One year after the Panama Papers and the ensuing corruption scandals, a general election has been precipitated. Whatever else is revealed, and whatever the spin, it is widely perceived that the government was unable to function normally with so many dark clouds hanging over its head. These finally broke out into a thunderstorm and the government is trying to run for shelter in the polling booth.
Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff Keith Schembri are facing very serious allegations, and in the midst of all this drama we are being asked to vote for them to stay in power and continue with business as usual. How can we be expected to decide in these circumstances?
The magistrate on the Egrant inquiry has reportedly requested details from banks in other countries. It is reckoned that this information will not be received by the beginning of June when the early election will be held. If this is the case, it means that we are not likely to have any answers before the election.
Voters cannot make up their minds objectively in this situation. If the election takes place before the inquiries are concluded, then people will be voting in the dark. The election is premature. The Prime Minister may be serene, as he claims, but voters are not.
The Panama election
During an election campaign, many votes are swayed by a mix of big and small stories. The smaller stories have a practical and tangible appeal – tax benefits, new grants and funds, new roads and holidays, child-care facilities, playgrounds, schools, and more. Many such promises are made at every election, by different political parties. Four social partners have just warned against election-driven populist ‘Christmas wish lists’. Governments are not Santa Claus and his little elves.
Voters cannot make up their minds objectively in this situation
The big stories, meanwhile, appeal more to the emotions and the imagination. During the last election campaign, we dreamed about the cancer factory, Alice in Wonderland and a gas power station. We imagined the demerger of Mepa and a green environment rising like a Phoenix from the ashes. We were promised that Arriva buses would be banished from the island forever. We shuddered at the fuel procurement scandal and that infamous tal-lira clock. We were intrigued by the idea of schoolchildren receiving free computer tablets. These were the big stories, promises and images of the last election campaign. Their momentum had been building up, block by block, for months before the 2013 election.
I could analyse the successes and controversies of each of those stories at some length. But let us look at the stories of this 2017 election campaign, here and now. The promised goodies are there as always, but what are the big, over-arching narratives? The dreams, hopes and fears?
So far, I see mainly one powerful, big story with momentum: the corruption scandals linked to the Panama Papers. Their outcome is huge and far-reaching. Their secretiveness bolsters the general sense of a lack of transparency in other government deals. If this international leak of hidden information had not occurred last year, we would be facing a very different political scenario in Malta. Perhaps we might not have had elections a year early, for a start.
The story is so big that the European Parliament’s PANA committee has just requested the Prime Minister to explain his position on some of these allegations, at a hearing to be held before the election. PANA noted that it is highly unusual for a country to hold elections during its EU presidency, and that this may not delay the European Parliament inquiry.
But like his right-hand-man Schembri before him, so far, Muscat is refusing to attend. This means that no answers before the election are likely to be had from that quarter either.
High-scrapers and tourists
I visited Tel Aviv last week, which has many modern skyscrapers. I was with a group of people of different nationalities, but nobody was in the least bit interested in these huge buildings, including a guide who called them ‘high-scrapers’. Everyone was much more enthralled by the remnants of older neighbourhoods and cultural heritage which survive in the city.
As we were walking along, somebody commented on the design of one of these skyscrapers. “Yes, I suppose it is ok,” said his friend, “but it could be anywhere.” And before long we left Tel Aviv and went to nearby Jaffa instead, with its rich heritage and historic centre which is a magnet for tourists. It also has plenty of apartment blocks but the focus is not on skyscrapers.
Very tall buildings create a completely different city atmosphere to ordinary apartments of medium height. Skyscrapers’ massive size is overpowering in the streets below, and their wide, concrete or paved surrounding spaces often seem anonymous and vacant.
The irony in Malta is that Sliema and St Julian’s are among our most popular tourist areas. Yet it is precisely these spots that are being transformed into skyscraper zones that could be anywhere, and which may actually put off visitors rather than attract them.
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