Is Malta broken? – Rachel Borg

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. Is Malta broken?

There was one lone voice remaining, to speak to Malta and of Malta and stand for its soul and mind, to keep it together. Peter Omtzig. He has served as member of the Dutch delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2004. He has also served as rapporteur on the case of the car bombing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (2018), justice for the victims of ISIL (2019); and on Poland (2019).

One of the few uncompromised persons to come between Joseph Muscat and his state capture of Malta and its Maltese European Union citizens. He has ended his mandate without mincing his words on the lack of substantial progress made on the Rule of Law in Valletta and the Courts of Justice. These measures required by the Council of Europe to be implemented by its member states.

We see a long, slow slide of the order and values that we embraced when we chose to join the EU and had worked so hard to reach the level of rule and democracy that is asked of every state before they can become members.

Can we still recall how important it was for us at that time to have some defence and security against the socialist terror that had become common under those years of Mintoff, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and that Alfred Sant tried to reform but failed? The people could feel in their subconscious that something needed to change and that it was important that we found an organization outside our tiny country that could ensure our freedom and defend our rights, given our nature.

We also can intuit that the tendency of the political system in Malta was to serve not just the needs of its citizens but also of its ruling class with a relationship extending into the business sector and private privilege.

These past weeks though have uncovered the reality of where we are now. Circus monkeys jumping from one rope to another, failing to make any one laugh and actually reminding us that the days when we were entertained by such behaviour are over.

If there is anyone who is irrelevant it is Joseph Muscat and his career moves. Thinking he is a man of legacy and influence. He comes striding into the court at the enquiry, starts preaching to the judges and chooses which questions he will reply to and which he will conveniently avoid. Keith Schembri gets called to the Police Headquarters yet again. We are beginning to wonder if there is a change in his status from person of interest to one of another nature.

It is a time when people are continuously swapping roles, changing sides and going behind the scenes to work the system and come out smelling of roses. And we have had enough of the lies, the perjury and the trained monkeys. Life as we knew it in Malta is over and nothing has yet emerged that can substantiate our historic choices and experiences.

This was explained by Peter Omtzigt and he is honest enough to get straight to the point and not beat about the bush. But he may as well be a sailing boat out on rough seas with no one else in sight.

Our life is a victim of greedy, unscrupulous, corrupt, inexperienced money junkies who are addicted to the high of fame, fortune and privilege.

The thing is that it has now become extremely boring and predictable and offers little to inspire trust and hope. The only thought might be that a few boats set sail to go and join that sailing boat alone in the Mediterranean. Finding a safe port is another matter and we may be left with no other option than to keep on going round in circles.

The soap opera that is Joseph Muscat, with all his Dubai jaunts and contradictory statements pronouncing how he reflects on past events are ridiculous if there were not tragedy behind them.

It would seem that our country has not got the realism and courage, the hope and honesty to make way for a new generation that can take up the lead from here. Our name is so sullied and our behaviour so compromised that little remains to serve as a platform for reform.

The pandemic has served to further immunise us from the impact of loss and weakened our commitment to a higher purpose.

The standard of discourse, injustice, impunity and lack of integrity are simply numbing the mind and turning normality on its head, just like a humpty dumpty that cannot be put together again.

Even the euros that have been splurged around, by CEOs in purposely designed jobs, by the companies that have been set-up to serve as vehicles for money laundering, by the direct orders, by the contracts with shady partners have become too much to contemplate anymore and are kept as well hidden away as possible until information is traded or actually investigated.

This week Customs seized over 600 kilos of cocaine at the Freeport, making it Malta’s largest ever drug bust. The drugs have a street value of around €69 million. A lot of money. In 2018 it was estimated that corruption was costing each person €1671.00 every year. Figures suggest that over €725 million or 8.65% of GDP is lost each year in Malta due to corruption, enough to give 42,900 people an average wage. The figures are a stream that winds its way through a sewer of filth. As often happens, when the amount is so high, a figure of speech may be used to indicate the value, such as that the notes would fill three football pitches or lined after each other would mean a road from here to there.

This though, is the reality of facts and the level of corruption we face. Trying to get our heads around it may be too much work. Avoiding the problem means we are making it ever more difficult to remove the scourge by refusing to accept that it is the only way for Malta to function.

Function is an interpretation. One we hoped the EU Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would help us to achieve. Omtzigt has done his very best and we owe him a great debt. How sad that in his opinion the level of progress remains unsatisfactory. It is an indictment on our nation, that we have failed to reach the right standard and continue to “function” with a broken spine.

Malta may still be in the EU, possibly because it was a source of income for the chosen few and provided the golden passport needed to present a surplus but we approach the end of 2020 far from where we thought we would be today.