The great hospitals fairy tale: Abela’s rule of what, exactly?

Prime Minister Robert Abela and disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat, whom Abela continues to protect, have trumpeted the narrative that “there was no fraud found” in the hospitals deal that Malta’s courts have already ruled was “fraudulent”.

They were referring to a ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). By their very nature, ICC arbitration proceedings are confidential, governed by the terms of reference drawn up by the parties themselves and generally not open to public scrutiny.

So what the ICC actually said is only ever going to be made public if both parties agree to tear asunder the veil of modesty covering their nether regions.  For all I know, by the time you read this, all said modesty would have been cast aside, but I’m not holding my breath.

So, a few comments from a position of enforced ignorance, a position that has hardly ever stopped me from shooting my mouth off before now anyway.

Really fascinating, isn’t it? Prime Minister Robert Abela is relying on a private commercial arbitration – held in secret, on unknown terms, between parties we can’t fully identify – to declare that there was “no fraud” in the Vitals deal.

Excuse me? What did the Civil Court, confirmed by the Court of Appeal, say?

Abela has said in the past that we must “let the institutions work”.  Now, it’s, well, not so much. An obscure foreign procedure trumps (see what I did there?) the Maltese courts.

Rule of what, exactly, Prime Minister? Transparency? Accountability? Or just Rule of Convenient Narrative?

Moving on: Why did Abela accept private arbitration in the first place?

The ICC process is designed for commercial disputes, not for governments trying to whitewash political failures through the language of “value received.” And that’s all the ICC ruling actually says – that the government got something for the millions it poured into the Vitals pit.

It does not, actually, say the deal was justified, transparent, or remotely in the public interest. That detail was what the Maltese courts looked at – in public, under scrutiny, and with actual legal principles in play.

And we all remember what the Court said, don’t we?   Now, instead, we have Labour’s spin machine trumpeting this ICC outcome as if it’s a papal absolution, conveniently ahead of expected elections.

“Fraus omnia corrumpit”, Prime Minister, does that ring a bell from your law studies? Fraud corrupts everything it touches. You don’t wash that away with a confidential arbitration clause and a few carefully worded talking points, amplified by your slavering, eager mouthpieces.

Anyone who seriously believes the ICC ruling makes the machinations of the predecessors in office of Abela’s real dealers reminiscent of the actions of those pure as the driven snow is delusional.

This wasn’t an inquest into corruption; it was a private wrangle about contracts. It’s a bit like a pickpocket suing for ownership of the wallet and then claiming moral victory because he paid VAT on the stolen goods.

And while we’re at it, can someone tell us who sued whom in this secret little ICC drama? Who was the claimant? Who was the respondent? What were the terms of reference? What evidence was heard? Or do we just take Joseph Muscat’s word for it, that everything’s fine and dandy?

Most surreal of all is watching Labour try to spin losing a case (because darn it, they lost big) heard in secret into proof that the Opposition was somehow at fault. The government gets hammered in the Maltese courts, then whispers about a secret arbitration it maybe can’t publish, and suddenly they’re “vindicated.”

Imagine, just imagine, the jubilant fireworks if Muscat’s lawyer’s government had won the ICC case. We’d likely have a national holiday by now, fireworks over Castille, and Labour MPs queuing to anoint him with holy water from Ta’ Pinu, cocking a snook at the Leader of the Opposition while they’re about it.

Such is life, I suppose: when you have people employing the doctrine of alternative facts with the aplomb of the Russian Ambassador or the American President in the post-truth era, you can sure bamboozle the massed ranks of your faithful keyboard warriors.