Tag: accountability

Categories
Articles

Whispering a revolution

This article first appeared on the Shift news.

In May 2017 I co-founded a group called the Advocates for the Rule of Law. We took out a full-page advert on The Times of Malta in which we announced vacancies for the proper functioning of democracy. That was the beginning of a brief campaign in which we raised the alarm that the backsliding of the Rule of Law in Malta had taken a fast turn.

The Rule of Law as a concept is hard to sell. Harder still when all the signs of backsliding are happening at a time when the nation is buoyed by a false sense of confidence, itself boosted by the income from questionable economic policies.

It is even harder when you factor in the tribal rivalries, antipathies and mutual mistrust that pervade the socio-political scene. Attribution of ulterior motive to any criticism is just one aspect of the strong counter-information propaganda machines.

Sadly, we did not manage to get our message across. The majority opted to confirm the status quo. The scenes of hundreds of government supporters celebrating on the doorsteps of Pilatus Bank right after the election results were symbolic of the failure to get the people to understand what the backsliding of the rule of law was about.

You cannot start a revolution so long as the main victims of the status quo remain oblivious to its consequences. All change begins with grievances that are first thought in silence (and fear) and then whispered gradually in the streets and in the markets.

So long as these grievances are not felt, all explanations concerning backsliding remain technical. So long as the overwhelming partisan sentiment is exploited in an ‘Us vs Them’ rhetoric then discussions on the need for change remain technical.

The rotten State

The ulcer grew into a tumour at an astounding rate, despite the blatant unmeritocratic nominations to ‘positions of trust’ and despite the increasing suspicion in major deals on hospitals, the power station, and property transactions contracted without any effort of accountability and transparency.

It got worse despite the increasing amount of information patiently collected by the part of the Fourth Estate that still functions – those journalists and investigators picking up where the captured authorities failed. It got worse despite the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The alarm bells remained silent.

A culture of fear had been instilled in a segment of the population – fear from retribution. Where there was no fear there was confusion. The official opposition was in tatters – it, too, a victim of institutional capture.

This is not a partisan call. It is a call across society to win back what is ours

The heritage that the PN carries is one of perennially closing an eye to the warning signs that the system off which it feeds is sick and damaging the nation. Even the most rebellious elements within the PN still fail to understand that the change needed includes a ‘partisan-ectomy – the PN itself must ‘die’.

The last years of institutional erosion have been characterised by a weak system finally submitting to the ultimate abuse. The Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary became the playground for an all-out assault on democratic functionality.

All the while, the last vestiges of possible watchdog activity were being silenced – first clumsily with a flurry of libel activity then brutally with a brutal assassination.

The law courts became the battleground where fake news and propaganda met institutional inadequacy. The police force and all other investigators were effectively neutered by heightened political intervention. Long-drawn libel suits extended a lifeline of superficial credibility to government positions. We are only now seeing the futility of the exercise as suit after suit is dropped.

The penny began to drop.

Magisterial inquiries are bandied about in a protracted game of inconclusiveness. Muscat’s government has not had one clear judgment in its favour – only a series of dropped libel cases, stalled inquiries and unpublished results.

We have only just begun to scratch the surface of the Vitals deal, the Electrogas deal, the Panama Papers data (including the slippery eel that is Egrant) and more, much more. Every public contract needs to be scrutinised – yet with institutional meltdown, this becomes an impossible task. Or not.

‘Talkin’ bout a revolution’

This brings me back to the whispers on the streets. The streets are where change can begin to happen. The same streets that voted in huge numbers in 2013 to bring about a change for the better against what was finally perceived as a rotting administration.

The same streets are slowly waking up to the dark reality that they have been lied to. That the ‘Best of Times’ is a lie. The message that we tried to relay three years ago is now writing itself.

Fulfilling Tracy Chapman’s words, the whispers of revolution are out on the street. There is only so far that people can accept to be deceived. It is the people who must now take the lead – demand what is theirs. This is not a partisan call. It is a call across society to win back what is ours.

