Clearly there can be no argument with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s recent pronouncements on the ugly face of racism. Fresh from a massive electoral victory, he is riding the crest of a highly successful economy with a clear mandate from the people to remain on track at least as far as the economy is concerned. So it’s a little bewildering when he deliberately sets out to confuse the two issues of racism and illegal migration to Europe, a strategy not entirely without political risk.
There can be no question that the current rate of illegal migration from Africa to Europe is unsustainable and carries a proven nexus to tragic breaches of national security. The Prime Minister’s recent remarks were directed at the sea vessel C-Star. As far as is known the C-Star’s mission is to hinder or stop illegal migrants to Europe, the feed stock of organised crime specialising in lucrative people smuggling.
The main source of illegal migration to Europe is from all over Africa so we don’t need rocket science to prove the vast majority of migrants cannot be genuine refugees. They come from Sudan in the west to Zimbabwe in the East and Libya and Algeria in the north.
Not so long ago this government itself reacted strongly to uncontrolled arrivals of African illegal migrants in Malta, and demanded relief from Brussels. Now that the heat is off it seems it’s time to pick the holier-than-thou torch and mix the issues of illegal migration with racism.
In this context the Prime Minister is making self-serving incontestable statements which carry no political risk, given the repugnant nature of racism, while currying favour and attracting more plaudits from new bosom pal EU President Juncker and his merry band in Brussels who unabatedly, albeit surreptitiously, continue to widen and impose a radical doctrine of liberal socialism on those countries in Europe which like Malta are willing to surrender increasing national sovereignty in return for more public back- slapping and media exposure for their leaders.
Malta has so far been incredibly lucky. The main drivers of the economy are clearly a successful government policy in attracting new businesses and the burgeoning tourist industry which has perversely been given a significant fillip through terror attacks on most of Malta’s competing tourism resorts.
The tragedy which recently unfolded in Spain is another example of home grown Jihadists hell-bent on cutting off the hand which feeds them. It will do us no harm to reflect on similarities between Malta and Spain.
Both are predominantly Christian countries uncomfortably close to the African coast, both are host to millions of tourists mostly from Western countries, so it beggars belief that certainly the most electorally successful prime minister in Malta’s recent history pours scorn on a proven proactive policy of turning back illegal boats from northern Africa, a highly successful strategy employed by Australia which sits on the doorstep of the most populous Muslim country in the world and puts at risk this nation’s economy and security.
The Maltese family is now genderless at law. Likely to follow are deletions of any references to Christmas as Muslims and others may find it offensive
There are marked fundamental differences between racism and the exercise of a country’s sovereign rights over its borders. The issue of uncontrolled migration and Brussels’ unbridled mania to widen its regulatory grip over Europe has given rise to Brexit and has put question marks on the future EU membership of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
The sheer hypocrisy of pervasive radical left-wing liberal ideology emanating from Brussels is breathtaking and openly demonstrated by their policy towards the millions of refugees fleeing the Ukraine from civil war, a war fuelled by the EU itself having supported a coup against a democratically elected pro-Russian president who was not enamoured by the prospect of EU membership for Ukraine.
Almost three million refugees have fled the Ukraine. Despite strong synergies between the Ukraine and Europe in religious beliefs, mutuality of culture and language, the sight of genuine refugees trudging through snow- covered highlands or stowaways on trains or other forms of dodgy mechanical transport has apparently not been compelling enough to the mandarins at EU headquarters.
These unarguably bona fide refugees driven by Putin’s expansionary aggression are on the move unassisted by people smugglers as opposed to economic migrants posing as refugees but yet the optics are obviously not as evocatively fashionable and possibly their skin colour does not fit the self- bestowed and punctilious EU social consciousness as Africans in tatters bobbing on tyre tubes in the Mediterranean.
Despite the common faith we share with the Ukrainians, I very much doubt if the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta, frequently espousing dignity and human rights for African illegal migrants, has even heard of Donetsk or the many thousands of lives lost on the border with Russia.
The EU is threatening to take disciplinary action against Poland for its refusal to grant asylum to additional refugees from Africa at a time when Merkel’s Social Democrats are redefining their own criteria for granting illegal migrants political asylum.
Poland has chosen to give priority to Ukrainian refugees as in their view they were more likely to be assimilated into Polish communities and presented a lower security risk profile.
Poland has successfully absorbed over a million refugees from the Ukraine against a population of 38 million people. Conversely, Germany has accepted 150 Ukrainian refugees against a population of 83 million and a total of some one million African illegal migrants.
Perhaps that explains the multiple terrorist attacks in Germany by home-grown Jihadists over the last three years. Are we now experiencing a point in history where hand-wringing socialist liberals are so hell-bent on reversing the racial sins of the past that we are witnessing a deliberate policy of racial retribution which discriminates against fair skin, disadvantages Europe’s historic ties with Christianity and overtly pushes for cultural changes in the name of social progress but suspiciously based on their arrogant and misplaced self-belief in social righteousness.
The EU socialist liberalism embraced by the Prime Minister will no doubt result in further chiselling aspects of Maltese heritage we have held dear for centuries. The Maltese family is now genderless at law.
Likely to follow are deletions or changes of any references to Christmas as Muslims and others may find it offensive.
In parts of Christian Europe crucifixes are being removed from public places like schools, Sharia law is rapidly becoming more acceptable in countries such as Germany and Sweden and public references to our religious culture continues to come under siege while the rapid growth of Islam will be encouraged under the auspices of equal opportunity for all faiths.
Islam doesn’t need Jihadists with Brussels on its side. The UK has opted with its feet to maintain its traditional rights and culture and leave the EU, a momentous decision more for the EU than Britain, given the significant military vacuum this will exact on the EU at a time of open Russian expansionary ambitions.
Tony Trevisan is a businessman passionate about Maltese heritage issues.