Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1398274
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 AUGUST 2021 NEWS Muscat for not taking the nec- essary action necessary on the allegations of Caruana Galizia, particularly on those related to 17 Black. "Surely at this stage, no Cabinet member could be exonerated from the obligation to assert their voluntary judge- ment at that stage, that there was no place in the Cabinet for those responsible," the inquiry said. Abela has not only inherited ministers from the Muscat era but he himself served as Mus- cat's consultant and was only elected leader after promising continuity with his disgraced predecessor. Yet Abela is not oblivious to this criticism, and over the past year has been busy co-opting new MPs unconnected to the Muscat era. But how far can Abela's slow revolution go? Abela is aware that his current popularity hinges on his strate- gic ability to walk on a tight- rope between Muscat loyalists whom he is keen not to stir, and Labour voters who recoil at aspects of Muscat's legacy. The public inquiry makes it even more difficult for Abela to continue in this balancing act. And while the arraignment of Keith Schembri on a case involving corruption in the private sector may have tem- porarily appeased voters yearn- ing for closure and justice, it remains to be seen whether similar arraignments will take place on cases involving cor- ruption at government level, in cases related to 17 Black role in alleged kickbacks related to Enemalta's Montenegro wind farm project and the Electrogas project itself. "Business is not the plague" While Abela seems keen on cautiously distancing himself from Muscat, he is much more cautious on distancing himself from big business. While the inquiry report is scathing in denouncing the nexus between politicians and businessmen, describing the Panama Papers as "a testament to the mental- ity of association and closeness between some businessmen and public administrators who together aim to ensure that, while working to carry out large investment projects for the country, they advance their interests," Abela in parliament made it clear to remark that business is no plague. He reit- erated that businesses will find complete support in his gov- ernment so that they can con- tinue functioning. The risk is that instead of coming up with radical reforms to create a firewall between parties and business, Abela is keen on keeping the status quo. Otherwise he would have tak- en this opportunity to usher in reforms on party financing by limiting private donations not just to parties, but also to the media companies they own, and possibly introduc- ing state financing. He would also take this opportunity to swiftly approve a new code of ethics, making it obligatory for all ministers and MPs to regis- ter gifts, lunches and meetings with lobbyists. To add insult to injury, this aspect of the report denounc- ing the dangers stemming from the incestuous relationship be- tween big business and politi- cians, was also ignored by the Nationalist Party and was only raised by Moviment Graffitti during a protest co-organised with Repubblika. The unwillingness to address the structural problems iden- tified in the report risk giving the impression that what hap- pened after 2013 was a blip or passing mistake, ignoring its deep roots in a country where over decades of different ad- ministrations, a nexus was cre- ated between big business, or- ganized crime and politics. One may say that by turning poachers like Keith Schem- bri and others into gatekeep- ers, Muscat had surrounded the last weak defence against state-capture by this "mafia". But as the pre-2013 oil scan- dal exposed by MaltaToday showed, the problems were al- ready there. Between opportunism and des- peration Where does all this leave the Opposition that is still reeling from its consistent poor show- ing in the polls? The reality is that like the FATF greylisting, the inquiry's conclusions will not turn the tables. At best on this issue Grech's best hope is that of winning the full support of groups like Repubblika and Occupy Justice, who lately have been showing some misgivings on Grech's leadership. While it is understandable that the Opposition raises the stakes to expose Abela's fault lines vis-à-vis Muscat, it has to be careful in not sounding too desperate. The impression one gets is that the Opposition is keen on making it even more difficult for Abela to distance himself from Muscat by pre- senting him with an impossible demand: that of expelling him from the party. The PN knows that hardcore Labour voters are more likely to rally behind their disgraced former leader whenever he is attacked by the Nationalists. This may well suggest that the PN fears that if Abela ditches Muscat, he may well be in a po- sition to win over more Nation- alist voters, in a scenario where both parties have converged to the centre-ground and are practically indistinguishable except for the corruption issue. And while Grech's force- ful speech in parliament was scathing in exposing Abela's quandary in dealing with Mus- cat's rotten legacy, like Ab- ela he is very economical in his words with regards to the dangers posed by the incestu- ous relationship between pol- iticians and big business, a re- luctance which may well stem from Grech's own political aspirations which depend on a well-oiled electoral machine which requires funding. "While Grech's forceful speech in parliament was scathing in exposing Abela's quandary in dealing with Muscat's rotten legacy, like Abela he is very economical in his words with regards to the dangers posed by the incestuous relationship between politicians and big busines"