Blast from the past: the return of Tony Abela

The Nationalist Party’s leadership was faced with a ‘fait accompli’. For short of a co-option which would have been possible only if none of the candidates had presented their names for the casual election, it had no say in who would replace Joe Cassar – the disgraced former health minister who took the unprecedented decision of resigning from parliament following revelations that he had an €8,150 bill for construction works at his Dingli farmhouse paid by the notorious Gaffarena. 

For the decision on who was to replace Cassar was sealed in the ballot box more than two years ago. Ironically, Cassar’s resignation has triggered the election of a politician with a colourful past who is not alien to the culture which ultimately brought Cassar down: that of politicians engaging in questionable relationships with  shady businessmen.

A notary by profession, Abela was first elected in 1987 and again in 1996, 1998 and 2003. Contesting one of Eddie Fenech Adami’s two districts, Abela confirmed his heavyweight district status by gaining 1,000 first count votes in the 2003 election. 

He was surprisingly co-opted to parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister by Lawrence Gonzi though he was one of two MPs openly supporting John Dalli (the other being Edwin Vassallo) in the divisive 2004 leadership contest, in what was interpreted as an attempt to re-unite the party behind its new leader.

But ever since his unlikely appointment, Abela was a constant embarrassment to his party and a target of the Labour party media, which hounded him in a manner that sometimes looked obsessive. The image of a drenched Tony Abela, chased by One TV journalist Charlon Gouder in a thunderstorm outside Parliament, remains a classic gem of ridicule in the collective memory.

Frequenting the wrong people?

Abela surely attracted flak for the party, as a result of his past business associations with smuggler Indrì Zammit, who was arraigned in 2006 on drug trafficking charges.  Zammit was also Abela’s canvasser before he was first convicted in 1994.  

On his part Abela always insisted that he had severed business links with Zammit after his first conviction for smuggling.

But on his own admission procedures for the dissolution of a company he co-owned with Zammit were not finalised. “As sometimes happens, these procedures were abandoned and the company would eventually be struck off after some years”.  He insisted that documents at the MFSA showed that the company, whose only asset consisted in the fishing boat Ajaca, which had been sequestered by the police, had not operated since 1994. 

In his defence Abela even invoked Jesus Christ. “After all, there was somebody once who selected 12 followers and one of them later betrayed him,” Abela told parliament in 2006.

Abela also faced accusations from the Labour Party of breaching ministerial ethics for acting as a notary on behalf of a citizen from his constituency in informing the Joint Office that he was accepting the price set by the office on a property. Reacting to these claims Abela insisted that he had transferred custody of his notarial acts in April 2003 and had not published any contracts or acts since. He claimed that his brother and other notaries, who were shortly to be joined by his own son, ran the office and that there was nothing wrong in the fact that he received a share from the net proceeds of the office, given that he had helped make it successful.

Abela is also remembered for going live on Net TV during a fundraising marathon pulling out stacks of money notes out of his jacket as donations to the party from undeclared donors.

Immigration tsunami 

Responsible for migration at a time when Malta was for the first time faced by the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers, he insensitively talked about “a tsunami of immigrants” reaching Malta’s shores. Later on he changed his tune, emphasising a more humanitarian approach.

He was also responsible for the army when on 13 January, 2005, the army used excessive force to quell a peaceful protest by 90 persons held in the detention facility at Hal-Safi. Abela promised disciplinary action would be taken against anyone in the armed forces found guilty of wrongdoing.

But two years later Ian Ruggier – the architect of the infamous ‘Pjan Ruggier’, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. The magisterial inquiry had found nobody guilty of using excessive force save for one soldier who was recognisable because his visor was up, filmed as he beat a detainee who was being kept on the ground by another soldier.

Abela came under fire from the Italian media for letting a migrant boat carry on with its voyage of death in rough seas, but the parliamentary secretary told parliament that the immigrants had refused the AFM’s assistance as they were passing through Maltese waters.

An AFM logbook published by MaltaToday, which showed that the immigrants were never asked whether they needed any help in the first place, contradicted this claim. Hours later, 29 of them drowned off the coast of Sicily.

Faced with this damning piece of evidence the OPM insisted that the AFM craft and aircraft were close enough to the migrants’ boat in a way “that every opportunity existed for the occupants of the boat to signal for help”.

In 2007 Tony Abela announced substantial pay rises for all ranks of the Armed Forces of Malta. During his term of office the army also participated in the Terra Firma and Canale exercises and in Operation Poseidon, a Frontex operation. New equipment for the AFM included a brand new helicopter and a fast intervention boat. 

The gaffe-prone Abela was even accused of forcing army officers to give him the  general salute on the day marking the army’s 37th anniversary, a privilege reserved for the Prime Minister and the AFM Commander. Abela denied forcing the army to give him the salute while the army replied that a salute is given to the parliamentary secretary during army events.

Comeback kid

Abela is also known as a divisive and partisan figure and is remembered for asking One journalist Charlon Gouder in a threatening tone whether he would emigrate from Malta if the Malta Labour Party lost the elections yet again ¬– the One journalist was himself a guest of the PN interviewing Lawrence Gonzi at the granaries.

Not surprisingly, Abela found himself a casualty of the GonziPN strategy in 2008, which resulted in a number of party veterans like him losing their seat.  

But Abela’s persistence in standing again in 2013 has been rewarded and stands testimony to the politician’s best quality: his popularity at the constituency level, especially in Rabat.  Moreover, his ability to be re-elected to parliament twice after losing his seat first in 1992 and then in 2008 confirms his political stamina.

Now Abela has been re-elected to parliament at a time his party has raised the bar on standards by asking Cassar to step down for showing “an error of judgement” in his relationship with Gaffarena. 

Will Abela re-invent himself in a way which dignifies Busuttil’s honesty platform, or will he once again embarrass the party with his antics and past?