Our only way is up

Facing so many problems, the recent grey-listing of Malta may have already faded from the consciousness of many people

Many of us are not conversant with the world of high finance and beyond taking care of our bank accounts, if we have them, is beyond us.

The politicians, as they always do, engage in mutual diatribes, but that’s what they always do.

People try and scare by painting the darkest picture of the future, but we’ve been there many times. And we’re still here.

So we may let the issue slip to the backest of the back- burners as we try to cope with the more urgent tasks in our lives.

The world goes on, however, whether we like it or not and our new position at the bottom of the world’s pile make coping with everything much more difficult.

We are now considered as a rogue jurisdiction, just one step up from the very bottom, that of a failed state, just like Libya or like Lebanon. Our institutions will bear the consequences.

The grey-listing has shown us how the bigger countries, which we may have thought are our friends and allies have turned against us and punished us. The fact that the three most powerful jurisdictions in FATF were the prime movers in the decision shows a high level of intolerance in our regards.

We have lost our real sovereignty. But we must be warned: any action on our part to react against the decision, unless that goes in the direction of ‘virtue’, will open us to tremendous consequences.

I say this because I have already seen some urging the government to react against the greylisting by blocking the workings of the financial world, or the EU, by using the power of veto.

That would be, in my opinion, the height of lunacy. It will bring upon our heads the joint anger of the world. And we will have no other alternative but to bow down and conform. The more we struggle, the more the noose around our necks gets tighter.

Having said this, there is still room for manoeuvre if we play our cards right.

The developed world is moving ahead with plans to tax multinationals in places where they make their profits. There are still some EU member states that have not yet signalled their approval. Should Malta join this No front just to be on the No side or should it swing to the Yes side and earn some brownie points?

There are still large areas and countries that are opposed to the single rate of taxation. But can Malta sustain its very low tax on profits that should belong to other countries? Can Malta sustain its passport rules in the face of so much opposition?

When Malta joined the EU it was never its intention to become the EU’s rogue state. What happened since Accession shows up the weakness of the State, its fragility mainly to internal pressures that lose sight of the real national and European Union interests.

Having lost so much ground, there is still so much that Malta can do to regain its past standing and national humiliation does not come into it.

For better or for worse Malta has only cottage industries and no multinational as other countries have. So if it succeeds in getting the kinks straightened out, it faces no other battles. It can sit on the side and watch Ireland, the City of London, even mighty Germany, being battered by the G10.

This does not mean our problems have suddenly disappeared when there is still so much to do to put the economy back on an even keel but, as the saying goes, ‘the only way is up’.