The era of the barunijiet is over. Welcome to the era of the big-moneyed bullies. Before the 1996 general election campaign Alfred Sant very ably came up with two metaphors which caught the people’s imagination so much that they became part of everyday parlance: barunijiet (barons) and ċittadin (citizen).
The contrast was fantastic. Ċittadin emphasised the individual and his or her rights. It unconsciously brought up images of the French Revolution with its emphasis on the ċittadin’s rights for liberty, fraternity and equality against the power of the nobility. On the opposite side of the spectrum there were the barunijiet. The images tapped by this metaphor were those of the evil barons against whom Robin Hood so ably fought to defend the ċittadin.
In the run up to those elections barunijet referred mainly to big developers and families of mega-businessmen who abused their position of strength to do what they wanted by ignoring laws and regulations for their financial gain.
Sant wisely tapped both a negative and a positive stream of our national psyche: envy and moral indignation. People are envious of the riches that others have but they don’t have but would like to have. Expressing this envy publicly is not socially acceptable unless it is wrapped in the mantle of moral indignation. One is angry not because one is envious but because it is a moral duty to condemn ill-gotten riches.
Sant scored the electoral jackpot, but did he eliminate the evil barons? One can excuse him for not succeeding as his exit from Castile was quicker than his entry.
In the following years the barunijiet got fatter but their gluttony proved to be insatiable. They always came back for more and more. A number of things happened that prevented them from making pigs of themselves (apologies to pigs) a million times over. Mepa, for example, got in the way, more than they wished.
A strategy to do away with Mepa was not too difficult to come by because Mepa also got in the way of the common ċittadin thus becoming public enemy number one. The situation was made worse as within Mepa there was also corruption and, many say, a strategy orchestrated by the Labour Party for Mepa to continuously needle the ċittadin who in turn hated the government for all this.
The Church should now be on guard not to undermine its strong words by weak actions such as accepting donations and contributions from these moneyed-bullies
Once more the strategy used two streams of our common unconscious. The negative one – we hate being regulated – was sublimated in the positive stream: Mepa is giving in to much to the barunijiet. Ironically the strategy aimed at strengthening the barunijiet.
This provided the ideal scenario for an alliance between politicians and barunijiet. Under the terms of this alliance, Robin Hood hunts with or for the barunijiet and not against them. With Robin Hood on their side, the barunijiet now became unstoppable and voracious bullies. As a result of this deal, the politician got votes besides hefty contributions for the electoral campaign. The big-moneyed bullies got a system which lets them get away with environmental murder at our expense.
Since the pin-striped moneyed bullies knew that no system is permanent they wanted things to be done quickly to be able to make as much hay as possible while the sun still shines. Mepa was weakened immediately after the election and demolished some time later.
Instead two authorities, one responsible for planning and another one for the environment, were set up. Fortunately the eNGOs saw through the government’s doublespeak which promised better safeguarding of the environment but was doing exactly the opposite. The Church’s Environment Commission, for example, had described the exercise as a collapse in governance in the area of planning and the environment adding that the structures set up had no teeth and not even a jaw.
Events proved it right.
The construction of the power station – still a work-in-progress months after the overshooting of several deadlines – is an example of what happens when Robin Hood hunts for the bullies. This power station is being constructed for the gratification of private greed not for the fulfilment of public need.
The permit given recently for the construction of four huge skyscrapers in Mrieħel and another one in Sliema is further proof that under this system we are the losers while the big-moneyed bullies are the winners.
Robin Hood now takes away what lawfully belongs to common, decent folks to line the bullies’ pockets with gold. They are getting richer at our expense. They are pillaging our environment.
■ The Church in Malta spurred on by Pope Francis’s encyclical letter on the safeguarding of the environment, Laudato Si’, has been very active in its condemnation of the most recent outrage against the environment.
The parish priests of the four parishes of Sliema and the parish priest of Balluta in a statement showed their concern at the alarming speed with which their localities are being degraded at the expense of the common person (iż-żgħir) and for the benefit of the minority who wield economic and financial power.
The Environment Commission said that the decisions in favour of mega-towers at Mrieħel and Sliema show that the common good is not receiving the priority it deserves. It added that the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) led itself to be taken in by the developers’ confidence game.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna in an opinion piece for The Malta Independent on Sunday (August 15) wrote: “Shame on the Planning Authority… Shame on the government authorities.” He asked: “Who will defend us from those who took the solemn oath to defend the common good without fear or favour?”
The Church should now be on guard not to undermine its strong words by weak actions such as accepting donations and contributions from these moneyed bullies. The members of the Sanhedrin had refused to touch Judas’ tainted money. The moral standing of the Church in Malta is surely much higher than that of the Sanhedrin; therefore it should more vehemently refuse to touch dirty money.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt