Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1358359
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 APRIL 2021 OPINION FOLLOWING the revelations on the owner of 'Macbridge' last Monday, the Prime Minister on Wednesday held a press confer- ence announcing proposals to reform cannabis laws, coolly ig- noring the elephant in the room. Remember that the up-to- then mysterious 'Macbridge' was cited as a source of income by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi when they opened their account in Panama. Asked whether he believed that his predecessor, Joseph Muscat, had no knowledge of what the two men closest to him were up to, Abela gave a one-line reply: "Joseph Muscat is no longer part of government." Abela went on to sing the praises of the Labour Party and the 'movement' built in recent years, saying he is "very proud" of the party he leads. He was reported saying that since becoming leader, he had "never protected" Mizzi or Schembri and his actions and decisions have been "clear". Sorry Robert, that is not ac- ceptable as Labour's current po- sition on the Joseph Muscat era. Labour faces a big problem: how to deal with Joseph Mus- cat's legacy. Indeed, Joseph Mus- cat's era is depicted as a time of great achievements in the offi- cial Labour Party web-site. The other week, two high party offi- cials – deputy leader Daniel Mi- callef and PL president Ramona Attard – took part in television programmes on the current po- litical situation, only to come out as being completely in denial as regards the relationship between the party today and Joseph Mus- cat's legacy. It is true that there are a num- ber of Labour supporters who still adore Joseph Muscat and foolishly think he is a victim – not of himself, but of others who betrayed him. This is nonsense, of course. What happened dur- ing Muscat's premiership could not have happened without his knowledge, unless Muscat is a very big idiot – which he is not. Surely, Robert Abela cannot be taken seriously if he keeps pan- dering to these misguided, bi- ased simpletons. Unless Joseph Muscat is re- nounced by the Labour Party, his legacy will forever haunt it. Will Robert Abela ever have his Khrushchev moment? In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev shocked the Soviet Union by denouncing Stalin in a special secret address to Communist party comrades. The text, detailing the dictator's crimes, was smuggled out of Moscow and later published in the west. The speech condemned the "cult of personality" that Sta- lin had created to glorify his own rule. That was only three years after the death of Stalin, mourned by the great majority of Soviet citizens, who saw him as a divine father. So soon after- wards, here was their new lead- er telling them they had made a cataclysmic error: far from di- vine, Stalin was satanic. This is the sort of courageous move that Labour needs today, if it has to overcome the big prob- lems it is facing because of Mus- cat's legacy. In short, unless Labour actu- ally denounces Muscat, it will have to carry forever his legacy of wrongdoing. The tangled web Last Sunday, we got the news that a consortium of journalists, including the Times of Malta, had discovered that a Chinese energy negotiator involved in the multi-million euro deals by Enemalta is behind Macbridge – a once-secret company suspect- ed of being set up to pay kick- backs to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi. Mizzi promptly denied any knowledge of or connection with Macbridge. The company was in fact owned by the mother-in-law of a certain Cheng Chen via a shell company in the Seychelles. Cheng Chen was a negotiator on behalf of Accenture and who had played a very important part in Enemalta's negotiated €320 million deal with Shanghai Elec- tric Power. Macbridge was also involved in the profit from the notorious Montenegro wind farm deal as 17 Black had passed €1 million to Macbridge after it received the €4.6 million profit from the deal. So another part of the incred- ibly enormous web spun during the Joseph Muscat administra- tion has been uncovered. The work being done in this expensive long-term investiga- tion – by Reuters, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and other journalism partners including the Times of Malta – merits more apprecia- tion. As luck – or misfortune – would have it, the loose end from which it all started was the Panama papers: a giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records that shook the world as it exposed a system that enabled crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies. A tribute to Godfrey The news that Godfrey Grima passed away last Monday after being infected with COVID-19 has shaken all those who are members of the so-called 'media family' in Malta. As Godfrey himself used to say, I gave him the story of his first report that was ever published. That was some 55 years ago. Then architectural students at the University were roped in to help in surveys that the newly set-up Town Planning Office had to carry out for the first ever, foreign town planning consult- ant. We had to mark the heights of buildings in every street in Malta and also mark the shops and commercial establishments according to type. I had to do this task in Valletta. So one day, as I was marking the necessary information while walking down a Valletta street, a young man asked me what I was doing and I explained my job – and its context. This intrepid young man was Godfrey Grima on his first ever journalistic job. Sure enough, the next day the story was pub- lished in Il-Ħaddiem. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. I lost con- tact with Godfrey when he went to London where his journalistic capabilities were honed. When he returned, somehow our paths crossed again and we became friends. Not that we agreed about everything. The opposite was probably the truth. Yet Godfrey was the type of man who could build up friend- ships with people with whom he disagreed. His character bridged all chasms. So long! It's been nice – very nice – to know him, discuss and argue with him and, better still, to share jokes with him. Will Abela ever have his Khrushchev moment? Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com It is true that there are a number of Labour supporters who still adore Joseph Muscat and foolishly think he is a victim – not of himself, but of others who betrayed him. This is nonsense, of course Joseph Stalin (left) and Nikita Khrushchev: the latter took the Soviet Union through a process of destalinisation