Five years on: between a tsunami of change, and the inertia of power

Five years on after a bomb allegedly manufactured by a crime syndicate on order by one of Malta’s most powerful businessmen, eliminated one of Malta’s most outspoken, divisive and prolific journalists, most of her pet hates are either behind bars or have been ejected from power.

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat was forced to resign following the arrest of millionaire Yorgen Fenech, the main benefactor of the energy policy that shifted Malta to LNG as well as close collaborator of Muscat’s personal chief of staff Keith Schembri, now facing money laundering and trading in influence charges. Former energy minister Konrad Mizzi was ejected from government, party and parliament before discovering God as his saviour (as he claimed in a recent Facebook post). Chris Cardona, a former deputy leader of the PL and immortalised in Caruana Galizia’s blog as a frequenter of brothels, is no longer an MP.

Pilatus Bank, a private bank for Azerbaijani millionaires also used by Schembri and his trusted accountant Brian Tonna (whose Nexia BT also folded) has been closed down – albeit for reasons not directly connected to her claims but due to a sanctions-busting charge in the United States against its owner (since acquitted).

Subsequent media probes have also outed Yorgen Fenech as the owner of the mysterious 17 Black, the Dubai company connected to Mizzi and Schembri’s own offshore companies in Panama.

Former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar lost his job, now suspected of having even leaked information from within the Caruana Galizia murder investigation to Edwin Brincat ‘il-Ġojja’, a confidant to murder middleman Melvin Theuma.

Even the Nationalist Party ultimately had to eject Adrian Delia – disliked by Caruana Galizia and her Nationalist Party ‘loyalists’ and the party establishment – before the PN leader could even complete a legislative term, albeit at the cost of enduring resentment of his supporters.

By Maltese standards, this has indeed been a political tsunami.

The political legacy of an assassination

Yet while so much has changed, so much has remained the same.

Labour’s enduring majority has emerged even stronger in the 2022 election, despite no major sign of contrition for the complicity of the State in the conditions that led to the assassination.

Neither has Muscat’s resignation provoked any reckoning inside the Labour Party on the Muscat era. And despite being assassinated by powerful interests with little affinity with the PL’s working class roots, Daphne remains a reviled figure for party diehards, who resent the virulent tone of her anti-Labour missives and the stamp of her middle-class pedigree.

Robert Abela immediately stopped the shenanigans of flower-cleansing at the Daphne shrine opposite the law courts, a ridiculous act that disrespected the wishes of those who memorialised her legacy and death. But he was unwilling, or unable, to turn a new page by giving some kind of official recognition to a journalist who paid the ultimate price. In short, he was too weak to give that landmark speech which can rise above a residue of justified resentment on Daphne as merely the gossip-monger, but which recognises her role in exposing a cabal which was actively subverting the institutions.

And even the Nationalist Party remains split between elements who venerate her as a hero, and those who blame her character assassinations and dress-down of public figures who did not conform to her expectations of what is expected from a Nationalist politician, for the downturn in party fortunes.

For ironically, Caruana Galizia’s legacy was even more devastating for the PN than for Labour, with her assassination making the political survival of Adrian Delia as PN leader, unsustainable. For how could he keep the party united after the assassination of someone whom he called inconsequential (“biċċa blogger”) now turned into a martyr?

And neither has her death contributed to the creation of cross-party movement for justice against corruption, with this space largely occupied by groups perceived to be intrinsically hostile to the Labour Party. The closest to this was the December 2019 protest movement – which included voices from the Maltese left like Graffitti, but which did not outlast Muscat’s removal from office.

From iconoclast to canonised saint

Ironically the iconoclastic journalist and blogger, who excelled in bringing down to size inflated egos, has been turned into a saint. The hagiography was understandable in the first months after her death, but at times it becomes a disservice to the memory of a real historical actor who dirtied her hands, in her relentless battles against pet hates – some were insignificant mortals whose only sin was some form of association with Labour – but also some of the most powerful people in the island.

Ultimately Labour supporters have to recognise that Daphne was assassinated not for her despicable dress-downs of inconsequential Labourites, but for her hounding of the big monied interests who came close to hijacking the country. That realisation can only be made if Abela has the courage to spell it out. But it could happen sooner if her admirers also recognise some of her pitfalls.

For while her death has impoverished journalism, depriving it of a relentless force of nature, nobody has so far dared follow in her footsteps when it comes to personal exposés on extramarital affairs or personal health matters which many found distasteful. Even here there is a risk of going from one extreme to another, simply because in some cases, though painful, such revelations may be consequential.

And overlooked by some of her more conservative admirers, is Daphne’s social liberalism and her pro-choice views. These aspects of Caruana Galizia tend to be forgotten.

The things which did not change

The greatest disappointment five years after her assassination, and nearly three years after Yorgen Fenech’s arrest, is the sluggish pace of institutional change, especially in reforms aimed at setting a firewall between political power and big business groups.

That the Degiorgio brothers, and Vince Muscat, have been jailed after pleading guilty for having executed the assassination of Caruana Galizia, as well as the upcoming prosecutions of the Maksar gang, are welcome developments.

But ultimately the picture emerging from assassination plot and the various spin-offs from Panamagate is that of an incestuous relationship between big business, organised crime and politicians. Despite constant reminders by international bodies like the OSCE, Malta still lacks a national prosecuting office responsible for fighting corruption. Moreover, a code of ethics introducing a transparency register where all meetings between lobbyists and ministers are logged, as proposed by the Standards Commissioner, is still gathering dust as are a number of anti-corruption and anti-mafia laws proposed by the Opposition.

And while government has partly heeded the public inquiry in proposing media reforms which give constitutional recognition to journalism as a pillar of democracy, even such a positive step was marred by a lack of consultation and by inadequate provisions on the state obligation to provide information. Thankfully on the eve of the sad anniversary, Abela has backtracked by submitting the bills to public consultation.

And ultimately five years on despite the pending trial of the hired assassins and the arraignment of Yorgen Fenech, no light has been cast on the alleged cover-up and the possible role of Keith Schembri and Joseph Muscat in it. While the Egrant inquiry did not find any evidence that the Muscats owned the secret Panama company as claimed by Caruana Galizia, no further attempts were made to establish for whom this secret company was created.

As time passes and inquiries linger on, there is a risk of collective amnesia setting in, relegating Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memory to a footnote of history.

And that is why it is so important, even for people who profoundly disagreed with her antics, to keep remembering her role in exposing a dark chapter in Maltese history.

For although she might not have been always a hero in life, she was surely one in death.