Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1481871
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 OCTOBER 2022 NEWS JAMES DEBONO JAMES DEBONO Five years on: between a tsunami of change, and the inertia of power Five years on after the brutal mafia-style assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, most of her favourite targets have been forced out of positions of power. But little has changed in terms of structural changes required for the firewall between the political class, big business and criminal syndicates 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, di- visive and prolific journalists, most of her pet hates are either behind bars or have been eject- ed from power. Former prime minister Joseph Muscat was forced to resign following the arrest of million- aire Yorgen Fenech, the main benefactor of the energy pol- icy 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 dis- covering God as his saviour (as he claimed in a recent Facebook post). Chris Cardona, a former deputy leader of the PL and im- mortalised in Caruana Galizia's blog as a frequenter of brothels, is no longer an MP. Pilatus Bank, a private bank for Azerbaijani millionaires al- so used by Schembri and his trusted accountant Brian Tonna (whose Nexia BT also folded) has been closed down – albeit for reasons not directly con- nected 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 con- nected to Mizzi and Schembri's own offshore companies in Pan- ama. Former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar lost his job, now suspected of having even leaked information from with- in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation to Edwin Brincat 'il-Ġojja', a confidant to murder middleman Melvin Theuma. Even the Nationalist Party ul- timately had to eject Adrian De- lia – disliked by Caruana Galizia and her Nationalist Party 'loyal- ists' and the party establishment – before the PN leader could even complete a legislative term, albeit at the cost of enduring re- sentment 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 assas- sination. Neither has Muscat's resigna- tion provoked any reckoning inside the Labour Party on the Muscat era. And despite being assassinated by powerful inter- ests with little affinity with the PL's working class roots, Daph- ne 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 immediate- ly stopped the shenanigans of Muscat era. And despite being assassinated by powerful inter- ests with little affinity with the PL's working class roots, Daph- ne 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 immediate- ly stopped the shenanigans of