Robert Abela’s reckoning with Muscat’s legacy: three points of view

The past weeks have been dominated by high-level arrests, most notably that of Joseph Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri, and revelations linking Macbridge, a secret company identified as a client of Konrad Mizzi’s and Keith Schembri’s secret Panama companies, to the chief negotiator in an energy deal with Shanghai Electric.

But Robert Abela has been reticent when faced with questions on his predecessor’s legacy. His standard reply was that both Muscat and Schembri are no longer part of his government, while repeating the mantra that the institutions are working, as proven by arrests and police investigations.

The question facing Abela is how far can he play a balancing act between appeasing hardcore supporters who still revere Muscat, and his commitment to let investigations proceed, without showing fear and favour to some of his past colleagues. After all... Abela assisted Muscat at Cabinet level.

‘Disassociate yourself from Muscat’

Labour stalwart Desmond Zammit Marmara, a former minority leader on the Balzan local council and former executive secretary of Labour think-tank Ideat (2013-16) does not mince his words, calling on Abela to “dissociate himself, the Labour government, and the Labour Party from what happened under his predecessor”.   

Zammit Marmara gives a scathing assessment of Muscat’s legacy. “Today, all objective people realize that while the former government was highly successful in the economic sphere, and simultaneously introduced a multitude of social measures, it failed miserably in good governance and the fight against corruption.”

He praises the present Labour government led by Robert Abela for its “great commitment towards eradicating corruption and ensuring that justice is served, irrespective of who is involved”. Moreover, the performance of the Prime Minister himself has been encouraging, “with several initiatives which have softened the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic”.  All this contributed to Abela “retaining the confidence of the majority of the population”.

But Zammit Marmara warns that the prevailing uncertainty related to the latest turn of events, risks “destabilising the country”.

“The Maltese people need to know what was the extent of political involvement in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in other crimes related to corruption, and in the attempted HSBC heist. Who were all the persons involved?”

He also warns that Robert Abela will remain with this millstone around his neck until the police come up with conclusive evidence. “His only way out of the political impasse is to completely dissociate himself, the Labour government, and the Labour Party from what happened under his predecessor. He must have the courage to overrule the Labour hardcore supporters who still find it hard to criticise what happened under Dr Joseph Muscat. The future of Malta, including that of the Labour Party, is at stake.”

Does Abela need a new mandate?

Since Abela has effectively inherited the electoral mandate given to Labour when led by Muscat in 2017 at a time when the electorate only had a vague idea about the offshore links which now have cast a dark shadow on the deals involving Schembri and Mizzi, one lingering question is whether Abela needs a new mandate to break the impasse and affirm his leadership.

But Zammit Marmara insists that the next general election should be held when it is due and not before. “We now have a new government which is not responsible for what happened under the watch of Dr Joseph Muscat.”

George Vital Zammit – a lecturer of politics at the Department of Public Policy –concurs. With the legislature moving into its final year, calling a snap election would not only be ill-timed but “highly irresponsible given that the country is still reeling from a pandemic.”

Moreover, according to Zammit, the government is duty-bound to provide direction in a watershed moment of Malta’s history, which requires the “restoration of integrity of a number of our institutions, injecting confidence to rebuild the economy, and mitigating the effects of the pandemic.” Going for a snap election with “the mess created by the Muscat administration still unfolding” would be a sign of “shirking away or absconding”. And cutting short another legislature would signify that for the third time in three decades, Labour was unable to terminate its mandate in a “normal time-frame”.

Instead Zammit expects Abela to show leadership in difficult times. “The way Abela will steer the country before the election will very much determine the legacy he is able to build as a Prime Minister.”  While noting that Abela has shown “credibility” in sacking Konrad Mizzi and distancing himself from Muscat’s old guard, keeping Johann Buttigieg as head of the Malta Tourism Authority and procrastinating on the fate of Rosianne Cutajar have sent the wrong message. His reassuring aplomb on the pandemic in 2020 also have come back to haunt Abela “especially with the perception that the Superintendent of Health was not being allowed to operate autonomously.”

Sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino also says the country is already in election mode, with the date of the election “as always”, remaining “a question of strategic timing”.

“Abela needs to ‘earn his spurs’ and secure his PL leadership by beating Bernard Grech and a somewhat revived PN at the polls. For those who can be patient, there is no ‘political impasse’: in due time, Abela will either get his electoral mandate; or he will lose it”.

Will Abela defy history?

Despite what Baldacchino terms the “juicy allegations, revelations and unreliable evidence” coming in almost as thick and fast as the requests for presidential pardons”, Labour could still be on its first, historic, third consecutive electoral victory (he excludes the 1981 constitutional anomaly that returned Labour to power on a majority of seats, not votes).

But it remains to be seen whether recent revelations in relation to scandals related to the Panama saga will have a bearing on the electorate. “Starting with the Panama Papers leak of early 2016, Malta has lived through an unparalleled storm. Muscat called an early election amid swirling accusations, and Labour was re-elected with a historic majority. Among those returned to Parliament with more formidable voter support was none other than Konrad Mizzi. For all we know, the Maltese electorate may repeat 2017 and, once again, largely shrug off what is now being exposed in dribs and drabs at the Valletta law courts.”

The change in the party’s leadership has also created an opportunity for Labour to present itself in the next election with a new team. “With an eye to improve its chances of being re-elected, the Abela government has engineered major changes to its Cabinet.”

The timing of the next election may well be determined by Abela’s other great challenge during the past months: the pandemic.

“Some good news about the handling of the pandemic is bound to materialise sooner or later, as the proportion of the population that is vaccinated continues to rise steadily…. Indeed, the number of reported daily infections has fallen significantly, albeit along with the number of swabs.”