The divide is between those who have the nation at heart and those who are tied to the slippery race for power and money

No amount of technical explanation will be better than the real tangible experiences of life. As Immanuel Mifsud puts it in L-Aqwa Zmien (my translation):

“When the last echoes of a politician’s emotional speech dwindle into nothing; when the marathon programmes close; when the last ever-rising graph stops and the financial expert has the last smile… somewhere, someone will be closing the garage door to fall asleep; someone will have to leave his home; someone else begins to be abused; and there will be someone who is losing his life uselessly.” .

Last week’s peaceful protests in Valletta were another step in this struggle. Parliamentarians of goodwill, who hold the interest of the people at heart, would do well to follow this call. There are no longer any Nationalist or Labour politicians – the divide is between those who have the nation at heart and those who are tied to the slippery race for power and money.

Categories
Mediawatch

Manuel Mallia’s Rule-By-Law

 

Speaking in parliament last night, ex-Minister Manuel Mallia took a swipe at whoever had anything to do with the leaking FIAU documents. In a scene befitting pre-1989 East Germany, Mallia told parliament that the leaker of the report as well as anybody having access to it (including the PN) should be prosecuted because they are guilty of a crime having violated the confidentiality of said documents. “The documents of the FIAU needed to be kept secret because the unit’s investigations were sensitive and disclosure of information would undermine those very investigations”, Dr Mallia said.

What we have here is a clear example of “rule-by-law” where the strict letter of the law is used to silent dissent and to annihilate any possible means of rendering the powers that be accountable. Manuel Mallia’s threats, for threats they are, do not come in a vacuum. They must be put in the context of the dismissal of former FIAU official Jonathan Ferris and of the FIAU Head of Compliance. They must be put in the context of the admission by most of the national press that they have been forced to revise archived reports under threat of expensive litigation. This must also be put in context of the lack of collaboration reported by the European Parliament PANA committee

In any other context but this, this matter would be considered as Whistleblower territory. In any other context the content of the leaked document would be of much graver concern, the consequences of the failure to act upon the content of such documents would be the focus of a responsible government. This is not another context. This is Malta of L-Aqwa Zmien – rule by law is misconstrued as rule of law, anything in the power of government to hide, to shut down criticism, to avoid proper scrutiny, to annihilate any dissonant narrative is fair game.

We are living in a time of Rule-By-Law. This is also why the calls for a return to a system of rule of law are being made.  In contrast to rule-by-law (rule by means of norms enacted through a correct legal procedure or issued by a public authority), Rule of Law implies also the safeguarding of fundamental rights and freedoms – norms which render the law binding not simply because it is procedurally correct but enshrines justice. It is the Rule of Law, thus understood, that provides legitimacy to public authority in liberal democracies.

Meanwhile Manuel Mallia’s witch-hunt had better expand internationally: Green MEP Sven Giegold’s website contains a link to leaked FIAU documents.

 

Categories
Politics

Labour’s Impropriety

impropriety_akkuza

The Taghna Lkoll apologists are beginning to cut quite a sorry figure during their online interventions. Their attempts to parrot the tu quoque arguments championed by their leader have become pathetic to say the least and the main reason is that this government’s actions all round have become indefensible. That this would happen was predictable from the start – too many cheques to cash, too many contradicting promises, too many mouths to feed and most of all (as we like to repeat) the glaring absence of a real political plan.

It is blatantly evident that the only road map Labour cares about is the one dotted with milestones and achievements that are only measured by how much money ends up lining the pockets of the Taghna Lkoll extended family. If there was a political plan in Joseph Muscat’s mind it was a short-term calculation that exploited the ugly deficiencies of our political system to the maximum. Muscat will have a place in history as he so crassly aspires – he will be remembered as the Prime Minister to have dragged our politics to the pits. I still cannot understand what kind of ambition can be driven by so much negativity – there is no apparent place for the real good of the people.

It is just there that the Labour government’s performance is at its worst. The complete and utter absence of consideration for the greater good of the nation. While words and spin are all about Taghna Lkoll, the good of the south, the new middle class and such similar claptrap the actions of the Labour government are those of one big plunderer intent on ransacking the public good as quickly as possible.

It does not stop or start at the ODZ – or even more particularly at Zonqor – it is a plunder that is happening step by step and eroding the institutions and heritage of our nation in much the same way woodworm will crawl and erode a fabulous bit of furniture from within. We have seen in the past few days how the Lands Department is practically run as a Labour appointee’s fiefdom allowing for undemocratic obscenities to be perpetrated.

That we get this kind of information from a blog that has had to assume the role of a kind of Wikileaks is very telling of the current state of affairs. The opposition is still hard at work to rebuild credibility thanks to the massive bombardment that it had suffered in the eye of the public. It cannot work in parliament because Labour treats parliament like a playground for despots – hiding behind petty and trumped up excuses in order to obfuscate the truth about its contracts and dealings. You only have to look at the Konrad Mizzi AWOL farce last week to see the way Labour treats its obligations of accountability to the nation’s supreme institution.

The first sign of voters’ anger and indignation is the increased stories being passed on to willing outlets of information. No matter how much noise the rent-a-privitera movement is making on the web you can feel that there is a growing counter-movement eager to throw light on the misdoings of the government and its friends. These angry voters might still not have understood the importance of activism and participation in the anti-ODZ development movement but are sufficiently angry to start asking questions and doing their bit by providing relevant information wherever they can.

Labour’s game has been uncovered because it necessarily dealt with property in many forms. Public good in the form of ODZ was the first area in which alarm bells started ringing. Muscat and his “what’s the fuss” attitude contributed to the acceleration of the denouement – citizens were finally seeing the careless attitude Muscat had with public property. It would have been bad enough were Muscat selling land to some reputable university, but when the mask finally fell that the land was being sold to Jordanian builders who had no previous experience in education it was a bit too much.

Meanwhile we are still dragging the power station saga with the government using public funds (also public property) to guarantee a loan to a private enterprise in order to get things going. That there are some people in some quarters trying to stir the tu quoque argument even in the light of this kind of proof is an indicator of how sick our politics has become.

As for Gaffarena Gate it is an eye opener (if one was still needed) as to what the effects of Taghna Lkoll politics are. We already had a race to mediocrity fuelled by alternation whereby the only point that counted in an electoral manifesto was the not being the other party. Taghna Lkoll threw in a strong dose of mediocrity plus with its army of incompetent appointees that are only bound to expose the ugly truth of this kind of short-term power politics.

It is now the PN’s duty to first and foremost document meticulously every faux pas of the Labour government – from its birth to the current almost daily gaffe-fest. It is also its duty to continue working on real change based on politics and values while trying to attract a new wave of politicians willing to sign up on that kind of ticket. It must be a ticket that does not fear the absence of compromises for the sake of gaining power. It must be a ticket that clearly states a program not just for tomorrow but for the future. It must be a program of building, creating and inventing. It must inspire confidence.

Labour’s government by impropriety must end.

 

 

Categories
Mediawatch

The Plagiarists

We’ve been there before. This will be a useless post – a hopeless one really. In this post I’ll be pointing out that yet another aspiring politician has put his signature to an article that is full of excerpts that are not his own. You might read it if it tickles your fancy, or you might not. Most probably it will draw a few guffaws and some would go through the motions of tut-tutting for a while. The newspaper in question will probably not bother with the fact that its political contributor is a plagiarist. So why bother?

Well, notwithstanding the miasma of indifference that seems to have become the norm and standard for your average citizen I’ve decided to soldier on – go on the record so to speak. These are the men and women that your political parties will be suggesting that you send to Brussels and Strasbourg to represent you. When these men and women sign their articles in the paper and end it with “is an MEP election candidate on the PL ticket” they are basically looking for the Maltese reaction of: “bravu dan”, “ara kemm kiteb dwar l-Ewropa”, “nahseb jifhem”.

The Malta Independent has quite a history in particular of entertaining this kind of “articles” roughly shod together from bits and pieces over the internet. You can spot them a mile away. They normally carry the kind of title that would have been taken straight from an EU poster for some project and then segue into a series of very tenuously related paragraphs. It’s what you get when your “research” is any old Eu-related document that provides you with chunky “technical-sounding” phrases.

So here is il-Perit Clint Camilleri or rather – an article collated together from a document entitled “Dilemmas in Globalization – Exploring Global Trends and Progressive Solutions”. To be fair it’s a collection of essays for the Socialist Group in the European Parliament and Camilleri lifts extensively from Martin Schultz’s intervention. But he does not tell you does he? He just makes the material his own and that is fraudulent. Why is it fraudulent? Because it makes Camilleri appear to be someone who he is not – someone capable of writing an article about Social Europe in a technical manner.

Should that be important to you? Hell, I’ve given up – you decide. It would not surprise me one bit that this kind of “passing off as one’s own” is accepted as normal and ok behaviour. We’ve been rushing headlong down this path of indifference for quite some time now. Our parties have gotten us used to candidates that amount to nothing much more than hot air and pompous parading hiding behind some University degree or other. All the more fools are we when we persist in voting for them.

The text of Camilleri’s article below can be compared to the text in this pdf.

 

Social Europe

Today we are not only living a financial crisis but a crisis in globalization. The crises started in the financial system but have spread to every aspect of the economy, creating socio-economic disequilibrium. In order to save the financial system governments have invested millions of Euros but the problem is not to save only the financial system by restoring credit, but to sort out the huge structural economic problems which are at the origin of the problem. [J’accuse note – Lifted from introduction to document]

The growing inequality worldwide is at the heart of the problem. This is the most important dilemma we must face. We must decide whether we should restore a system that recompenses those that created the financial crises in the first place or transforming the system which will eventually address those at the bottom of the pyramid. [J’accuse note – also lifted from Introduction]

Some statistics of shame: According to the Eurostat, 59,000 Maltese were at risk of poverty – 14.6 % of the population, according to 2008 figures. ‘At risk of poverty’ is defined as meaning those living in a household with a disposable income that is below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60% of the national median disposable income.

Eurostat said that in Malta, 16,000 were ‘severely materially deprived’. Such people could not pay rent/mortgage or utility bills, keep their home adequately warm or face unexpected expenses. They also could not afford to eat meat, fish or protein equivalent every second day an cannot afford a car, washing machine, colour TV or telephone.

If national income had been distributed more equal, with lower profits and higher salaries the overall European economy would have been more stable. If the wealth that was speculated had been fairly distributed in the form of lower prices and higher salaries we would have been able to minimise the effects from the crises.

The crises we are suffering is to a great extent the crises of a model based on the growth of inequality. Salaries which are too low and poverty amongst the middle class has driven credit consumption to the exploding point of debt. Thus credit is no longer a socially and extended and economically solvent request used for investment into new fields of real production. [J’accuse note – slightly paraphrased from intro on page 1]

Increased competitive pressures on the social systems threaten to damage the social cohesion of European societies. In face of the highly mobile global economy nation states have lost their capacity to act alone and to adequately protect social rights. While capital has swept away borders through the single market mechanism, the welfare state has remained trapped with national boundaries. For decades the EU success model was the combination of economic progress with social progress. Then the governing conservative majority in Europe decided to focus on the removal of trade barriers while sometimes neglecting the social dimension. [J’accuse note – page 16 of document]

Thinking in a global dimension has become a pre-requisite for finding solutions. Re-thinking governance and including new levels of governance expands the room for manoeuvre. Growing interdependence between societies and nation states does not only create new categories of problems, it offers the solution too. Nation states alone might not be the best vehicle for mitigating huge changes. The EU is much better equipped for finding solutions and implementing concrete measures in cooperation with other major players. [J’accuse note – page 14 of document]

Now is the time to correct this imbalance. It is time for a new social Europe that places people not the market at the centre of economic activity. Social progress clauses need to be included in every piece of EU legislation and social and environmental impact assessments needs to be taken into account. If Europe again shows its social face it will surely regain the trust and the support of its citizens. [J’accuse note – page 16 of document].

Perit Clint Camilleri is an MEP election candidate on the PL ticket

 

 

Categories
Politics Uncategorized

I.M. Jack : An embarrassment to democracy

In this latest round up of commentaries on recent events J’accuse takes a look at a number of issues that have been hot in the past week. Unfortunately due to other commitments posting on this blog has not been as regular as I would have hoped. Here then is a look at why J’accuse finds that this Labour government is becoming more and more of an embarrassment to democracy. Let’s see a few of the last weeks’ events:

I. Doublespeak

Once again I join other observers who have by now noticed that in dealing with the press and media this government opts for half-truths or prevarication.

Joseph Muscat’s replies about Air Malta’s restructuring – a boomerang deviated onto Tonio Fenech’s lap in what Muscat believes to be a sly move – is just one example of our government still thinking in opposition mode. In this case we have a clear indicator that this Labour government is either unaware of, or unwilling to take on, the Responsibilities of Government (my capitals). So what if Tonio Fenech or whoever else had appointed a team for Air Malta’s restructuring? Is it not the responsibility of this government to look into the plans and see whether (a) it agrees with them and therefore gives them its go-ahead, or (b) any of these plans need re-directing in the sense of vision and goals.

Muscat prefers to play the three monkeys with the whole business – this is a typical corollary of his behaviour when in opposition. It clearly demonstrates that he has no clue about alternatives (or as he would call them “roadmaps”) and so prefers to keep the opposition-hat on just in case the restructuring is a failure: in which case he will obviously blame the previous government. But that is not the business of government is it? The chain of responsibility necessitates a different type of answer – if, for example, Air Malta’s plans include a possibility of privatisation you’d expect the Prime Minister to know.

It’s not just Muscat. Manuel Mallia has chimed in with Muscat and introduced a new term in Maltese language “inveritiera“. What’s that exactly? Are they trying to be politically correct about the word “lie”? Mallia’s remit is quite the mess right now and the performance of the (outgoing) Brigadier in an interview about his resignation and future left much to be desired. Another one having difficultes coping with double speak is Konrad Mizzi. The way he screened the questions from journalists about his wife’s appointment is absolute balderdash. The hot potato is thrown here and there while nobody (NOBODY) in the Labour government assumes responsibility.

If this were not the party that had busted everyone’s balls whinging about political responsibility when it was in opposition we’d not be so interested in this so very sudden volte-face. 

II: Bad Company

The topic of the John Dalli and Shiv Nair appointments are being dealt with perfectly well on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog. There’s no denying that when the resources available to that blog are put to good news it can trump any amount of excuses for journalism that our decrepit excuse for a fourth estate has become. Glaringly Shiv Nair’s closeness to the Labour government (and his evident hand in deals from China to North Africa) goes directly against Joseph Muscat’s 15 points to combat corruption when in government. Nair’s wheeling and dealing may be convenient for the likes of the dupes that populate our government benches – at least they may SEEM like to have a plan – but in partnering with the devil to fulfil their hapless electoral promises they are only (slightly) postponing the inevitable implosion.

Whether one is black listed by the World Bank or whether his recent dealings raise huge question marks (from Bahamas to OLAF) the fact of the matter remains that this government has no qualms dealing with persons who cause many an eyebrow to be raised. Worse still is the unshamefaced approach with which such cavorting takes place – and the replies that are given in response to any questions are preposterously bereft of any semblance of accountability.

It is becoming tougher and tougher for this government to speak of any form of accountability. Take Anton Refalo who still got away with his incredible declaration of assets. His performance in the Gozo channel Call-Back Saga would suffice to get him the boot in any other government worth its name. Not this one of course. (The Sunday Times is the latest to call for his resignation). At no point will these matters be tackled – no sir – as there is always a scapegoat reply (such as look at what the others did). Anton Refalo is also responsible for retaining the services of the disgraced Joseph Grech who has now been found suspiciously wanting in another scandal relating to the fraudulent use of funds by the Gozo Action Group.

It never ends does it? Varist blames “people working behind his back” for the stipend flop this week (remember the calls for Giovanna Debono’s head when some funds were lost thanks to hopeless action by people under her responsibility?). Bad company and a shameless approach to accountability : the assault on democratic representation is not about to begin … it is in full swing.

III. Neutralising Simon

There was another farce in parliament. With Joseph Muscat choosing to use (abuse?) of his parliamentary privilege to shut Simon Busuttil up. Busuttil’s line of questioning fits in clearly with the notion of responsibility and in any case parliament is not about concrete proof. The merest suspicion can be voiced in parliament and it is up to the MP voicing it to bear the consequences – should he lie then it is his credibility as a politician that is at stake. Muscat chose to refer to his speaker who came up with a magnificent interpretation that made a mess of the whole history of parliamentary privilege (that dates back to the mid 1500s).

We have a Prime Minister that is unable to face truths, deviously slips out of uncomfortable situations and who prefers to grandstand on the international stage while secretly hoping that his investment in a band of shady characters might help him pull off the greatest escape ever. Joseph Muscat and his party spent opposition signing cheques that would obviously bounce. The great unwashed loved his parading and swallowed his populistic approach to the hilt. Once in government the free for all in appointments was soon to be followed by an incredible demonstration of ineptness. It would not be so bad if the long term effect would not be the complete and utter erosion of our institutions.

The Malta Labour Party’s Taghna Lkoll has managed to prove that it is what we suspected all along: Small ideas for small people.

“What the medicine is to disease, the law is to public affairs” – Justinian.

Categories
Politics

The Value-Mouth Relationship

Much is being made in the Labour-friendly press and media about the supposed strategic “U-turn” that is in progress in the spanking new halls at PN HQ. I will look into the fallacy of the “u-turn” argument in one of my next posts and will attempt to explain how rather than a “u-turn”, the current within PN thinking might actually be a correct interpretation of christian-democrat politics for the 21st century – always admitting that there is one version of correct in politics (let’s call it “more correct”).

What is more important at this junction is that the nationalist party wants to be seen as being seriously committed to a set of updated values – a commitment underlined by the fact that Lawrence Gonzi spoke in terms of a “pacta sunt servanda” (patti chiari, amicizia lunga) approach. That’s right. If this exercise is not going to turn out to be an exercise in shiny marketing rewrapping of the kind that was slowly proving to be the undoing of the nationalist party’s values then it should not be limited to fine talk but should be transformed into concrete action.

The fourth point in the new PN document presented at the General Council is a direct reference to “taking decisions responsibly”. With the commitment to take decisions responsibly comes the onus to take responsibility for one’s actions. A tautology if ever there was one but a clear one for that. Accountability can no longer remain a buzzword in the propaganda circles when you are committing yourself to strengthening the value-driven approach to politics.

Which is why Joseph Grech of the Gozo Channel Co. should no longer hold the position of Chairman today. A ministerial reprimand does not suffice in the eyes of those who are supposed to be learning the new lessons and approach of “patti chiari, amicizia lunga”. I don’t know if it was the young turk Carol Aquilina who stated that the PN rightly choses people it can trust  to manage important positions in government or state-related companies. Sure Carol, but the corollary to that reasoning is that the PN trusts such persons to carry out the job because it believes that they are the right vehicles to bring into effect the policies that are inspired by the PN’s basic principles. The circle of trust is double – the PN government trusts them with putting policy into action but it does so as the custodian of the trust “lent” (and I emphasise the lending part) to it by the people.

Joseph Grech’s move to call back a Gozo Ferry was not a gaffe. It was an administrative no-no of the highest order – described as an “abuse of office” in most law books. A serious government wanting to impress with the value of responsibility cannot factor the idea of “resignation” out of the equation… otherwise the message is not of responsibility but of “friends of friends” come what may.

The meter of updated values has to begin to apply as of yesterday. Even when selecting its round of candidates for next elections the PN must bear this in mind. You cannot whitewash over past errors simply by wearing a new dress. Pardon the cliche but actions are worth a thousand words… and the PN needs to start acting fast.