A former high-ranking Labour Party official has been held for questioning over allegedly assisting Libyan nationals to obtain residency permits in Malta. Never a dull moment with Labour in government! It has been reported that some 850 Libyan companies have been registered in Malta in the past few months, providing access to hundreds of rich Libyans and many of Gaddafi’s friends.
Considering that this is the same party that harped on incessantly about previous supposed immigration control failures and poverty and about solidarity from the Opposition benches and being the same party that attempted a failed push-back as soon as it returned to government while selling Maltese citizenship to shady rich foreigners a few months later, one cannot but notice the inconsistencies.
Labour’s inconsistencies and colossal failures in various policy areas are becoming more manifest as we approach mid-term.
Labour’s non results on immigration issues
As has been the case for a number of years now, most irregular immigrants attempt the crossing of the Mediterranean in the summer months. With Libya and Syria both being in severe turmoil, there is little hope that the situation will improve anytime soon.
There is, of course, great respect for the rescuers and humanitarian aid workers who go beyond the call of duty on the front line. However, they are not the ones who should be busy at this time of the year. Malta has one of the highest reception levels of asylum seekers – whether you compare it to the country’s geographical size, GDP or population. With such a strong moral argument, government officials should be working at European level asking for support, be it material or in sharing the responsibility.
Some years ago, the Labour Opposition strongly insisted that the Nationalist government should not sign up to European Council Conclusions as long as they spoke of “burden sharing” as a voluntary initiative. The patient diplomatic work that was going on behind the scenes was constantly mocked and derided as ineffective.
It is thanks to those years of hard work that the European Commission recently tabled very specific proposals on resettling close to 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean refugees who landed on the EU’s Mediterranean coasts around the EU. Actually, this will apply only to Italy and Greece because Malta – thanks to Labour’s failure to lobby successfully – will not be included. Instead of benefitting from the scheme as it should, Malta will have to take in an additional 70!
Public transport in shambles
Malta’s public transport had been in need of an overhaul. People were ‘voting with their feet’, a fact reflected in the steady decline of bus passengers over the years. The redesign of the entire system, undertaken under the previous government, was intended to bring the service in the 21st century. In some aspects it worked, in others it didn’t. The Nationalist government readily acknowledge the problem areas and set out to address them.
Not so a Labour government. More interested in political mileage than improvement, it did all it could to oust the previous operator. It could have negotiated higher standards for a better subsidy but the government’s motivation was simply spite. Time and money were wasted to terminate the contract, nationalise the service and then find anyone who was ready to clear the wreckage left behind by the government’s actions.
This all led to a loss of faith in the government by operators in the sector and the new company was only ready to move in on condition of a massive subsidy and not being lumped with loss-making routes. We now pay, through the subsidy and higher fares, for the ‘omnishambles’ the “service” has become
The police force falling to lower depths
A magisterial inquiry revealed the pits to which the Police Force has descended in just over two years. Alfred Sant, in his previous life as Leader of the Opposition, had made much about police officials who had been caught consorting with shady types. That the Police Commissioner of the time had moved to immediately dismiss the people in question as permitted by law was not enough.
This time the stink goes all the way up to the former Acting Police Commissioner Ray Zammit – and his sons who held the rank of inspector. Yet, as has become usual in the Labour way of doing things, nothing will happen except a bit of shuffling in the roles of the people in question, creating phantom jobs if needs be, just enough to keep everyone out of the public gaze.
Half way through for Labour
By the end of the season, the Labour government should have reached more or less the half-way point in the mandate it received in 2013. In the first half of their mandates, governments tend to handle the thornier issues, taking decisions which, while not popular, are necessary to ensure the country’s well-being in the long run.
No such luck in our case. Since being voted into office, the government has done little more than take decisions to the advantage of a select group of beneficiaries. No wonder the governing of the country is in the state it is.
Mr Puli is Opposition spokesman for Citizens’ Rights, Civil Rights, Equality, Social Dialogue, Consumers’ Rights, Internet Rights, Communications, Broadcasting and Audio-Visual Policy