THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING MOVES INTO EXILE IN BARBADOS; FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE

JOSEPH MUSCAT, Malta's Labour Party Poster Boy for corruption, now facing multiple counts in the hospitals sale fraud case, is going on holiday to Barbados, reportedly with forty of his most ardent supporters. As to how many are already under indictment, we cannot say, because we don't yet have the complete guest list, we understand it is the Cream of the Crop over at PL, the ruling party in the troubled island republic, which features its own variety of the fabled, and violent, Mafia.

Imagine if this is what happened in the United States in 1974, if  the disgraced RICHARD NIXON, who Muscat has been often compared to, fled America with all his indicted Watergate associates. There would have been absolute outrage, but in Malta, everyone seemingly accepts it as the appropriate way Muscat eludes justice, again. I guess that's the cost of living in a state that looks more like an organized crime family than a republic; everyone's cynical.

Muscat's problem, however, is that he could be charged in the US with accepting bribes & kickbacks from American businessman in the hospitals scandal (can you say FCPA?) and promptly extradited to Miami, to face the music here. Has he simply traded one unhappy ending to his career for another? Let's see how this plays out, but I must assume Las Vegas oddsmaker are betting against the Artful Dodger, as the Teflon-like Muscat is often called. My advice is that he'd better pack an extra toothbrush.