Opinion: A spectacle of sadism

For two whole days, Robert Abela stopped all parliamentary work – not because there was some dire emergency or a period of national mourning – but simply to engage in the sadistic exercise of publicly flogging the Opposition.

Abela particularly relished molesting the man his Labour Party mockingly labels “the de facto leader”, PN MP Karol Aquilina.

The whole spectacle was set up to satisfy Robert Abela’s need for negative supply – the desire to be seen as being omnipotently destructive.

The entire two-day jamboree was meant to show the Opposition Leader and his MPs that they count for nothing, that they have no power, that everything that happens in parliament is under the direct control of Abela.

It had a clear message – we are in power, and we are in complete control.  And there is nothing you can do about it.  We’re on the Speaker’s side, and he is on ours.  Parliament is there for rubber-stamping the Leader’s decision – and you, the Opposition, have no choice but to play along.

The Opposition was made to endure the humiliation of seeing every motion it proposed being shot down by Speaker Anglu Farrugia.  The Speaker refused to allow any discussion about the €400 million fraudulent hospitals concession, Jean-Paul Sofia’s death, the drug heist from the AFM barracks, the Ombudsman’s damning report about the abuse at Corradino.

He blocked questions about Keith Schembri because, according to him, they weren’t of public interest.  He rejected no-confidence motions in Minister Byron Camilleri.  He repeatedly voted to protect government MPs found guilty of ethics breaches. He rejected outright a request to name a hall in parliament in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s honour.  Yet he allowed Labour’s motion denouncing Aquilina.

The Labour parliamentary group condemned “the senseless attack against the Speaker by the Opposition, especially by the Nationalist MP Karol Aquilina”.  It attacked “the de factor leader of the PN” and his “partisan strategy”.

It humiliated Bernard Grech by accusing him of being “led by the nose.” Labour’s ONE news relentlessly targeted Aquilina with obscene harassment: “Hysterical and Extreme—He’s Going to Drive us into the Wall,” one headline read. Another ran, ‘Karol Aquilina is in a Panic since ONE News Exposed Him as the de facto Leader of the PN.’

Labour’s motion tabled by whip Naomi Cachia followed in the same vein, attacking “the deplorable behaviour” and “the arrogance of Karol Aquilina”. It condemned “the senseless attacks” against the Speaker by the Opposition”.

Ironically, it accused the Opposition of attempting ”to disrupt the legislative work of the country” while they shamelessly allocated two whole days to the brutal humiliation of the Opposition.

The Opposition was left with no option but to walk out of the Chamber and refuse to engage in the farcical games coordinated by the governing party. Yet Labour wasn’t satisfied.  They intentionally prolonged the debate.

One government MP after another stood up to outdo the previous one in the hostility against the Opposition. Nothing gives Abela more pleasure than watching his MPs falling over each other to satisfy his insatiable desire for adulation.  The Opposition walked out of the chamber for a second day.

Abela’s plan was working well. He stood up to condemn “the atrocious attacks on members of the judiciary and the Speaker,” insisting that such behaviour was dangerous in a democracy. This is the very same man who publicly harangued a magistrate for ordering a search at disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s house, accused another of “political terrorism,” and regularly intimidates members of the judiciary into doing his bidding.

His motion accused the Opposition of being “partisan”, yet he used his time in parliament to claim “there was so much infighting in the PN that the Opposition could not take a position on how to vote in this debate”.  He mocked the Opposition, saying, “The Opposition MPs don’t know what they stand for”.

And what does Robert Abela stand for?  What did those two days dedicated to stroking his ego reveal?

Passing a motion to undermine the Opposition may be part of the rough and tumble of Malta’s political games.  To dedicate two full days in parliament to the sadistic torture of the Opposition reveals the deep insecurities of Labour’s leader.  It reveals his desperate need for adulation and an even greater addiction to demonstrating his ruthless power.

Abela imagines this pitiful event is a moment of grotesque glory. He has never grasped the fact that he is the prime minister of the whole country in parliament.  He shouldn’t be the petty leader of an increasingly erratic party in the chamber.

He  disgraces the Office he occupies. He’s all about theatrics, He’s desperate to dominate by staging spectacles to assert his authority.

Abela thinks that everything can be bought. And what cannot be bought is extorted, threatened into submission or conquered by force. He disdainfully disregards the fact that the Opposition he systematically persecutes with his capture of parliament, his domination of the national broadcaster and his power of incumbency represents a segment of the population almost as large as that segment he represents.

Those who constantly need to flout their omnipotent power with malevolent tactics should not be in positions of power. They endanger the country.