And so it’s over. The people were asked to speak and they have spoken. The PN was against divorce in principle, while the PL was for it. The PN wanted to ask people if they believed in divorce, the PL wanted people to vote whether a couple who had been separated for a number of years deserve to be legally divorced and perhaps marry somebody else. In Parliament, the PL leader boasted that had it not been for his party, Malta wouldn’t have divorce today. That might yet stand him in good stead or he may live to rue it. The verdict of history is never immediate.
But, surprisingly in an assembly like Parliament, conscience was suddenly brought into play. The comments were as varied as the definitions but the prize question from the citizenry was why conscience should apply only in a matter like that of divorce. The most pointed barb of course asks where conscience was when ministers gave themselves a hefty pay rise in as covert a manner as possible; where it is in those projects which to the man in the street are sheer waste of money; where it is in the ever increasing bureaucracy that keeps prospective projects hanging fire amid rising costs to the entrepreneur.
Hearing the parable of the Sower and the Seed last Sunday, made me realise how well it suited the present state of affairs in Malta. The Catholic dictionary interprets it as follows: The sower (in this case Christ) sows the word. The seeds falling on the road represent those who hear the word but dismiss it. The seeds falling on the rocks represent those who hear the word but only accept it shallowly, rejecting it as soon as it causes them affliction or persecution. The seeds falling on thorns represent those who hear the word and take it to heart but then allow worldly concerns to choke it. The seeds falling on good soil represent those who hear the word and truly understand it and apply it, causing it to bear fruit. This is a very clear example by an acknowledged superb teacher of how humanity behaves. Readers of this newspaper might find it an interesting diversion where they to try and place the various members of the House in the four categories outlined above.
The House should now move on, as I suggested last Sunday, and clear the ground of the remaining firewood before somebody drops a lighted match on it. It has lain around for quite some time and is tinder dry. With Italy showing signs of running into financial trouble – as predicted – and with the eurozone facing fresh pressures, this is no time for the nation to get distracted with problems that however severe and important are not immediately life-threatening.
What might very well be life-threatening is the true financial state of this nation and the PL is right to ask for a discussion intended to produce a clear picture of the situation in the light of events in the EU. If there are holes that have been covered, the sooner the citizens know what they might have to face in the near future the better. The Prime Minister has often said that Malta should not go the way of Greece and in uttering this statement he found no opposition. But it is important to make the distinction between “should” and “will not” very clear.
The EU apart, this administration has spent enormous sums of money in its attempt to buy industrial peace as it implemented its privatisation programme. To be fair, it also spent vast sums of money trying to find alternative work for those hit by the international recession in accordance with its stated, and commendable, policy of safeguarding jobs. It is implementing projects, of dubious value in the present circumstances, without telling the citizen how it proposes to pay for them. We still do not know how taxpayers are going to pay for the new palace of Parliament. We still do not know the true cost of the new power station, even if we sometimes forget that we are still paying for the old one.
I doubt if anyone knows the true state of affairs at SmartCity, which has suddenly disappeared off page 1. Are the much-trumpeted plans for job creation still on track? Something that we do know is that stone dressing for the new gash in the City walls (ix-xaqq tal-Belt as people now refer to it) is being done in Spain at an extra cost to us all. We do not know who is going to pay for the mess created by the change in the transport system. I have no doubt that sooner or later things will somehow reach some sort of rationality, but if taking the buses out of Bisazza Street is going to cost us a “few” thousands more, what will be the cost for righting a total mess-up?
Whenever the ever-rising cost of living is brought up, the citizen is urged to shop around for the best price. The old virtues of frugality and common sense are often invoked but hardly ever demonstrated by an administration which continues to rely more and more on image rather than substance even as bureaucracy reigns supreme. Of all the problems facing the government, quite a few of its own making, bureaucracy is relatively the easiest to reform, unless that is, protecting bureaucracy is protecting certain interests.
The question that is being asked, as the approaching election focus people’s minds, is whether a Cabinet that was trimmed down in the name of efficiency will ever be able to get its act together and start administering as a functioning Cabinet rather than a watering place for medieval barons all defending their fief against the Crown.
The hacking scandal, at present in full swing in the UK, shows us how far some countries are from getting governance right. For while it is quite obvious that there has been corruption in the political field as well as in the police and never mind media empires, the way Parliament is going about saving face is refreshing. With billions at his elbow, Murdoch can buy anybody willing to be bought. There is nothing surprising there for us in Malta. But even while politicians in the UK struggle to regain legitimacy after all the scandals affecting various members of parliament (at least in the UK they are exposed), it is still refreshing to see – and on television to boot – the various select committees that have been set up to investigate corruption on an industrial scale. Can we ever hope for such illuminating processes here in Malta?
In a country where, for centuries, man had to meander to avoid being hanged, drawn and quartered either by God’s representatives or those of Caesar, we are only expected to applaud in public and grumble in private: until election time.