Englischkolumne Fantasy Island (Part II)
“There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.” Daphne Caruana Galizia
Two weeks ago, I tried to give you a bit of background about my home island of Malta (and its people) to try to explain the scandals that are rocking it at present. Malta is a hotbed of political rivalry. Politics are to Malta what religions are to India. They cut through Maltese society, families and neighbourhoods. Most elections are won very closely (by about 1% to 2%) and voter turnout is extremely high (over 90%). Political violence exploded in the 1980s with numerous small bombs and the burning down of the “Times of Malta” building. Democracy was in danger. A lot of today’s politicians were born in this time when political turmoil was accompanied by colour TVs with shows like “Dallas” and “Dynasty” displaying flashy cars, women in fur coats and villas with swimming pools. Consumerism and rivalry became a toxic cocktail. Suddenly everything became a competition, a rat race for status: getting one’s children in the best schools, having a bigger and better home than one’s neighbour, a better car, a better village feast, a better holiday. Gone were the days when we, as a people, stood together. The old sense of thrift was replaced by a hedonistic display of wealth and waste.
No wonder then that a new type of politician, representing this new wave of ambitious social climbers, began creeping into parliament. These politicians were not so much interested in improving everyone’s lot as in lining their own pockets. Corruption and nepotism had always been present and tax avoidance was a national sport practised not only by politicians. However, some of these political newcomers suffered from a greed unmatched in the island’s history.
Members of the present cabinet of ministers began opening offshore accounts immediately after coming into office; at first in New Zealand, then in Panama and, after the Panama Papers scandal, in Dubai. All this not so much to avoid paying taxes as to channel the illegal grafts they were getting on state contracts surrounding the new power station. The then Energy Minister and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff were caught with their pants down when it was found out that they had money hidden away in Panama. Surprisingly, the Prime Minister did not fire them but kept them on board, leading to suspicions that he was involved too. Another foreign company account was allegedly found listed under his wife’s name.
One uncomfortable voice in Malta, which would not stop pointing at all the corruption involved, was the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Daphne never beat about the bush and always called a spade a spade. She was so painfully critical that some people did not like her style but everyone read her contributions. Several ministers and members of parliament tried to shut her up by taking her to court and seeking damages from her and freezing her assets. One night her dog’s throat was slit open and anonymous threats were delivered. Still she continued her crusade against these rotten apples in the higher echelons of power. On 16 October 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia, journalist, blogger, wife and mother of three sons, got into her car to go to work and was blown to smithereens. Immediately it was obvious that this was a political assassination and the continuous interference on the Prime Minister’s part in the investigation that followed this grisly murder made people question his motives for doing so. Luckily for Malta, a large part of the population had the moral backbone to step up and protest almost on a daily basis, forcing these rotten apples out of office even as I write. No need to say that the parallelisms between Austria and Malta in 2019 are extremely worrying.