Labour at a crossroads

When Alfred Sant became leader of the Labour Party following the 1992 electoral drubbing, one of his first moves was to rid the party from its violent and corrupt elements. 

It was a moment of reckoning for a party that allowed violence and corruption to gradually obscure the social progress it achieved for the country after the 1971 election victory. 

The party was at a crossroads and Sant took the bold decisions to eject those people who used the party for their own malign ends at the expense of the country’s wellbeing. It was a moment of reckoning. 

Today, the PL is at another crossroads. Its former leader Joseph Muscat, and two of his most trusted aides, stand charged with corruption, bribery and forming a criminal organisation while in public office. 

The situation is unprecedented. Never has this country seen a former prime minister being charged with such serious crimes. 

Millions of euros of taxpayer money were spent on a hospitals deal that delivered nothing tangible for the people but only served as a vehicle for enrichment of the few. 

Unfortunately, the manner by which the Labour Party – and here we refer specifically to the party and its structures – has dealt with the developments has been abysmal. 

Instead of introspection we have witnessed misplaced exuberance; instead of taking bold internal steps to distance itself from the shenanigans of those accused with such serious crimes we have witnessed a party embracing the populist follies of a former leader who claims innocence and ignorance. 

Instead of carrying out meaningful soul searching we have seen party functionaries and MEP candidates fall head over heels to defend wrongdoing and protect those who fell from grace. 

Unfortunately, Robert Abela has shown a lack of leadership. Saying that his opening to Joseph Muscat in January, when he called him ‘my friend’, was an error of judgement is a gross understatement. 

Indeed, Abela opened the window to let in a breeze in the belief it would energise the grass roots and found himself dealing with a whirlwind he cannot control. 

Abela’s reaction to the Vitals hospitals inquiry and the subsequent criminal charges filed in court – which his party media refers to in the most infantile way as the ‘Vella inquiry case’ with absolutely no reference to hospitals and corruption – suggests that he has tied his fate and that of the PL with that of Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. 

Abela knows what messy hospitals deal he inherited. He knows that significant milestones were far from achieved by the time he became prime minister in 2020. He is aware of the side agreements that were entered into behind Cabinet’s back by Konrad Mizzi. He was warned of the fraudulent nature of the contract. 

And yet he chose to ignore all this and instead of calling for justice to be done, he led a headlong charge against the inquiring magistrate, journalists and through his justice minister, the prosecution. Abela made Joseph Muscat’s battle his own. 

In typical Abela fashion, after the 8 June election, we can expect the Prime Minister to moderate his discourse and tell us that the institutions should be allowed to work; that he was mistaken to treat the hospitals saga from a lawyer’s perspective; he will slowly try, once again, to put distance between himself and Muscat. 

But there are only so many times in politics you can play this game and continue to emerge unscathed. This is definitely not one of those occasions. 

As the hospitals corruption cases – ONE News please note – drag on in court, the Labour Party will have to deal with the fallout, which has only been made worse by Abela’s folly. 

Evarist Bartolo commented this week that before it loses an election a party first starts to lose its “wisdom and moral authority” and warned the PL to beware the enemies from within. 

The PL is still a majority party but abstention and desertion are impacting it. In the last general election, the vote gap between the two major parties grew only because the PN lost more votes than the PL did to abstention. 

By embracing the people accused of corruption in the hospitals deal, the PL has lost its moral authority to dictate what is right and wrong. It is losing its wisdom to discern between the narrow interests of the few and the greater good. 

It is a pity that the social and economic progress achieved since 2013 is getting buried beneath a mountain of muck. 

The bigger misfortune is that instead of taking the bold steps to start cleaning up, the current PL administration, including Abela, are at times burying their heads in the sand and on other occasions actively contributing to the muck by trying to undermine the justice process. 

The party is allowing the enemies within to undermine it with the complicity of those in charge. Labour supporters deserve better. 

Indeed, Malta deserves better.