Gozo Bishop is on the ball

The composition of current political discourse hardly ever changes. If it isn’t one rebellious Nationalist backbencher, it is another. And yet another.

If it isn’t the Labour Party charging that the Nationalist government is a spent force, it is high voices from the Nationalist Party itself saying that theirs is a house divided heading for ruin if it does not mend its ways.

Among the people, similar talk paused for a few days with the excitement of the European Cup leading to last night’s climax.

That will be discussed for a few more days, with more heat and passion than had Malta itself been a finalist. But pretty soon it will peter away and back to politics we’ll go.

The point is not simply that Malta has an excessive quota of politics and confrontation. It is that the recipe does not vary.

It had to be the Bishop of Gozo to introduce one of the subjects that have been conspicuously ignored despite the determined focus on politics. It relates to public morality, which – The Times reported on Saturday (June 30) – he addressed in a recent homily.

Mgr Mario Grech ventured in the public domain of politics in an area which, even within strict separation of state and Church, the Church has a right, even a duty, to express itself on since it does not do that to influence one side or another in partisan or polemical terms.

Mgr Grech summarised his message pithily. A sick public morality, he said, leads to malpractice and corruption of public administration.

The Bishop boldly urged political parties to strengthen public morality – a strong social framework could not be built without solid and ethical foundations.

He went to the heart of the clientelism nature of our public system. There are cases when what counts is whom you know, not what you know, he observed.

The Bishop pointed out the irony of there being those who are happy to maintain the status quo.

The citizenry were included in Mgr Grech’s broad sweep. Citizens had a moral obligation to abide by the law, he recalled. A just system was one that taxed those who earned more. Any form of tax evasion – such as collaborating to avoid paying VAT – was morally wrong. Similarly wrong were those who abused social services or sought to be boarded out with the help of false medical certificates.

More examples of a sick public morality were added. The idea of theft is narrow. Whoever does not turn up for work is stealing. Similarly, anyone unlawfully occupying public land.

It has been a long time since fiscal morality was brought to the fore of public discussion. There are passing references to tax evasion in Budget speeches but morality is rarely at the core of any discussion on fiscal affairs.

It remains to be seen, for instance, how firm the political parties will be in their political manifestos to illustrate how they will seriously clamp down on tax evasion. In the UK, the Conservative/Liberal coalition is focusing on that, even saying that blatant avoidance must be curtailed too. So is Italy.

It is an acknowledged fact that tax evasion remains rampant in Malta, though it might not equate to 26 per cent of GDP as suggested by the EU.

Any move to sustainable sound public finances has to have a more serious tax enforcement system at its core. Growth is not enough, if a chunk of the gain is in the submerged black economy.

I wonder whether Bishop Grech’s lead will be followed by the clergy in their homilies in our towns and villages. It should. Though church attendance has dropped, good homilies still attract deep reflection.

Mgr Grech dug deeply in his homily about public morality. He said it also affected institutions, questioning what standards the media, banks, hospitals and sport organisations adhered to.

He also raised the issue of precarious work, of which there are more than light signs in our economy, even if in certain cases workers failed to speak out about their trampled rights for fear of losing their jobs.

A strong homily indeed, with maximum relevance to the pre­vailing state of affairs.

It should be followed by action, both by public authorities, the political parties and the citizenry.