It was the 19th of November 2014, a day that we will go down in Malta’s political history as the day where Muscat’s image suffered its first major blow. I still remember clearly the events that unfolded on that infamous night. I was at a private dinner organised by FSMEPN (PN’s SME’s forum) together with Simon Busuttil when all our phones started to ring at once.
All of a sudden Simon Busuttil told us that he needs to be excused to take a phone call and he came back 10 minutes later and told us what just happened. It was the night when Manuel Mallia’s chauffeur felt that it was ok to shoot at someone in the middle of the street. The night when rather than telling us the whole story; a frame-up was cooked and eventually after being investigated by Muscat’s appointed investigation team, Mallia was sacked as minister and Ray Zammit, the now also infamous Police Commissioner was found negligent and removed from his role as well.
On that night I remember clearly telling those close around me that this is the beginning of the end for Joseph Muscat. Prior to that incident, albeit many scandalous decisions, nothing could stick on Muscat’s reputation and he was still reigning supreme, yet on that night everything changed. People started to believe that Muscat’s government is rotten to its core and his most trusted gluttonous allies are those that are interested in their personal gain the most.
On that cold November night, when common sense and pre-electoral humbleness ascended to self-anointed supremacy of contemptuousness that saw a chauffeur paid by our taxes to drive around a minister shooting at an innocent individual; dented the first major blow to Muscat’s credibility, the first major blow that chipped into Muscat’s reputation. Unknowingly to most at that time, that incident set the snowball rolling, very high up, far away from anyone’s sight. The same snowball that engulfed the Partit Nazzjonalista in the last few years of governance was starting to roll once again, however the effects of that snowball wasn’t to be seen until a few months down the line.
Reputation is like a mirror, once it’s chipped you can never repair it 100%. That is exactly what happened to Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party. A few months after this incident after the Partit Nazzjonalista had convinced the Government not to cancel the 2015 Local Council Elections, Partit Nazzjonalista managed an excellent showing and ultimately halved its electoral margin from Muscat’s Labour.
This could only have been achieved due to Simon Busuttil’s diligent work and continuous preaching that he is ready to govern Malta in a fair, honest way. The people started to believe, the Maltese public started to listen what Simon Busuttil was saying, finally Partit Nazzjonalista was being seen as an alternative government to Muscat’s Labour.
During 2015 we got used to seeing one scandal after another and it was no huge surprise when the Gaffarena scandal erupted in the early part of 2015. Rationality and common sense would have dictated that the most senior political appointee should shoulder the political responsibility and clear his office immediately however we didn’t see such thing till many months later. After the Gaffarena scandal was made public, Michael Falzon’s position as Parliamentary Secretary wasn’t tenable anymore and the least he could have done was to tender his resignation in May 2015 when the scandal was unleashed.
As the clock started to tick, days, weeks, months went by and slowly we started learning more from the truth that was neatly tucked away. Falzon didn’t want to quit because if he did he had to pay a huge sum back to Bank of Valletta, Muscat didn’t want to force him out because he knew that if he did the guns will be aimed towards him since he is the minister responsible of Falzon. The situation became poisonous and as time went by the difference between PL and PN started to get narrow and narrower, it got so narrow that just last week it was declared that the difference is now in the margin of error area thus although PL got a small advantage, this can all vanish if an election is held today.
Muscat failed to take the immediate action required and waited until the NAO released a damning report that highlighted the fact that everyone knew from way back in May 2014 that Michael Falzon had to go, no questions asked. Falzon is no hero for resigning, Falzon has been disgraced so he shall not be praised for taking the only option available at the very last moment. If he had any shred of decency he would have taken the option to resign last year and maybe, just maybe, he would have kept his dignity in check.
In this piece above I have only highlighted on two instances in which the Labour government failed the electorate, I didn’t discuss any of the environmental despoliation Muscat and his comrades are constantly hell-bent on achieving, I only highlighted two scandals which involved cabinet members elected that hail from the same district I am contesting the next election, the 9th district. Yet these are two scandals that in the long run are going to have a great impact on Malta’s political future.
We are only 3 years into this legislature and we have so far seen 2 disgraced cabinet members, 2 ministers that resigned and 2 ministers that were given other roles outside the cabinet. 6 cabinet members have been removed in just under 3 years, and yet we were told that this was to be the best cabinet in history. I think that now everyone knows that the truth is far from that statement.
After these changes in the cabinet and all these scandals, one starts to wonder what we have in sock for us for this year. Which major scandal are we going to be embroiled in this year? Can Muscat survive another major blow? Abraham Lincoln said that “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today” unfortunately Muscat didn’t listen to him and he failed to act responsibly at the onset of each scandal and today he is reaping what he sowed.
If we look back in the not so distant past, just between 2008 and Labour’s 2013 electoral victory we might find the very answer to what holds in store for us for the next few years. Earlier on I spoke about the snowball effect that started with Malliagate, that same snowball effect took place during PN’s last legislature. From the very onset of the legislature things didn’t work as good as they should have and the general public started losing trust in the government, the more time passes the more trust was being lost.
Mid-way through the legislature we had the divorce debate and it was another dent for PN, maybe a dent that they never recovered from. These many different incidents accumulated in one huge snowball effect that every day was engulfing more and more votes which ultimately resulted in PL’s huge electoral win.
Muscat started this legislature with an unprecedented 36,000 vote advantage over PN and some political experts might add that in the European Parliament elections he further increased this difference, yet within a year due to the many scandals this difference went down by half and by the end of 2015 it went down to a third. We are at a stage now where Muscat’s superiority is so chipped that he’s losing credibility every day and due to the many scandal’s his party is involved in and Simon Busuttil’s clean politics PN is gaining ground with each day that goes by.
When it rains, it pours and that is what’s happening at the moment. The snowball is now in full motion and with each day more and more people are being convinced that they were conned by the Malta Taghna Lkoll mantra and that the only way this mess can be cleaned once and for all is by having Simon Busuttil as Prime Minister of this beautiful country.
