Reputation - Alfred Sant

There are a number of things that still need to be done but, independently of what those who prefer to paint it all as bad say, matters have improved quite substantially.

It is obvious that Malta’s international reputation took a big hit in the past fifteen years. Those who try to pin this development uniquely on the acts of the Labour administration – as the current champions of the rule of law proclaim – are playing games.

The acceleration of the gaming industry and of financial services during the Gonzi adminsitration – the scandals around Smart City, European Commissioner Dalli and others – were also crucial elements in how the islands’ reputation was undermined.

The Robert Abela administration is bringing matters back under a control that asserts transparency and accountability. It is not an easy task; yet I really believe it is being kept on track with consistency and good planning.

The problem when reputational issues arise is that, while the problem develops very quickly, one needs much more time in order to roll it back and get it off the agenda.

Luxembourg

***

In past weeks, Luxembourg was subjected to a media campaign run by European newspapers which published reports about the thousands of companies and trusts which had been registered in the country. They emphasized how these entities had thereby evaded paying the taxes that were due from them in other jurisdictions.

Malta has been through the same experience... and it is still subject to attacks regarding how its taxation policies are designed to help big companies operating outside the islands shrug off their financial dues.

I read the defence sent by Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Gramegna in a letter to a European Parliament committee. Luxembourg agrees with and supports transparency, he stated.

It publishes the names of all those who arrive in the Dutchy to set up a company there, so that their identities are known to all. And that was how the European media got to know about the companies established in Luxembourg. When critics refer to the size of Luxembourg to wonder about how it can house so many thousands of registered companies, they seem to forget that Luxembourg is part of the single European market.

Whoever is a member of this single market and wishes to enter a country, according to the rules of the single market, can do so freely. The size of the country has little to do with the number of firms that it attracts.

Vaccine

I doubt whether I am the only one who is a bit confused about the sequencing of the anticorona virus vaccination process that is being conducted. I understand that sequencing has to be established according to different criteria – so, for those who are in the front line of our defences against the pandemic, it would have been disastrous not to give them high priority – indeed the highest.

I understand too that there would have been pressures from various sectors of society for their members to also be given priority to get inoculated. Some would have been justified, others less so – a matter which ends up depending on the relative social strength “enjoyed” by sectoral lobbies prepared to demonstrate how tough they could become.

On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how the sector that was defined as being the most vulnerable... namely those aged 80 and more, are still not fully covered.

The social and the environmental

European socialists are doing the right thing – and I am fully aligned with what they’re stating – when they insist on the priority of an environmental policy that will contain climate change. And when they also insist on the need for this containment to be carried out in a way that protects the social standing of those who will find their lives affected negatively by what should be going on.

For instance, it will not do if in order to keep climate change under control, it is taken for granted that the life of scores of thousands of coal mine workers and their families must be disrupted. The forward movement towards an envronment that is cleared of the factors that damage climate in a big way must be carried out in tandem with social measures guaranteeing that the resulting burdens are distributed fairly and with justice.

To be clear, the European Union is making this claim in the Green Deal which it is advocating. However, some disbelieve that the claim will be really honoured in practice. So it is essential that social aims are proclaimed with the same... if not greater... force as environmental targets.

Regarding Russia

I have already said it a number of times but I must repeat. For years, I have believed that Russia was not dealt with sensibly by Europeans and Americans alike... and I still think I was right on this point.

Russia reacted strongly to what was being forced on it and in the process, committed mistakes that were hardly minor. Still I could consider and understand the “logic” of the action undertaken by the Putin administration... and not simply in terms of the nationalistic language it affected.

But now, to be sure, I hardly feel like I can continue to “support” the Russian administration like I did till some time ago... at least I did this to the extent of not approving initiatives that were hostile to Russia.

I spent long years in Opposition and I understand well the problems experienced by whoever carries this position. The manner by which the government continued to deal with the effective Opposition leader in Russia in the past months has been incredibly arbitrary, not to say criminal in scope. The explanations being given to explain this behaviour cannot be believed.

Rightists in Malta

Spokespersons of the right in Malta – mostly PN followers – possess a very peculiar characteristic. Although in recent years they seem to have split into a number of different camps, I note how the same characteristic still distinguishes them from others.

It shows up in how their modes of expression and condemnation can have no limits to the bitterness and sharpness they summon, quite often with little clear reason to justify such an approach. But then when some third party comes in to give them a similar makeover, they quickly revert to the saintly mode and play the aggrieved. They will even complain about how others are contravening all rules of fair play.

I must say that over the years I met many spokespersons who were past masters in the arts of flaunting a fake sainthood; and that still impresses many people. I will not mention these representatives here in order not to reopen wounds that have been healed.

But I must say that today’s spokespersons of the right are not outshown in this regard by their predecessors.