Life under Labour
One wonders how we got to this point; a sunny, idyllic island in the Mediterranean transformed into a haven for the corrupt and criminals.
As soon as PL were elected, the first thing that they did was to remove the Police Commissioner and replace him with a puppet. They kept on replacing Police Commissioners - practically one a year - till they found one who had a deep admiration for the Prime Minister's testicles. Eventually he was succeeded by a Police Commissioner whose contribution to justice and law and order is to undermine them.
They politicised all the institutions, ministries and government agencies by stuffing them with Labour activists and putting a Labour crony in their leadership structures. That way, they had control of the whole executive, the government.
They gave birth to a massive, well-oiled and well-funded disinformation machine. They captured state TV, they formed Facebook hate groups with tens of thousands of activists in these groups that included high-ranking government officials, MPs, and even a police inspector.
They did all they could to infiltrate the local media, to the point that most mainstream media outlets depend almost exclusively on the government for funding. Those that remain truly independent, they transform into targets. Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was made into such a target. She paid a heavy price for maintaining her integrity, as she was brutally assassinated.
They stuffed the judiciary with their own people. We have judges and magistrates who were top officials within the Labour party. And they deliberately allowed the Law Courts to become a shambles. Justice in Malta is always justice delayed, sometimes eternally.
They corrupted elections, buying votes - offering phantom jobs, and perpetuating scams like the social benefits scam.
They rewarded party donors with all kinds of gifts - tenders, contracts, direct orders and building permits.
Poor governance and corruption was normalised. Accountability is a long-lost concept.
This is the way PL operates. This is the reason why PL cannot, and should not, be trusted with the government of our island.
Slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galzia's last words on her blog, written shortly before she was assassinated, were: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."
She was so right. She had always been right. She had been ringing the alarm bells a long time, but few were listening.
Too many are still not listening. Our Rule of Law has been annihilated, our democracy corrupted, our justice and law and order extinguished. Malta is in a sorry state, and unless we all stand up to be counted, it will remain that way. Or get worse. It's time to make your voice heard.