Editorial: Robert Abela needs to explain his property deal

There is one big advantage to looking only at the future: you can act as if the past never existed, especially if explanations are being demanded about some issue that have the potential for embarrassment. “All we are seeing is more spin. There’s nothing new. I will continue to focus on the future,” Prime Minister Robert Abela conveniently told journalists when asked to explain a 2018 property deal involving Christian Borg. Borg faces kidnapping charges and police investigations on suspicion of money laundering and organised crime. Abela prefers to let bygones be bygones, beyond saying that “all taxes were paid” on the sale. Evidently, he considers his earnings to be a ‘private’ matter, even if cabinet members are bound by the code of ethics to annually list their property holdings, bank deposits, investments and income for the previous year. He was the only cabinet member last year who would not publicly declare in his annual asset filings what he had earned in 2020. In his declaration for 2020, filed a month behind schedule, Abela noted that his income was “as per his tax returns” for the previous year, though no figures were given and no tax returns attached. On the Borg...