Grech or Abela and Malta

The media have reported that Prime Minister Robert Abela told the Police to investigate Vince Muscat’s claim that one of his Ministers is linked to a “big job”. Now this raises a number of questions.

First question. That the Prime Minister tells the Police to investigate means that there are times when the Prime Minister tells the Police not to investigate? I might be naïve, but it seems to me that Joseph Muscat might have chosen this very course of action when it came to Keith Schembri. So now the question becomes: has this presumed practice been carried forward by Dr Abela as a Prime Minister inspired by “continuity”?

Second question. What are the legal implications if a Prime Minister tells the Police not to investigate? What are the legal implications if a Prime Minister removes a Police Commissioner who wants to investigate and/or take legal action?

Third question. Hadn’t Vince Muscat, il-Koħħu, already asked for a presidential pardon in exchange for all he knew? Why didn’t Robert Abela and his Cabinet accede to il-Koħħu’s request a few months ago?

Fourth question. Isn’t it evident that there is a clear conflict of interest? If indeed one of the members of the current Cabinet was involved in a “big job” and he/she can be identified by il-Koħħu, isn’t it obvious that there is a humongous conflict of interest? How can the Cabinet decide on a pardon that’s predicated on one of its members being identified as an accomplice to a serious crime?

Fifth question. Why doesn’t the President of the Republic have residual powers to intervene and take the bull by the horns?

In this quagmire, there are two considerations to make.

One, the enormous price being paid by the country in terms of credibility.

We are a microstate – perhaps only as big as a medium-sized city in larger countries. This necessarily means that our international partners always have that nagging doubt whether we can live up to the responsibilities and obligations of a fully-fledged nation-state. When our institutions fail to work because the people involved essentially lack the requisite integrity, we confirm the suspicion our international partners probably have: that we are incapable of forming part of the international community of nations as a sovereign nation that can manage its own State. This is in essence the situation we are in.

Given that in the present times, the non-consensual annexation of territories is a powerful taboo, it means that our territorial integrity will not be jeopardised. But it necessarily means that what will be jeopardised is our international standing. We will be marginalised in international affairs and regarded as an international relations joke. The hard work done over the years – from the moment Malta championed the Common Heritage of Mankind idea back in the 1960s onward – will be dissolved in the acid of greed and mindless recklessness.

Two, the alternative offered by Bernard Grech and the Nationalists.

You can indeed say that the Nationalists are tainted with their own misdeeds of the past (as Dr Abela said in Parliament). And, yes, nobody is saying that the Nationalists are saints. But – and this is an important “but” – there is a huge difference between erring and being complicit in crime. To err is human – the Nationalists erred in the past, and this is human. Even former Prime Minister Fenech Adami apologised for his shortcomings at the end of his political career. That was an admission that, being human and not demigods, politicians can and do err. This happens in tiny Malta and in other, huge countries. But complicity in crime is something else altogether. Complicity in crime implies a complete lack of personal integrity.

Bernard Grech is offering the alternative of personal integrity.

If you analyse Dr Grech closely and attentively, you’ll find that he’s not afflicted by the Messiah complex that seriously afflicted Joseph Muscat. Neither is he compromised by a concealed pact with the Devil as Robert Abela induces us to surmise. Bernard Grech constantly demonstrates a highly developed sense of personal integrity. And personal integrity is what the country desperately needs at this moment of its existence.

Recent surveys have shown that there is an increasing number of Labourites who are deeply disappointed with the moral integrity of the current government. Their personal integrity might be guiding them to decide that Country should come before Party. This will not be an easy journey for them, but, as responsible citizens of this country, they are in duty bound to undertake it.

For the country, themselves, and their children.

The pandemic and demographics

Bloomberg has recently reported that “Major economies from Italy to Singapore, already afflicted by dire demographics, are seeing that phenomenon accelerate after measures limiting social contacts and the worst growth crisis in generations combined to prevent or dissuade people from having babies.”

It quoted HSBC Holdings Plc economist James Pomeroy saying that, “The longer and more severe the recession, the steeper the fall in birth rates, and the more likely it is that a fall in birth rates becomes a permanent change in family planning.” If his forecasts pan out, “it’s going to lower potential growth rates and it makes high levels of debt less sustainable in the long term.”

While these concerns are being publicly shared about the falling fertility of the human species, between 2015 and 2019 almost 300 million pregnancies were wilfully terminated around the world. It seems rational and obvious to me that the current global abortionfriendly culture has to change if the world doesn’t want to face extremely harsh economic consequences in the not-too-distant future.

Why should this concern us Maltese? Because Malta’s is an incredibly open economy – Malta’s own prosperity depends on world-wide prosperity.

In this unfolding scenario of a shrinking world population by mid-century, how much does it make sense to maintain current levels of international pressure for more access to abortion? In this scenario, the world needs a determined pro-life stance, otherwise we and our children (those who are not aborted of course) are going to find ourselves in dire straits. There won’t be enough workers to repay the debts and to pay the taxes that sustain our pensions.

On the other part of the world, in abortion-friendly New Zealand, the government has legislated bereavement leave for parents who experience a miscarriage or a stillbirth. This is laudable. What’s even more laudable is that they did not extend the same privilege to mothers who abort. The Guardian reported a New Zealand Labour MP saying that this distinction made her “personally uncomfortable”. I think the time has come to stop this cynical and immature leftist radical liberalism that allows – out of misguided compassion – women to kill their own offspring. Instead, the time has come to start working for a global pro-life culture.

Our little country should be on the forefront of such efforts, raising its voice in international fora. But the Government is shackled by commitments to certain lobbies that want the legalisation of prostitution as business and as a normal career choice and the introduction of abortion on demand. Moreover, the Government is bogged down by its time- and energy-consuming defence against accusations of credibilitydemolishing ties to criminals.

African optimism

Ghana’s President Nana AkufoAddo is trying something new: transforming his country (and perhaps the rest of West Africa) from a raw-material exporter to a value-added producer. He has made declarations in this sense recently in Switzerland and in the presence of the President of the French Republic.

If Mr Akufo-Addo succeeds – not only in attaining the desired level of quality in his country’s products but also in finding adequate distributorship networks – then this might be a game changer.

A quick note on Mr Akufo-Addo. Our Ministers have a lot to learn from him: not only his courageous vision but also his beautiful English pronunciation. One of the not-so-many in Malta who has a good English pronunciation is the Archbishop.

Malta needs to upgrade its use of English, from a practical working knowledge to real mastery. À propos of which, the English used by so-called journalists like Salvu Balzan and his sidekick Matthew Vella is the kind of English you should assiduously avoid.

Ian Borg

I have criticised Minister Borg a lot in the past. I will criticise him again for the butchery he’s perpetrating in his native Ħad-Dingli, where his ministry has been removing ancient trees and obliterating arable land to make way for more roads. What a fixation! Are these new roads really necessary?

On the other hand, I want to congratulate him for removing those wrecks from the Marsa part of the Grand Harbour. Well done, Minister! But: (1) you should have done it before and (2) you should apply the same approach to other projects – clean up (the dirty environment) not clean off (trees and fields). Trees and fields are not encumbrances to be removed, but part of the national heritage to be conserved.

Minister Borg needs to embrace a civilised (as opposed to barbaric) philosophy. His Cabinet colleagues should tell him as much, given the notion of collegial responsibility.