Mallia has now expanded on his arguments in a half-hour podcast which breaks down why the socialism project and ideology has “failed spectacularly” in Malta.

First of all, he dismisses often spouted arguments that the failure of socialism all boils down to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his closest allies.

“Muscat was the most popular leader in the history of Malta’s socialist movements, which means that the absolute majority of socialists agreed he was the best personification of their favourite kind of politics.”

“It doesn’t make sense that Muscat could just suddenly take over a party with a socialist history spanning over 100 years and case aside all its socialist elements… otherwise he wouldn’t have won elections with such historic margins.”

“Even if he isn’t a socialist himself, Muscat is certainly the product of Maltese socialism and a propagandist in Malta’s history of socialism just as Dom Mintoff and Paul Boffa are.”

Mallia warned that the protection that Muscat and other PL officials benefitted, and still benefit, from within the Labour Party despite their wrongdoings, is a result of the importance socialism places on the value of unity.

“Unity is emphasised in all political creeds but particularly so in socialism, because of its historical tradition of safeguarding the people at the bottom. This is because workers at the bottom realised that there is strength in numbers and that they will lose the fight against the people at the top if their forces are scattered.”

“The danger is when this value of unity takes precedence over everything else, including the need to stop blatant wrongdoing. The value of unity, which helped emancipate workers, women and black people, then gets perverted to the point that rather than bringing about change, it maintains a crooked and bloody status quo.”

“When the principle of unity offers all kinds of defence and legitimacy to people who facilitated the blatant theft of the public and the assassination of a journalist and mother, and even to a minister [Edward Zammit Lewis] who laughed at people behind their backs to act cool with a man [Yorgen Fenech] who was clearly fleecing the people, it becomes a morally corrupt decision that over time will erode the conscience of those who know that they can or should do better.”

Mallia went on to argue that the PL exploited the socialist ideology further by making its voters feel like underdogs and conjuring up a bogeyman ‘establishment’ for them to fight against.

“In his last Facebook post before his arrest, Keith Schembri said that there exists an establishment which cannot stomach how a Labour boy managed to become so successful.”

“Schembri understands that although his crimes against the people are crystal clear, he can still win popularity if he gathers the underdogs behind him in a monolithic group by reminding them of the threat that faces them if they don’t remain fully devoted to the only party that acts as their shield.”

“The fact that the gap between those and the top and those at the bottom doubled under Muscat’s watch makes this statement laughable… Keith Schembri knows how ridiculous this cry is but he also knows that the urgent emotion stemming from the fear of oppression will take absolute priority over objective and critical thought.”

Finally, Mallia warned that the PL twisted the socialist principle that the state should help people in need around into an ideology that the state exists to give people what they want, as opposed to their rights.

“Every parent knows what it’s like for a child to keep asking for more and more until you have to tell them to stop, but when you tell them to stop and they threaten you with their vote, it is easy never to stop at all and to end up in our current situation where we have 700 people of trust.”

“Those ‘stupid Labourites who want politicians to serve them’ who Edward Zammit Lewis alluded to didn’t fall from the sky but someone fostered this sentiment in them.”

“While blame cannot be placed fully at the socialists’ feet, if there’s a party that got people to believe that the state is obliged to maintain them, it’s the socialist party.”

“If the state chooses to spoil its children instead of motivating them to reach their potential, we will end up in the state we’re in – a bunch of entitled people who want to be served and people in government who are ready to exploit this dynamic for their votes.”

Finally, Mallia warned that Maltese society risks getting ripped apart from the seams if people cannot reach a consensus on what constitutes basic morality.

“If we cannot even agree whether the state’s facilitation of the assassination of a journalist is wrong or not, then the situation is serious. You realise how serious the situation is when Robert Abela publicly apologises to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family, but PL supporters react and say he isn’t speaking in their name, obviously attached to proclamations of undying loyalty to the party.”

“If we can’t speak with the same moral language, it will divide us fundamentally and make us suspicious of each other.”

“Morality should supersede the value of unity and if we can’t even agree on what is right and what is wrong, then the national unity that the President keeps banally calling for can never be reached and should never be reached.”

“The socialists should start by ending this betrayal of the most basic socialist principle of emancipating the poor and get rid of this culture of dependency on the state.”

“They should explain to people that unity is great and can lead to victory, but if the opportunity cost of this unity is the murder of a journalist and the world considering us to be the asshole where criminals can launder their money and which will lead to grey listing and Moody’s downgrading us, then it’s hopeless.”

“Those at the bottom must understand that they’re not as small as they think they are, that the government is an extension of themselves, and that when they screw the government they’re ultimately screwing their own community and not an archaic colonial entity that imposed itself on us from miles away.”

What do you make of Jon Mallia’s analysis?