Earning good money is a good thing. All of us deserve living a good life. All business enterprises and indeed many individuals in Malta are profit-driven and pursue profits aggressively. That’s how they should be, if they want to survive in very competitive markets. Therefore, having targets on profit and being driven by reaching those targets is a necessity for these individuals and it is indeed a good thing.
It’s not a good thing though that the common good is sacrificed by these individual interests at the altar of profit-making. The common good comes before everything else. It would be hugely beneficial for society as a whole if we start teaching our children about the true meaning of the common good. Although we all understand very well the concept of the common good, we haven’t yet embraced it fully, and if we do, it would be another uniting factor as much as our language is.
The bottom line is that when individual and business interests clash with the common good principle, the common good ought to be given precedence.
The Nationalist Party is happy to see the government bring foreign companies and jobs to Malta. That is commendable. But if we want to go a step further in order to achieve better quality in our lives, we ought to defend the common good principle much more vigourously. What we’re talking about here is more open spaces for our families, a more transparent of way of running our country, healthier environment, and working towards a just and equitable society with no one left behind.
We were brought up with constant messages via the media and at school extolling the virtues of cleanliness in public spaces as part of the Xummiemu campaign. It worked and this campaign in schools about the common good would certainly work too.
Malta is at a crossroads; either it wants to take a quantum leap in the way the country is run and mature politically, or otherwise it might very well remain stuck in the archaic way it is run with the consequences which are there for all to see.
Now that the brutal murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has thrust corruption and sleaze at the highest places of this government to an international level, you might wonder where all this will end.
It is clear, at least to my mind, that we have reached this point because we have not valued the common good. It is also abundantly clear that some of our key institutions are very, very weak. How on earth is it possible that the police did not interrogate any of those mentioned by the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia? The murder could have been politically motivated or not because Daphne wrote also about criminal syndicates. I can’t understand how the police did not interrogate any one of these.
How is it even remotely possible that the Chief of Staff of our Prime Minister was made Chief of Staff in the first place, with his vast business interests? He who said it publicly that he takes “an interest in all investment opportunities” has a massive conflict of interest.
By his own admission he knew of the secret companies 17 Black and Macbridge because they “were included in draft business plans for my business group as potential clients. My companies make dozens of business plans such as these,” he said yesterday. And all this while running the country. Because let’s face it, he is the man behind the throne. What do you make of this, if not lay down and weep? How is that for respect for the common good?
Many might take offence but there’s no two ways about it. This is a profit-driven government with scant interest for the common good. That’s the long and short of it and those decent politicians on the other side of the aisle (and there are many) ought to do their bit to steer the ship clear of rough waters ahead because this is going to blow up and it won’t be good for the country. It is not sustainable.
Attracting foreign companies with good jobs is well and good but it is definitely not enough. Running a country is not just about making a quick buck and to hell with the rest. It’s much more than that. We deserve much, much, better.
MP David Stellini is the Opposition Spokesperson on European Affairs and Brexit. He is also President of the Nationalist Party Administrative Council.