Do not put a pin on it – Andrew Azzopardi

The intricate criminality cobweb we are faced with is almost incredulous.

Every day our news portals and newspapers are flooded with one new story after another of alleged corruption or bribery, fraud or sleaze, exploitation or acts of dishonesty which imply either politicians or their cronies.

Before people start getting prickly, of course this was even the case when the Nationalists were in power but firstly, that doesn’t make it less slimy and secondly, it is the concentration and staging of the cobweb of evil which is revolting. The planning that has gone into this braiding and the fact that some or most of it has been press-ganged in Castille, the mother of all power, makes it ‘uniquely’ pervert.

Whilst most of us try our best to live a life in a dignified way, taking care of ourselves and of those around us, whilst we work hard, pay our taxes, abide by the rules, the moment we go out of line big brother slams us around like poor Winston of Orwell’s 1984. On the other hand, these bloodsuckers go about messing around and no one really seems to have the strength to reverse what these people have got us into.

What adds to my rage is when names are being touted around by newsroom reporters and hardly any reaction takes place, at times not even the bat of an eye-lid. This is probably either because people have gotten used to these vile scenarios or simply can’t keep up with the drama.

For example, the allegations about the Passport Papers that are being hurled at ex-Prime Minister Muscat are scathing and there you go, all you get is […pause…] - ‘nothing’. He doesn’t even have the decorousness to issue a statement saying he refuses to take in the allegations.

Let’s tell it like it is. Currently our Institutions are managing to cut the outflow, but not healing this sick country which is bilious to the core. Its Institutions were repeatedly breached and severed to house this parasite of self-indulgence and covetousness that could flourish with so much ease right under our noses.

True, Prime Minister Abela has managed to, metaphorically speaking, stop the hemorrhage. But what we need is a fullyfledged surgical intervention to fix this mess. The political class was unable to untie the knots. Our Police Force is still reeling from years of disorganization it had found itself in.

What I am proposing is that the President of Malta appoints a team of seasoned Judges who are provided with all the necessary tools and human resources to untangle this web of maliciousness.

We need to have a team of Judges who have repeatedly proven themselves to be dignified, self-respecting and understand the law. They need to take on this role to identify where the country needs healing.

Shameful is not even close enough to what has happened over these years.

Here we are, dealing with all these allegations, suspicions and petty level of governance:

Indecency in the Malta Individual Investor Program that recently featured in the Passport Papers;

Indecency in illegal trafficking in oil and no one ‘smells the coffee’;

Indecency in the ElectroGas contract;

Indecency in the Vitals Global Healthcare contract;

Indecency in the appointment of people in top paid jobs notwithstanding their dubious competencies;

Indecency in the mess that emanated from the €90 million wind farm project in Montenegro (on Enemalta’s behalf);

Indecency in the tax dues that should be paid and declared by politicians;

Indecency by politicians and their cronies having companies in the secretive and immoral Panama;

Indecency in the relationships between politicians and business people;

Indecency in the way business persons seem entitled to choose a beach of their liking as they sipped a Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 Tinto 2010 with the Minister of their choice (taf inti għal Malta li nagħmlu!);

Indecency in the character assassination of politicians;

Indecency in the government’s ‘generous’ funding of the Café Premier;

Indecency of a former police commissioner who was so erratic and unfit for practice that all he is known for is getting pleasure in shifting police officers – this guy would merit a Tapiro d’Oro the size of an elephant;

Indecency of having a former police commissioner known for his competencies resign for reasons yet obscure (citing health reasons, the mother of all excuses);

Indecency of a former Deputy Commissioner who allegedly went running around the globe with a notorious impish; Indecency in the ‘Egrant’ affair; Indecency in the Gaffarena deal;

Indecency in the way upstanding politicians like Dr Michael Falzon and others have been sacrificed ruthlessly;

Indecency in the use of government money to build one’s own image and likeness;

Indecency in the way people were kicked upstairs;

Indecency in trying to debase the mother company of one of the main newspapers;

Indecency in the way people high in the social policy food chain take pleasure in fantasizing the sinking of NGO rescue boats and perceiving NGOs as a liability;

Indecency in the nonchalance way we have been dealing with migration, for example, leaving these people stranded on boats for weeks to arm twist the EU;

Indecency of credited accountancy firms and accountants who are part of this web allowed to keep operating;

Indecency in the way we have dealt with whistleblowers;

Indecency in the money that flows into political parties from businesses;

Indecency of politicians who find comfort in eating a nice plate of pasta;

Indecency in lawyers who are accused of trying to corrupt a journalist but are left to savor the pleasures of media attention;

Indecency in the quality of most parliamentary debates;

Indecency in the way Legal Notices go through the whole hog, pass under the nose of every MP but not one of them bats an eyelid, not even when this concerns the NGO sector;

Indecency in the relationship of politicians and public officials with known criminals;

Indecency in the way politics are made according to opinion polls;

Indecency of well-known criminals who walked around Castille at their leisure;

Indecency in misfiring policies on migration;

Indecency in the compensation given to a victim of a miscarriage of justice;

Indecency in having cases taking 9 or 10 years to be heard and every now and then start popping out of the hat in a very ‘timely’ way;

Indecency of a Minister and his cronies who allegedly spent their time at strip clubs during government work related visits;

Indecency of accepting highend wine, watches and other gifts and it is made to sound OK;

Indecency in throwing parties at the Prime Minister’s official residence and having that type of crowd invited;

And all of this compounded by the murder of a journalist.

Do these people know how ‘obscenity’ is spelt?

Are these people aware that they have made a joke out of this country?

This country has normalized corruption, sleaze and intricacies of politicians and people who led our Institutions. It was, figuratively speaking, bacchanalia amongst members of the business community, politicians and their cronies all having a go at it. The governance of this country slipped away from us and was led by this debauch establishment. As HE the President of Malta had said in the Republic Day speech of 2019, Malta was a victim of ‘a gang of people who brought shame to the country’.

I no longer believe that all that was happening by chance. It was all schematized and it was only thanks to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s work who managed to ensnare them. She pulled the carpet from under their feet notwithstanding she was assassinated. All that happened was planned to the minuscule detail with a lot at stake; money, sex (we haven’t heard enough about this as yet) and power. The culprits have managed to cover some of their tracks but we know that with the right forensic expertise and commitment most of all that happened can be retrieved from the web and is traceable.

These people have really made a pact with the devil and for a moment it seemed as if they managed to get away with it.

The situation we are in is ominous.

It was the result of a country that was living in a parallel universe, many negating what was happening around us. Not only, people were focused on their personal needs as a result of a culture of indifference that we have been sassed into. The value pillars of this country are shaken at the core. We just looked away because it was uncomfortable to take it all in.

This country needs to reinvent its ‘social self’. Chasing the ‘Maltese Dream’ has led us straight into the wall. Estate, money and status are temporary and fake measures of happiness.

The county needs to have a purpose. Collectively we have no focus. We risk turning into a soulless State.

The country really needs to think through its identity, not our flag or the national anthem, those are superfluous, but reflect on what we have morphed into. To do that, we need strong leadership and a striking nononsense personality who will help us come out of this bedlam, to re-group and separate the wheat from the chaff.