Robert Abela has chosen to force through his choice for Standards Commissioner, not having reached an agreement with the Opposition. The reason for resorting to strong-arming the decision boiled down to an uncollaborative and deceitful Opposition, according to Abela and his backers on the government benches.
He went further, claiming that the incumbents in both the position of Standards Commissioner and the Ombudsman had been somehow manipulated from the outside.
Abela relies very much on not-so-subtle implications in order to deliver his spin. He is not so good at being direct and naming names but rather revels in mudslinging in the hope that some of it will stick. He took some time to let off a side shot at the magistracy, again by implication. Again, incorrectly shifting the consequences of executive maladministration onto other pillars of the republic.
The more this government tries to distance itself from the corrupt and unaccountable mess that it is responsible for, the deeper the hole it digs. The Vitals saga continues unabated, and we are still seeing an executive that is unwilling to bear any form of responsibility.
Even the actions following the Depasquale judgment leave much to be desired. There is neither remorse nor any attempt to reach real accountability.
This should have been the government of reforms – driven by the Venice Commission reports. Instead, we have a government holding on for dear life. One that undermines the institutions that should strengthen accountability.
“Let the institutions work” risks becoming a sick and overused mantra while the hidden appendix that goes “so long as we are not held accountable” becomes more and more the elephant in the room.
In all this, the pressure of the oppositions (a deliberate plural) is paramount. On every front of the battle for normality, there is a relevant part of civil society (and I include the parties in opposition) that can contribute to the necessary momentum for change.
Rather than bickering, they would do better to pool resources. It’s an age-old cliché, but the people united are our only hope.
The clock is ticking and change will wait for no one. Our forums of representation should be debating how we are to tackle the problems we shall face in the future – economic, environmental and social.
Instead, we must deal with a juggernaut of corrupt, old-style politics inherited from the PLPN algorithm. The juggernaut can only be defeated through a unity of purpose, if not of ideals.
Ten years of Labour government have become a struggle for the rule of law to be repristinated. The reforms promised earlier in Abela’s tenure are nowhere to be seen. Even the changes to the regulation of the fourth pillar are mired in deceit and lack of proper consultation.
This government can never be trusted to spearhead the reforms needed.
Change, if and when it comes, will be painful. We must first realise that it is our duty to kick it off.
What amazes me, is the blind faithful Labour GAHANISTY, that still cannot inform themselves of all this corruption?
Il-lealtà Laburista lejn il-partit akkost ta’ kollox qed tpoggi lil Malta kollha f’sitwazzjoni li ma tinfelahx izjed. Ghada pitghada meta jghaddi kollox, se nghidu xpassat ikrah u xi grazzja li ghadda.
It’s the thousands that binned their vote in the last election that’s the biggest disservice to the nation. Obviously they didn’t want to vote for the government but that’s not enough to get rid of it. Swallow your pride and vote for the only other alternative if you had enough of this corrupt government. You can always vote against again in the following elections. And that’s how it should be, no blind following. But to allow this unbelievably corrupt government to remain in power is definitely a tragedy!
Pops George said Bob was ‘his own man’.
Was George pre-emptively washing his hands of him?
Sowing the wind has… consequences.
I can only wholeheartedly agree with what is stated in this article.
I am very strongly convinced that in order to bring about reformation in Malta, it needs to whole civil society movement to be united on the purpose to change the government of the day through elections.
The public debate which Repubblika was intended to start with their publication ‘Reforming Malta’s Parliament’ is still not taking place. Maybe it’s the title of the publication, maybe it is the people who form the leadership of Repubbllika or the usual sympathy and antipathy issues that keeps people away from reading and discussing it. I have read this publication in 2021, right when it was published. There are many things in it worth to be debated, and at least its content is something to start with. But where ignorance rules, those who are committed to progress and reform are like a lone voice in the wilderness, not heard, not seen and not spoken to.
In my view this publication has suggestions for solutions to this partisan mess created and persisted with by the PL. It has been worked out for a public debate by Maltese citizens, gathered within Repubblika. They placed it all on the threshold of the people but the people are not inclined to pick it up. All the work done by those who worked on that publication seems to have been in vain, but does it really have to be and remain that way? I don’t think so.
JM was at the helm he should be held accountable.