When an island claims to be a hub for attracting foreign investment, claims to be a progressive country and when an  MEP candidate claims that  “Joseph Muscat’s new political approach has truly placed Malta among the best within European circles”… one cannot help but imagine to be living in a cosmopolitan city which embraces diversity and above all respects all taxpaying residents equally.

Yet a visit to Mater Dei by an expat friend of mine recently,  revealed a very different reality, which shocked me to the core.

After months of waiting for her appointment day to arrive, she made her way from Gozo to Mater Dei. The routine check she was scheduled to have is not available in Gozo. When she arrived, in time, for the appointment she was greeted by an administration clerk who directed her to  the billing section before proceeding to the clinic she was due to visit.

Arriving at the billing section she was greeted by a long-standing queue of around 30 people waiting to be served by just two clerks. As her appointment time was nearing, she politely asked if there was a specific window or queue addressing issues for people who were waiting for a clearance prior to a scheduled appointment.

Her question was met with a mix of hostility from some locals and approval from others. A local shouted at her and told her to just shut up and stand in the queue just like anybody else.  The security guard approached her and told her to stand in the queue and advised her that there was no such thing as a priority queue in place, so she had to wait just behind the other 30 people.

The saga continued as she made it to the window, served by an office clerk who asked for a social security proof of payment. As she obliged and presented a stamped document given to her by the Inland Revenue in Gozo, the clerk smirked at her and serenely told her that the document was not valid.

As she tried to explain to him that due to a system failure back in Gozo, she was handed a manually-signed and stamped receipt, the Mater Dei clerk dismissed the evidence maintaining that the document was not acceptable.

 She asked him to call Gozo Inland Revenue to verify the veracity of her words, yet the clerk replied that such things are not possible as the Gozo branch is not the same as the Malta branch and that he had no time to deal with such issues.

In the meantime as the lady’s frustration mounted, the clerk threatened to call security to have her removed from the office. The woman tried again to explain to the clerk, that she was coming all the way from Gozo for an appointment scheduled months before and that if she lost it, she would need another six months to have another one. It would mean that her long journey to Malta would have just been a complete waste of precious time taken off from work.

She felt hurt and sad that the island she once dreamed of becoming her retirement destination, ended to become a living hell

Eventually the clerk admitted the document and the lady proceeded to her appointed room where she was greeted by some of the most gentile nurses who, as soon as realising that she was already highly worked up and feeling rather afraid in a hostile, foreign hospital, they calmed her down attending to her every need and supporting her.

The doctor visiting her was remarkably polite and respectful and in confidence told her that she was better off having the check done in Malta than in Gozo.

The visit ended and she left to come back to what has been her home for many years as a taxpaying resident, contributing to the local economy and cultural aspect of Gozo. 

She felt hurt and sad that the island she once dreamed of becoming her retirement destination, ended becoming a living hell, administered by people who have been evidently put in their jobs for reasons other than their mastery at customer support. Disappointed and confused, she called me and shared with me her experience in the hope of telling her story.

I obliged and here I am writing about it as I feel ashamed of my country and of the way how some of us locals, seem to still retain anger and anguish at foreigners and consider them invaders.

I simply cannot understand this mentality, which shows such a remarkable sense of arrogance in the face of those who have been keeping our country economically together and who have been, in many ways, taking care of matters which to us have had no significance for so many decades.

As I see the enthusiasm by which so many expats contribute to our environment, animal welfare and cultural heritage, both professionally as well as voluntarily, I simply find it abominable that some of us are still thinking of a revenge against the colonial occupiers and persist in telling the “foreigners” to mind their own business and leave the country if they don’t like what they see.

I can already see the comments claiming that such an incident is isolated and not a general rule but the exception. This is not the case. Verbal abuse to expats is on the increase and from what I am being told, this is the norm and not the exception. I have personally witnessed similar situations in other government departments both in Malta and in Gozo.

All this is happening at a time when the present administration is flaunting itself as being the most progressive and liberal government this country has ever had. A government with an immigration policy to add 13,000 foreign workers on an annual basis.  An administration striving on making Malta and Gozo a cosmopolitan society based on multi-cultural integration. 

Ironically the same administration, which will be broadcasting Ġensna on March 31, retelling all that foreigners are guests and that they should be eternally grateful to us  for “allowing” them in.

The patronising “rock” opera which by today’s standards is outdated and irrelevant and which only serves to open wide the scars of a political past as purposely proposed by Dom Mintoff.

The very same person who wanted Malta to be fully integrated with Britain.

Steve Pace is a strategic thinker.