Why are tourists allowed to stroll along promenades bare-chested? Why are motorcyclists allowed to drive their bikes at high speed, polluting the environment with their exhaust and unbearable noise, at any time of the day? Why are construction sites sprouting all over the island without any restraints? Why? Why? Why?

The list is endless. There seems to be only one obvious answer. “We live in a free country.”

But is this the type of society we want to live in? Is this what we fought for when we gained our independence, became a Republic and joined the European Union? Is this what we mean by being sovereign? Does being sovereign mean having a laissez-faire attitude without any ethical principles to abide by? Without being concerned about the well-being of other citizens?

Why are we measuring progress and success only in economic terms? We are becoming enslaved to market forces and allowing them to estrange us from our own dignity and identity. We are succumbing to the false neoliberal ideology that economics has no need of morality, that “the business of business is business”. We are looking only at the short-term maximisation of profit.

We are becoming an amoral society. The approval of the db Group project at St George’s Bay by the Planning Authority, in spite of it being opposed by more than 4,000 citizens, local councils and NGOs, is a clear proof of this.

We need to take the bull by the horns and vehemently oppose the market fundamentalism that is eroding our society with the result of the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer.

Let business be at the service of society and not regulate the way we should live

St John Paul II, in 1999, around two decades ago, had already attacked the ideology of neoliberalism, in an apostolic exhortation addressed to Catholics in America, when he stated that it was “based on a purely economic concept of man”. The Pontiff had insisted that it is a system “which considers profit and the law of the market as its only parameters, to the detriment of the dignity of and the respect due to individuals and peoples”.

He continued by stating that, “At times this system has become the ideological justification for certain attitudes and behaviour in the social and political spheres leading to the neglect of the weaker members of society.”

To be able to judge whether our society is really progressing on the human and social level we need to ask some pertinent questions concerning our society. How are we treating the elderly and weakest members of our society? Do they feel cared and included? We need to find out why disparaging comments are passed on other fellow citizens who are of a different colour, race or creed. How are we dealing with the asylum seekers who are shipwrecked on our island? Why are a great number of foreign workers, needed to help our economy grow, being offered precarious work and paid less than their Maltese counterparts?

Such questions need to be addressed if we really want to gauge whether our society is catering for the needs of all strata.

The government of the day has a duty to promote the common good and regulate where necessary in order to see that no one is excluded from the benefits that our society is reaping. Unless the State has a social conscience and is able to feel the pulse of all its citizens, especially the least, the lost and the left out, it cannot sincerely brag that because its economy is strong, society is doing well.

Unfortunately, many citizens are being motivated by self-interest and we are gradually becoming an ego-centric society. The fact that today, when we are supposed to be living in ‘the best of times’, the party in Opposition felt the need to have as its slogan for the Independence celebrations ‘The Need of a Caring Society’, shows how less altruistic our society has become.

Let business be at the service of society and not regulate the way we should live. How degrading was the statement of the Malta Developers Association president, Sandro Chetcuti, when, lately, he blatantly said that the country shouldn’t stop moving forward just because a few would be left behind! Economic progress should not be at all costs – even at the detriment of the weakest in our society.

 Let us instil in all those involved in turning the economic wheel a sense of morality. All economic actors should not only reason whether what is being done is legally correct but also whether it is ethically right. Let the only principles that guide our actions be the dignity of the human person and the good of society as a whole.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece