one in Qormi, opposite the post office, it's a good one".  Ricky Caruana simply provided Buttigieg with a platform to promote Labour's rotten planning reforms. Expect more of that on Caruana's TVM show.

America is finally fighting back.  Jimmy Kimmel's show is back on air with a threefold bump in ratings. No matter how hard Donald Trump tries to silence critical voices, they're still loud and clear, at least for now. The same thing cannot be said of Labour's Malta.