What does hosting the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting mean? The answer is simple. It means that a country is deemed stable, trusted and respected. What does it mean for a country to host the CHOGM at two years notice instead of four, and to step in where another nation has pulled out? More trust. Let us ask one more question, what does it mean to return to ask a country that hosted the meeting less than 10 years ago to step into the breach and do it again? It means full trust, peace of mind in the fact that a job has been done well once and can be done again.
In a leading article written some years back, the author joked that carpe diem (on that occasion), was tantamount to “the daily carp” – a play on words to show that something was old hat, and that people were harping on about the same old thing. Not so in this case. As Malta was subjected to media flak the world over, and deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech embarked on an exercise of damage limitation as best he could, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat seized the day – carpe diem.
As Malta’s reputation began to look like it was in tatters, the Prime Minister duly announced that our country had been asked to step in and fill the void and host CHOGM 2015, which was supposed to be hosted by the Maldives. We can see exactly what he did. In one fell swoop, he has moved to allay all fears and reverse all the negative arguments made about Malta’s passport scheme (though we retain our reservations). The Prime Minister is shrewd – he said that Malta would be willing to pick up the gauntlet, but only if there was unanimity within the Commonwealth. When we speak of the Commonwealth, many thing of African and East Asian nations. But let us not forget, we are also talking about powerhouses such as the UK, Australia, India and (to a lesser extent) Canada. So while the world jibed that we had empty coffers and that we had become sellouts, one of the most respected nations in the world (the UK), one of the fastest growing economies in the world (India), one of the most robust economies in the world (Australia) and a peace broker (Canada) gave us an endorsement just a few days later.
It has to be said, bravo, Prime Minister. We are sure that this was not planned. We are sure that Joseph Muscat saw that the passport scheme backfired in the international media and sought a way to show that Malta was not about to go bust and was not about to go back to being regarded as a somewhat ‘shady character’. In our first leading article, in which we passed our judgment on the Citizenship Scheme, we had said that everything was all about perception, and the consensus in the world was that we were selling our identity to fill our coffers. But this is another instance of perception. If the UK, Australia, Canada, India and the whole Commonwealth sees Malta as a place where a huge conference can be organized (at a cost), then it must follow suit that Malta has a vibrant and flexible economy and infrastructure that can undertake a gargantuan task at short notice and be expected to deliver.
We are not in the habit of dishing out praise for the sake of it. But for all the errors of misjudgment in the issuance of the passport scheme (which is to be watered down, thankfully), the PM has seized the day. His detractors will call him opportunistic. We prefer to call him quick thinking.