Muscat should be banished from PL after revelation of plot against Chris Fearne

Collective amnesia contributes to people forgetting that the reportage and investigation about the Vitals and Steward deal did not start now after the publication of Magistrate Gabriella Vella’s inquiry.

Since the very first days dating back to 2015, journalists from MaltaToday have been chronicling events and piecing together the corollaries that led to this scandalous deal.

More often than not, many have simply ignored the far-reaching implications of these investigations.

Today’s front-page article is yet another small piece in this jigsaw puzzle.

This week, Labour’s former prime minister Joseph Muscat scribbled on Facebook to remind us that Barts was up and running in Gozo. It was an effort to remind us of his achievements. His faithful propagandist and apologist Manwel Cuschieri also made it a point to remind us that Barts is an active university and fruit of the Steward deal. Cuschieri is like Muscat’s echo and parrot. He is special not because of this, but rather because he is one of a dwindling number of cheer leaders left standing by Muscat’s side.

Muscat’s puerile last stand on Facebook came about after a very interesting angle to the story – explained in today’s front page - emerged in court about the Barts campus.

Muscat is of course clutching at straws. There is no doubt in everyone’s mind that Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi wanted to give Vitals and later Steward, the best possible deal at the public’s expense. They went further, because apart from the contractual benefits they awarded Steward they would also preside over the coordinated creation or acquisition of companies linked to the deal, from funds received by the State - the Technoline acquisition by an employee is one such glaring example.

Only minds that are wired to screw the system can get so dark and shrewd.

When some years ago at a meeting for journalists over dinner at the Dutch embassy a foreign MEP insisted that it was abundantly clear that some members of the leading political class in the Maltese Labour Party were in politics to simply enrich themselves, I reacted by saying: “I believe you are exaggerating.” Months later I would be eating humble pie and having to agree with him.

Muscat led everyone to believe that the Steward deal was the greatest thing on earth. And soon after his resignation as prime minister he was openly lobbying for Steward. He saw nothing wrong with that.

As early as 26 January 2020, days after his fall from grace, MaltaToday reported that Muscat was lobbying for Steward and requesting a meeting with Robert Abela on the future of the hospitals’ privatisation project.

As usual, Armin Ernst, the man behind Steward’s dark machinations was always a telephone call away from Muscat.

The aim of the meeting was planned to renegotiate aspects of the multi-million-euro concession, which included running the Gozo, St Luke’s and Karin Grech hospitals.

Here was Malta’s patriot, crusader and believer in the motto ‘Malta first and foremost’, acting as an ambassador for this American giant to get more out of the Maltese government... and Malta.

Two years later, in January 2022, MaltaToday revealed that a memorandum of understanding hammered out by the Muscat administration with Steward Healthcare, would have allowed the American hospitals concessionaire to sell the Barts medical and nursing training school to a real estate investment company.

MaltaToday reported then that the non-binding MOU was approved by Cabinet in 2019, but never formally sealed because of the political crisis of December

2019, when Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech was charged with masterminding the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Back then the story intimated that Chris Fearne had objected vehemently to the MOU in Cabinet.

Today, we know that Fearne’s protestations had started earlier - not because he knew what was happening but because he got wind of the arrangement being hammered out by Mizzi and Steward.

This was some three months before Joseph Muscat’s resignation. It was at the same time that Steward purposely created a political fund which investigators believe was used for kickbacks.

With their plan in tatters, it is now clear that Steward proceeded to use the services of a UK firm headed by Lionel Crosby, who was walking in and out of Joseph Muscat’s office, to hit back at Fearne in a despicable manner.

In Cabinet Fearne had thwarted Steward’s plans to make big money out of a property deal that would have left the State poorer. It was to be a typical American mafia deal.

Muscat has stated meekly that the plot against Fearne was disgraceful and has hit out at those detractors who insinuated that he was behind it or knew about it. Be lieving Muscat is up to you.
Truth be told, if I was Manwel Cuschieri and as blind as a bat I would come to terms with Muscat’s emotional clutching at straws and hand-on-heart declarations. Thank the Lord most of us are not Manwel Cuschieri.

Perhaps, unlike those who claimed him as a friend, I have always found him as revolting as fermented herring in an oak casket.

What is interesting is that the same company that managed the political fund for Steward is the same company that paid Muscat for his sterling services.

Today’s MaltaToday story links more pieces together and goes to show to what extent Muscat is bad news. It shows that unlike many dirty campaigns, the anti-Fearne campaign was organised by a company that actively conspired to destabilise an elected deputy prime minister. This is something that should have been picked up by our Security Services. And yet I cannot understand why the Labour Party and the government led by Robert Abela do not decide once and for all to expel Muscat from the party and terminate his State privileges respectively.

Chris Fearne, who stands charged with others in the Vitals corruption case, could have been Malta’s next European Commissioner. He still could be if the case is dropped.

Unfortunately, the Commissioner of police Angelo Gafa followed some divine order and chose not to interrogate or investigate Fearne and others when the inquiry ended.

If the police had probed the suspects, they would have probably reached the conclusion that Fearne should not be charged.

Public declarations by the Prime Minister that Fearne would be re-nominated commissioner if a prima facie decision by the court rules that charges against him should be dropped are premature. Indeed, they do Fearne no good and he has publicly called for the magistrate to be allowed to carry out his job without undue pressure.

It is a sad day for the truth when the good guy in Cabinet, who stood up to the triumvirate, is in the dock today. It is even sadder that the guys who stood by Fearne and said nothing in Cabinet are quietly watching the drama unfold.

They know that the rat in the pack is the triumvirate but none of them have the proverbial balls to speak their mind.

None of them want to tackle the big white elephant in the room.

I thought men and women were made of tougher stuff.