Normalising Corruption

Credit to MaltaToday

In order to understand Robert Abela’s government, one has to understand the mentality and the ideas (or lack of) of Robert Abela himself. As a village lawyer, Robert Abela is not a complex person and his politics are very dumb and straightforward. In my latest book, I give a concise description and definition of a robot bureaucrat which also suits Robert Abela perfectly well.

In a podcast with Jon Mallia, Matthew Caruana Galizia spoke about the undoing of Joseph Muscat’s corrupt regime. In practical terms, this means that previous corrupt agents and actors have to leave their government posts or resign from parliament apart from being investigated for their past actions. As of now, this process has been done exclusively by civil society and the Labour Rebels in 2019 as Robert Abela has shied away from rehabilitating the Labour Party’s image by conserving previous corrupt actors and agents within its ranks and in government positions. Konrad Mizzi’s resignation from Labour’s parliamentary group was an inevitable fallout of the 2019 crisis and not part of a cleansing act by the new leadership. Whoever survives the political and legal battle will remain in power as long as political convenience is not compromised.

Therefore, it is inevitable that there is still a clash against Labour and the government with those who still want to see a normal state and government. We are back to the days of Lawrence Gonzi’s mantra “go to the police if you have evidence for corruption”, which is the same kind of mantra which enabled John Dalli to be appointed as European Commissioner and eventually lead to the biggest political crisis in our history in 2019 after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia triggered the collapse of Joseph Muscat’s government.

This is why the Justice Minister is handling justice reforms instead of being hauled to court for the gifts given to him by Yorgen Fenech in what seems to be a prima fascia act of corruption, whereas gifts donated had influenced Edward Zammit Lewis in his opinion of Yorgen over the 17 Black allegations. At the same time, Rosianne Cutajar who took a bribe from Yorgen Fenech and defended him in her official capacity as a Member of Parliament has the audacity to sue me in court for alleging that she had slept with her corrupt partner. Audacity indeed, only it is the boldness of a stupid sheep which may very well be slaughtered.

For your perusal, I will simply attach the lines of the criminal code which dictate the law on bribery and corruption. Let this sink in.

115. (1) Any public officer or servant who, in connection with
his office or employment, requests, receives or accepts for himself
or for any other person, any reward or promise or offer of any
reward in money or other valuable consideration or of any other
advantage to which he is not entitled, shall, on conviction, be liable
to punishment as follows:

(a) where the object of the reward, promise or offer, be to
induce the officer or servant to do what he is in duty
bound to do, the punishment shall be imprisonment for
a term from six months to three years;
(b) where the object be to induce the officer or servant to
forbear from doing what he is in duty bound to do, the
punishment shall, for the mere acceptance of the
reward, promise or offer, be imprisonment for a term
from nine months to five years;
(c) where, besides accepting the reward, promise, or offer,

the officer or servant actually fails to do what he is in
duty bound to do, the punishment shall be
imprisonment for a term from one year to eight years.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code or of any
other law, when the offence against the provisions of this article is
committed by a person who, at the time when the offence was
committed, held the office of Minister, Parliamentary Secretary,
Member of the House of Representatives, Mayor or Local
Councillor and the offence involved the abuse of such office, the
provisions of Title VI of Part III of Book Second of this Code shall
not apply to the said person or to any accomplice.

Click to access Criminal%20code.pdf

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