MALTA FACES A TOUGH HOBSON'S CHOICE IN 2021

 

                              JM and his Small Circle of Friends  by COSIMO          

 

The present leadership in the beleaguered  Republic of Malta have been hit with a triple threat knockout punch: First, the FATF-imposed Greylist; Second, the UK high-risk designation; and finally, a blockbuster report exposing all the government's Mafia-style corruption and money laundering. The results should prove fatal to those in power, politically, legally, morally or otherwise. The Labour Party, which is responsible for the current mess, most likely will not survive in its current cult-like form.

Malta's government is at a crossroads; If it makes the required changes, many in the former or present Labour Party will be indicted, including for the Daphne Caruana Galizia assassination, and PL will eventually be removed from power by the people. This includes both the prior and the current Prime Ministers. Should the leaders fail to act, Malta could become the new Libya, a pariah to both the European Union Membership, and the United States, which could impose OFAC sanctions that effectively destroy the Maltese economy. 

How many government leaders will commit political suicide, knowing the alternative could be far worse than being arrested for money laundering, corruption, and other financial crimes ?  If the West ostracizes Malta for failure to reform, its new potential partners, Russia, Iran and China, and some other authoritarian countries, might end up controlling their new client state, and tanking its economy. Look at what has happened to Cuba since 1960, an abysmal economic failure. Does Malta want to end up a failed state ?

2021 is NOT the year for indecision, Malta. Clean up your corrupt, politically-influenced court system and start indicting all the guilty parties, and let the chips fall where they may. To do otherwise will stain the country's future in ways too painful to imagine.