Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1189024
8 maltatoday | MONDAY • 2 DECEMBER 2019 ANALYSIS JOSEPH Muscat's rise to the top was art- fully planned to perfection. So was his tenure in office during his first legislature. He managed to be politi- cally shrewd and even sometimes ruth- less, without losing the charm which earned him the trust of the electorate. In opposition he ditched any albatross, abolishing the post of general secretary to remove the Sant-era Jason Micallef from the heart of the party's administra- tion, and even sacked his deputy leader Anglu Farrugia on the eve of the 2013 election when he suddenly became a li- ability. Yet he also reached out to former Na- tionalists, including some of his prede- cessor's bête-noirs like the former MPs John Dalli and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, and in the process building not just a majority but a super-majority. Reshaping the party He did so by shifting Labour to Na- tionalist territory, keeping old Labour on board by presenting himself as a new Mintoff with his assertiveness but with- out appearing divisive, and making Mal- ta Taghna Lkoll a battle-cry. He understood the signs of the times, shifted his party to more liberal positions after the watershed divorce referendum, winning the heart of many people ren- dered invisible by the conservative es- tablishment, and ensuring that the busi- ness establishment would not reject him. On this count he conducted a success- ful political experiment: a Nationalist- friendly Labour party with a socially-lib- eral edge and a unifying message of hope after 25 years of PN governments. In power he perfected the art of 'listen- ing' to criticism, even changing views when these risked becoming toxic on the international stage, as was the case with the pushback rhetoric on immigration; and even sacking ministers embroiled in scandal as was the case with Emmanuel Mallia and Michael Falzon. By shedding the idea that Labour posed a danger to the economy, he further broadened the party's appeal to Nation- alist voters. Enter the crooks Yet even before entering Castille and much later, a shadow had been lurk- ing in the corridors of power, as many poachers started assuming the role of game-keepers. Even before the 2013 election, it was former deputy leader Anglu Farrugia who retaliated at his forced resignation, first raising the spectre of back-room dealing with leading contractors on the fabled 'fourth floor' of the Labour Party headquarters. In power, the cosy rela- tionship with the Malta Developers As- sociation and its bubbly leader Sandro Chetchuti was accompanied by a series of policies aimed at kick-starting a build- ing boom, which slowly but steadily resulted in controversial planning deci- sions. Added to this was a persistent associa- tion with upstart, potentially shady and piratical elements in international capi- talism, best illustrated by the sale of pub- lic hospitals to a shell company whose owners remained unknown for years; the dishing of public land at Zonqor and Bormla to a Jordanian construction company with no experience in running a 'university'; and the sale of citizenship piloted by Henley & Partners, in a deci- sion which turned EU citizenship into a tradeable commodity. But it was the revelation that his chief of staff Keith Schembri and his energy minister Konrad Mizzi had set up secret companies in Panama just after the 2013 election which cast the first dark shadow that rattled trust in Muscat. Despite being shaken when first hit by the storm, he kept Mizzi in government albeit with a reduced portfolio. Muscat survived the storm. In the electoral bal- ance sheet, social gains like civil liber- ties, free childcare, cheaper energy bills, full employment and economic growth still outweighed the darker side, which lurked on the side-lines eating away at Labour from the inside but not endan- gering its electoral lead. In short, the people who had seen their life change for the better could not af- ford to throw away the baby out with the bathwater. But that water was becom- ing too toxic even to ensure the baby's long-term survival. But that was not all too visible to the wider electorate which remained entranced by Muscat's charm and optimism. The escalation leading to the 2017 gen- eral election saw Muscat firmly rejecting the Egrant allegations, but discarding more evidence-based allegations related to his chief of staff's offshore business interests: the first hint which linked 17 Black – a Dubai offshore company – to Keith Schembri and the Electrogas pow- er station. Muscat emerged unscathed, winning by a similar margin as before and feeling strong enough to imme- diately reappoint Schembri as chief of staff and Mizzi in the Cabinet as tourism minister. The script now had changed, without any signs of contrition, and Mizzi could even claim that the elector- ate had absolved him. With the Opposition in tatters and torn by division, Muscat seemed invincible, a living testimony to the tattoo allegedly inscribed on his right bicep – 'invictus'. But the sunny period of Muscat's sec- ond electoral honeymoon came to an abrupt end with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the journalist first to expose the Panama scandal and cryptically the existence of 17 Black, the Muscat's fall from grace: From He won five national, local and European elections. The harbinger of epochal changes in civil liberties. Now Muscat's legacy has been sealed by an inglorious exit tainted by political murder, the country's reputation in shreds. How the implosion happened… JAMES DEBONO Muscat may stay on to get the applause of the party's general conference, even casting a shadow on the election of his successor through sheer incumbency. But he leaves the party paying the price for his unforgivable mistakes