AGNUS DEI, qui tollis peccata mundi – ORA PRO NOBIS The never-ending conundrum of Malta and its po
When a presenter like Peppi Azzopardi of the television programme Xarabank, a despicable programme of totally no-added value, is given publicity to enable him to make pronouncements on the current political situation, it can safely be said the country and its people simply cannot plunge any further into an absolute mire of chaos.
Malta is a conundrum, a puzzle so complex, so muddled, it is virtually impossible to unravel.
Let me take for example the group that calls itself the Graffitti Movement, claiming to be Socialists and Leftists. One would expect the role models of their Holy Grail would be somebody like Vladimir Lenin, or maybe Leon Trotsky, perhaps Che Guevara and possibly Fidel Castro.
However, not the Malta Graffitti Movement! Their role model appears to be the totally capitalist-oriented late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, movements like so-called Civil Society and Repubblika that under the guise of “seeking Justice” are carrying out a wholesale campaign to ruin the country’s economic and social standing and thus the very livelihood of the working corps that Graffitti pretend to aspire too. This besides also supporting the designs of the historically Fascist-oriented Nationalist Party whose very emblem still remains the Black Tile that represents Fascism!
Laughable – yes indeed! However, the mere tip of the iceberg.
Let me take the further example of the late DCG herself. She aspired to expose corruption but this was a selective exposure. I do not recall her having been critical and neither did she bother to thoroughly investigate the Oil Commissions scandals, nor the building contract of the heavy fuel oil power station.
Neither do I recall her ever having investigated the Mater Dei Hospital contracts and vast-over spending over that previously budgeted, nor the new Parliament Building for the same developments.
Neither do I recall her having taken umbrage when then PM Lawrence Gonzi announced with glee that he was very happy to announce an astronomic rise in energy prices. However, she did react to the Panama Papers and when her influential position in the PN became threatened she revealed allegations that new Leader Adrian Delia is alleged to have money-laundered the proceeds of a Soho prostitution racket.
Which leads us to the Nationalist Party itself and its “new way” leadership and path. So now we have a group that is led by a man alleged to have money-laundered and includes people like David Casa, alleged to have trafficked cocaine and misused EU funds but has simultaneously done his level best to dirty Malta’s reputation internationally.
And what about the rank-and-file of the PN? Simon Busuttil has been mentioned as having been with a law firm that received over €1 million in assignments from a PN Government; Jason Azzopardi continues to have substantial questions about land deals dangling over his head; Beppe Fenech Adami is said to have constructed a swimming pool with dimensions way over and above those permitted, and on and on it goes.
I must express my admiration for Mario Thomas Vassallo a Senior Lecturer at Malta University who at the Extraordinary General Council Meeting of the PN faced the PN clique and more or less said:
“Hey you guys – how can you make all this fuss about the current situation when your past history stinks so badly, when clientelism was so widespread, when you began the system of Positions of Trust? Is it not time for you to sort out your own failings before dwelling on those of others?”
Which all leads us to the current situation of chaos and confusion, with a Labour Government having seemingly temporarily lost its way? This DESPITE all the positive economic and social well-being it has generated by mainly overlooking the well-versed situation that “money is the root of all evil” and that this may have led some to abuse the Government’s patronage to feather their own nest and led the outgoing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and others to express their regret at feeling “betrayed”.
And at the bottom of this heaving pile lies the Maltese electorate, trying to make their way in life, trying to work out all these quirks and conundrums and dumbstruck that a group of fellow Maltese on Friday tried to disrupt the military parade on Republic Day and booed the Maltese National Anthem!
I close with this George Orwell conundrum from his famous book Animal Farm:
“The creatures outside (i.e. the people) looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
What a sad indictment on the people of Malta and Gozo.
Indeed, AGNUS DEI, qui tollis peccata mundi – ORA PRO NOBIS – Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world – PRAY FOR US!
ALBERT FENECH
