An environmentalist friend yesterday astutely remarked that the country appears to be suffering from scandal fatigue. “It never fails to amaze us,” she said, “how certain hugely important things go by completely unremarked upon. I think part of the reason is scandal fatigue. How many things can people react to? As such, the more technical issues which they can’t relate to are simply ignored.”
It appears that there is a scandal a week in this country, many of which are fully warranted, while the same cannot be said of others, many of which begin at the political level – from financial scandals to public procurement scandals to administrative scandals.
The context of the conversation in question was the lack of public outrage expressed over a story we have carried over the last two weeks exposing how, through an utter lack of foresight by Mepa and an apparent lack of concern for public health on the part of Enemalta, 200 tonnes of fly ash were simply dispersed into the air that we breathe over the first 10 months of the year.
A decision was taken at the beginning of last year to switch off the pollution-collecting precipitators at the Marsa power station because there was nowhere to store the fly ash being collected after a stop order was issued on the owners of the quarry, where it was being kept after the installation’s silos were filled after some six months.
The consequences are tantamount to a conscious endangerment of public health.
Somewhere down the line, a weighty decision – and here we give the powers that be the benefit of the doubt in that it was a weighty decision in their view – was taken to simply let the fly ash loose into the air instead of scrambling as they should have done to find alternative storage areas.
Is the country’s supply of outrage now running low and is any propensity to public indignation now exhausted? Perhaps too much energy has been used up in petty political polemics for people to become well and truly riled by an issue not tabled or backed by a political party? Have people become too fatigued by it all to stir, as they should, when faced with cases that violate the public administration’s duty to safeguard public health? Is the country suffering scandal fatigue, or is it scandal exhaustion?
Given the deplorable situation at the Marsa power station last year, one wonders what exactly it would take for the concept of a class action lawsuit to be properly tried and tested in Malta.
Yes, we have had something of a class action lawsuit led by the Labour Party over the car registration tax. But can people only muster the collective courage for such action when it affects their pockets and only if they are led under the umbrella of a political party? Once a political party becomes involved, in any issue and especially in Malta, that issue becomes a political one and no longer a public one.
In effect, once an issue becomes political given the country’s two party polarity, half the country decides to turn a blind eye to what they should rightly be concerned about while the other half is rallied to action. Either way, it is the populace itself that loses out in the end.
What about when a scandal that affects their health and the health of their loved ones? Why, for example, are the people of Marsa not contemplating action against Enemalta after so many years of suffering, suffering that has been amply documented in the past?
But, save for a handful of NGOs, people on the whole are mostly reticent about speaking their minds, at least in such a way that would see them standing up and being counted.
Many will complain until they are blue in the face, in private, but quickly shy away and slink back into their armchair where their criticisms are composed lest they be judged by their peers should they publicly air their views.
Apathy may have something to do with this status quo, and an all too often heard sentiment is that complaining will get you nowhere. We disagree completely.
Many others are simply too conservative to stand up and be counted, scared as they are of being perceived as running against the grain of the status quo, or of being pigeon holed, as they are, when they do speak out.
Others, given the country’s strong patron client system, are afraid that if they speak out and upset this or that politician, they would lose political favour or that a certain relative won’t get that job they are aiming for after graduating.
There is no question that this particular facet of the status quo needs to become a thing of the past. Not only has its continued practice helped stifle the concept of meritocracy in the public sector but, albeit to a lesser extent, also in the private sector. A certain politician recently remarked, in private, that one would be amazed at just how much time is spent dealing with constituents’ requests for favours and jobs.
Let us throw these selfish concerns aside and concentrate on and prioritise the real scandals, those that have a real, lasting effect on the people and their health. Let us stand up and be counted when we feel something is not right.
The world over, and Malta is by no stretch of the imagination any different, the political class is quite content to preserve the status quo. It is, after all, in the establishment’s interest to retain a system that is beneficial to it up and running, and keeping the people as silent as possible about the real ills affecting their country.
It is only when the public makes its voice heard forcefully and en masse that politicians are compelled to respond.