Opinion: The writing on the wall

“They asked me to comment about the absence of any evidence of work done to justify my remuneration,” Joseph Muscat said in a Facebook post as more sleazy details surfaced of how Steward set up a million euro “political support fund” allegedly to pass on bribes to Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

Muscat added, “The authorities should have summoned me, and I would have told them instead of just charging me in court. Now they can wait, and I will present that evidence when and how I choose.”

Somebody ought to break it to him – he’s the accused. He’s being prosecuted for corruption, money laundering and bribery. He should thank his lucky stars that he hasn’t been brought before the court under arrest and have to plead for bail.

This is the court, not his cabinet.  He’ll be afforded the same rights and opportunities to defend himself as any other citizen accused of such serious crimes.  He must follow the rules and abide by the direction of the court. He won’t get to choose anything.

As more of Muscat’s murky world is exposed, he becomes increasingly hysterical. He loses all touch with reality. He seems to live in a fantasy world where he is still the ‘kink’ and calls all the shots.

Sitting at that dock on 28 May will be a rude awakening for the man who believed he was ‘Invictus’. He’s still under the illusion he can “present that evidence when and how” he chooses.

It’s a hard thing to watch a man who held so much promise and in whom so many put so much faith reduced to this. One of those who put his trust in Joseph Muscat was Desmond Zammit Marmara – a lifelong militant within the Labour Party.

Nobody could be more loyal to Labour than Zammit Marmara. He gave his entire life for Labour. But now even he has realised that “the present Labour government… has chosen a dangerous and negative road that bodes ill for the future of our country”.

Zammit Marmara is a good man and a Labour stalwart who believes in democratic socialism. He is fundamentally decent and conscientious.

Despite his lifelong love for the Labour Party, he felt morally obliged to make a public heartfelt plea: “Do Malta a favour, do not vote Labour”.

For him pleading with the nation not to vote Labour must have hurt deeply.  He admitted that “it would never have occurred to me that the day would come when I would be advising citizens of goodwill not to vote Labour”.  But that day is here.

Zammit Marmara listed in honest detail why he’s taken this tough step.  “Prime Minister Robert Abela has turned the clock back to the darkest days of the 1970s and 1980s when those who tried to uphold the rule of law were treated by Labour… as villains,” he wrote.

He openly condemned Robert Abela for his “disgraceful criticism” of the inquiring magistrate, his “false narrative”, and his “fallacious reasoning”.  He denounced Abela’s strategy of presenting “the person most politically responsible for the hospitals’ debacle… as some kind of hero, a victim of the nefarious ‘establishment’”.

Zammit Marmara was a devout supporter of Robert Abela.  He lauded him as “a very astute politician using a strategy which will lead to perennial victory”.

He wrote, as late as November 2023, that “nobody can criticise him (Abela) that he is not following the socialist principles of the Labour party he leads”. But even Zammit Marmara has seen through Abela.

“The present Labour government’s decisions and actions are a perversion of democracy. This is a Labour government only in name,” Zammit Marmara wrote. “You cannot by any stretch of the imagination vote labour… a vote for Labour means a vote for contempt of the rule of law”.

Zammit Marmara feels more betrayed than most.  He strongly believes in using power for the benefit of the nation. He experienced the elation that his party’s electoral victory of 2013 brought and the strong belief that Labour would be a force for good.

His elation has now soured into disappointment and delusion as he watched in disbelief as increasing evidence of Labour’s wrongdoing surfaced. He wrote that “what seemed like a new dawn at the time” (2013) is now recognised as “a false dawn”.

He admitted, “At first, almost none of us politically active Labourites actually believed Daphne Caruana Galizia’s explosive revelations. I simply dismissed everything as anti-Labour propaganda.  Even as time passed and further revelations were made, many like me did not believe them”.

Zammit Marmara couldn’t continue to bury his head in the sand. He, too, has realised that Daphne was right.

He warned Robert Abela that “he has to once and for all disassociate himself from his predecessor… otherwise, Muscat’s negative legacy will remain like a sword of Damocles permanently hanging over him”.

Abela ignored Zammit Marmara.  He not only failed to disassociate himself from Muscat but embraced him wholeheartedly and used the power of his office to protect him, turning his cannon onto the judicial pillar of our democracy.

“Electoral victories are not a means of whitewashing past abuses of power and the wastage of millions in public funds,” Zammit Marmara wrote.

The most sincere Labour veterans issued a chilling warning to the nation: “This is perhaps the last chance Maltese citizens have to stop our country’s downward slide into what is starting to seem like a bottomless abyss.”

Zammit Marmara’s honest admission is a breath of fresh air.  He was too perceptive for his denial to last.

The weight of evidence against Joseph Muscat is so overwhelming that not even the deepest red Labour insider could withstand its convincing power.

The writing is on the wall, but Robert Abela can’t bring himself to turn to face that wall.

Damocles’ sword, which Zammit Marmara warned Abela about, is about to fall. And Abela has only himself to blame.