Sometimes, when the Prime Minister is away, he manages to put things into focus, in ways he rarely does at home.
At an academic talk at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Joseph Muscat spoke of his government’s so-called progressive policy that is aimed to achieve “radical social reform”.
We do not know exactly what he said, because the Department of Information only came up with a synopsis but he seemed to emphasise the social dimension of his economic policy. He was referring, of course, to the government’s social measures but then he meandered off into civil liberties and said there had been a thirst for change, for a society that was more open and equal.
There was no avoiding mentioning the introduction of gay marriage, adding ominously that the government was consulting civil society and experts on decriminalising marijuana and regularising prostitution, making it sound like it was ‘progressive’ to do so.
The biggest social reform in this country’s recent history was not the work of any government but the result of European Union membership, which Dr Muscat opposed. It was EU membership that opened the country to the world, with both positive and negative results. The Prime Minister called that “globalisation”, which, in a way, it is too. He said that one in six workers in Malta was a foreigner, though he did not go into the social impact this influx is having on society.
One can understand that the Prime Minister would do his best, when abroad, to paint his country in the best possible light. It is the right thing to do. Yet, back home the situation is very different from how he portrays it.
What Dr Muscat calls progressive policy is often the very opposite. His government’s control of practically all the country’s institutions, with the collateral failure in good governance, is not progressive but feudal. When a Prime Minister writes off a green area in Marsascala to attract a so-called university, it comes across as immensely totalitarian, a flashback to the Dom Mintoff style of doing politics.
The country is treated like a fiefdom, not much better than when it was a colony.
The same governing framework, of hands-on direct government control or patronage, applies to most of the other economic initiatives taking place in the country. The building sector is out of control and in overdrive and the government will not stand in its way. It is complemented by the sale of Malta passports and the promise of some rich oligarch coming over with a luggage full of cash. Of course, none of that has happened. It was just a throwback to when the country welcomed British retirees to come and live on an island in the sun. That was not progressive, it was colonial.
Dr Muscat may delude himself into thinking that his policies are progressive, in the same way his predecessor, Mr Mintoff, thought he was being progressive when he actually changed the country into an oppressive State.
Dr Muscat thinks his social policy complements the feudal capitalism that he will be remembered for. But society is paying the price for his policies. The social structures are crumbling. Money in the pocket can never replace social values that once made this country a safe and joyful place to live in.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial