As the country headed for elections last Saturday to choose six MEPs and local councillors in 68 localities, public opinion surveys were giving a good lead to the Labour Party and an even larger lead to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat over Opposition leader Adrian Delia.
Delia has been facing an uphill struggle ever since 18 months ago he took over the leadership of a demoralised Nationalist Party reeling from the impact of two consecutive disastrous electoral defeats. Moreover, the party has been divided within itself, with a substantial number of its members showing reluctance to accept Delia as their leader.
The electorate seems to be showing a greater interest in the personalities of the party leaders than the parties they represent. This could well be the reason why Muscat decided to exploit his popularity by building his party’s campaign on a contest between himself and Delia and give secondary importance to the candidates contesting the elections on the party’s ticket. He seemed confident that this would enable his party to seal a more comfortable victory.
Delia has, however, proved himself to be more resilient than many had thought. Despite all obstacles, he has challenged Muscat for a televised debate several times since he took office as leader of the Opposition, with the latter shying away and only accepting to face him for the first time during the European Parliament election campaign.
During the debate, Muscat came out with his political gaffe that foreign workers should be the ones breaking their backs working in the sun, picking up the rubbish in the streets and carrying out other unskilled jobs. Muscat’s denigrating comments have angered anyone with a pinch of respect for human dignity and reflect the streetwise populism that he has become renowned for.
As immediately pointed out by Delia, Muscat had shown himself in favour of a classist system.
Muscat’s comments remove any doubt, if there were any, that he is bereft of the key ethical socialist principle of equality and non-discrimination that has to do with treating others in ways that one would not like to be treated.
Muscat and his carefully selected courtiers have transformed what was once a workers’ party into a soulless political machine. In their pursuit for power they have brushed aside their moral and ethical obligations towards those most in need and instead concentrated on improving the financial well-being of their own political clique and also rewarding those who are loyal to them.
Muscat has rendered the Labour Party unrecognisable from the socialist party that it once was, making its name a misnomer if ever there was one.
He has ignored the common interest and instead served the wealthy through shady privatisation deals that are rapidly transforming the country into a capitalist one.
Prime public land has been outrightly given for a pittance to powerful property entrepreneurs and other business operators.
Jordanian building construction company Sadeen Group, for example, was given 90,000 square metres outside development zone land near Żonqor Point in Marsascala to build the American University of Malta.
In St George’s Bay, 24,000 square metres of land were given to the db Group while the whole of St George’s Bay peninsula was given to Corinthia Group for commercial speculation purposes.
The Prime Minister has also pushed forward other suspicious deals that were not in the national interest. One of these concerned the €2-billion concession that was awarded secretly to Vitals Global Health Care to run three State hospitals, despite the company having no previous record in the provision of health services anywhere and the hidden identity of the company’s beneficial owners.
The government also signed a €320-million deal with Shanghai Power Co. Ltd, under the pretext that the State could not afford to pay for the conversion of the BWSC plant to gas. This deal enabled the Chinese state-owned firm to acquire a 33 per cent stake in Enemalta and effectively take control of the power station.
The Prime Minister turns a blind eye to injustices committed by his government against the ordinary citizen, yet, he still manages to retain popular support
There was also the deal with ElectroGas Malta Ltd to build a new gas-fired power plant in Delimara and provide electricity and gas to Enemalta for a period of 18 years. This deal was signed behind closed doors by Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi in May 2014 and it secured the company revenues of €3.9 billion.
It was afterwards discovered that an ElectroGas investor, Tumas Group CEO Yorgen Fenech, is the owner of a Dubai-based company called 17 Black, which, it had also transpired, would pass on substantial amounts of money to the Panama companies of Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. Each of them was set to receive €5,000 daily into his Panama company from 17 Black and another Dubai-based company called Macbridge.
State-run Azerbaijani oil and gas company Socar Trading SA was given 20 per cent of the multi-million euro tender awarded to ElectroGas to build the power plant, an equal shareholding in ElectroGas with two other partners and the exclusive right to supply electricity and natural gas to Enemalta for 18 years.
Muscat has sown the seeds of division and reinforced the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ mentality during the time he has been Prime Minister.
He has not only differentiated between Maltese and foreign workers but also between Maltese workers themselves. His style of government runs diametrically opposite his pre-electoral promises to eradicate tribal politics and create a fair and inclusive society free of cliques.
Muscat has unconditionally defended the multitude of unmerited jobs, promotions and public contracts that have been literally showered upon Labour cronies. His own office has been overflowed with so-called persons of trust engaged without a public call for applications, with their number exceeding that permitted by more than three times.
The ministerial code of ethics has been bent, misused or broken. Several advisers over and above the maximum permitted have been employed in the various ministries, many of whom are former Labour MPs or unelected Labour candidates.
It can well be said that this is L-aqwa żmien (the best of times) for these handpicked advisers who receive generous financial packages, with some running into six figures. Other suspicious public contracts running into hundreds of thousands of euros are also often dished out by direct order to the same individuals to provide other services to the government, often without the details of the services rendered or remuneration given being released.
Muscat likes to show his generosity upon his friends but does not do it by digging into his pocket.
Muscat’s politics of tribalism have become manifest by his disregard to appeals made by the Ombudsman to correct injustices resulting from a vitiated selection processes.
In one of these cases, the Ombudsman found that an unprofessional selection process was conducted in 2013 for the purpose of effecting promotions in the Armed Forces of Malta. The advisory board conducting the process was chosen by former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia and consisted mainly of political appointees from his own secretariat who were not cognisant with the army regulation.
The Ombudsman stated that the process was tailor-made to achieve a pre-ordained result and it improperly favoured the chosen applicants and discriminated against all other applicants denying a number of them a merited promotion. He also considered the number of promotions given to have exceeded the vacancies warranted.
Another case raised by the Ombudsman concerned discrimination in promotions to the position of senior principal in the public service.
Here the Public Service Commission has a heavy burden of responsibility to carry since, following the intervention of the Office of the Prime Minister, it arbitrarily lowered the pass mark of the general ability test from 70 to 65 per cent, notwithstanding the fact that the test had already been held and results were published.
This enabled applicants who had failed to obtain the 70 per cent original pass mark to get promoted anyway after undertaking an interview. At the same time, candidates who obtained the 70 per cent pass mark or higher were denied promotion.
The Prime Minister turns a blind eye to injustices committed by his government against the ordinary citizen. Yet, he has proved himself shrewd enough to maintain popular support through a panem et circenses strategy, coupled with his distraction skills and evasive actions – never giving a straight answer – that have earned him the title of ‘The artful dodger of Europe’.
As the country went to the polls last Saturday, the government continued to make exhaustive use of its power of incumbency to meet the needs and desires of the general populace, naturally taking care to place those individuals close to the Labour Party first.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director (industrial and employment relations) in the Ministry for Health.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece