The recently published papers by the ICIJ ‘Paradise Papers’ has further revealed thousands of individuals who find ways of avoiding paying their taxes by shunting money into tax havens and foreign offshore accounts so that their earnings may remain untaxed. Although very often this act in itself is not illegal, as the investments are through official channels and intermediaries, I find it hard to digest this when the individuals are politicians, political functionaries or heads of State!
I think we need to put an end to this charade on an international level and this is one of the places where the EU must help because it will not be possible for any one single nation to regularize this situation alone. Having said that I believe it is highly irresponsible for politicians to open these accounts and deposit their monies in these tax havens when they are supposed to be working towards the commonwealth of the country with which they are entrusted by voters. This comes across as sleazy because while every Tom, Dick and Harriet are being hounded by the state on every cent that we earn, it is just not on to watch those who we have entrusted with government to make efforts to hide their monies elsewhere and that is why I expect these politicians to resign when they are caught doing this while in public office and especially when they fail to declare these assets in their income tax profile. I sincerely believe that unless action is taken on this issue our whole democratic process and system will be converted into a farce and the whole set up of Western democracy may collapse as trust in politicians is further eroded and lost.
We have been observing this closely on the home front lately where we have a government that is fast losing national trust and moral authority due to its brazen lack of ability to take action against public persons who have been caught with their pants down. This is why when events like the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia takes place we cannot stop entertaining thoughts in the corners of our mind, that the government and its apparatchik could not have had anything to do with it! Had government acted as it should have acted earlier, these thoughts would struggle to enter our minds. As it is they keep obsessively presenting themselves!
Neither is it pleasant to learn from these ‘Paradise Papers’ that rich folk are having it easy at the expense of us ordinary folk. Many Maltese buy a boat to while away free time, and all Maltese who have boats know that maintaining them is often not cheap especially when they are forced to pay 18% extra into the VAT coffers. Now do not get me wrong, many do not mind paying this as their personal contribution to the country’s commonwealth, but on finding out that the rich and powerful do not pay an 18% VAT rate for services rendered like every ordinary person does, but are allowed by the State to squirm themselves out of this through legal loopholes and pay only 5% VAT, then the whole thing becomes damned unfair on us ordinary folk.
I mean these big guys with their fancy yachts need to have their fun and I say good luck to them if they can have it, but why can’t they have their fun and pay 18% VAT like the rest of us do? It’s not as if they cannot afford to do so! It’s good for the coffers too!
This government needs to re-establish justice in our state systems. It should become more accountable, have officials more up to scratch, not corrupt, not incompetent, with systems more transparent and accountable.
The people selected for posts in government should be vetted in depth by parliamentary committees and the people chosen should have good characters. There is no system that will work properly unless the character of the person chosen for the job is suitable and is able to dispense justice both retributive and distributive and tell individuals from other entities of the state to butt off when they exceed their remit, whoever these people may be. At the moment this is far from the existing situation!
The state is not the Labour Party’s for having but belongs to us all and it should be necessary for the PL to take note! Find people to manage state organisations who are well versed intellectually and morally to do so and cut the present partisan crepe, because if people lose trust in the state and its political apparatus we will all pay a high price as people turn to less established sources for political inspiration and the signs are already there in this regard, so it is necessary to move now and move fast.
At the end of the day it all boils down to virtue! How true were those words in our original independence coat-of-arms motto where virtue was extolled. Without virtue as a habit of State, the creep of vice and corruption will habitually find its way in and after becoming established we can all wave goodbye to our security and peace.
It is important to re-establish the virtue theory fast as one of the main foundations of the state and no constitutional convention can do that. We do that every day by tempering our behaviour to fit the common good. Temperance they say is one of the cardinal virtues as are fortitude, justice and prudence!
Dr. Michael Asciak MD M.Phil PhD.
Senior Lecturer II in Applied Science at MCAST.
[email protected]