When the Muscat government chose to sell Maltese citizenship to people who had the money for it, the Prime Minister was often described by his detractors as a salesman. He was pleased with the tag.
The idea to sell Maltese passports – which had not been mentioned in the Labour Party’s 2013 election manifesto, let’s not forget that important detail– had led to harsh criticism, which escalated further when later stories started to emerge of people who had obtained the right to be called Maltese in spite of their dubious past and reputation.
But Joseph Muscat ploughed on, and transformed the attempt at mockery into a positive spin, saying that he was “proud” to be given the label of a salesman as he travelled around the world to promote the individual investor programme.
“I have been accused of being a salesman many times and today I publicly declare myself guilty as charged. Frankly, it is a compliment. My job is to promote my country and our businesses. That is what I ask all my ministers and diplomatic corps to do when representing our country,” Muscat once said.
The controversy over the sale of passports never died, but it was neither this scheme nor its due diligence shortcomings that brought Muscat down. It was something more sinister, more despicable, which led to his collapse.
Muscat finds himself embroiled in a political crisis that the country has never seen before. There were many scandals that rocked governments and shook the foundations of our democracy, but never before had the Prime Minister’s Office been linked to a murder.
A few months ago, Muscat was close to leaving the Prime Minister’s job basking in glory. We were told that, when discussions were taking place in the European Union’s corridors of power on a new look for the top tiers of the EU hierarchy, Muscat was one of the names on the list. It was said that he did not make it by a whisker; his status among his peers was not high enough to get the job, but it was high enough for him to come close.
Now he no longer enjoys that status. Only last week, the Italian Prime Minister cancelled an official business lunch and would only see Muscat privately. Even the Vatican, usually so careful in its diplomatic dealings, felt the need to relegate Muscat’s visit from an official one to a private meeting, a clear sign that the Holy See was not too happy with the way the situation was developing in Malta.
Under Muscat, the country’s reputation has plummeted to unprecedented depths. Malta is making the news in international media for the wrong reasons. The negative effects of the bad press that Malta is receiving will linger for years. Muscat’s successor will have a hard time getting his peers to trust him and for Malta, in general, to be seen kindly.
In other words, Muscat the salesman has now become a bad advert for the country.
Muscat remains an idol only for those staunch Labour supporters who are blinded by partisan politics and who are turning up in public squares for his farewell tour. For the thinking population, the quicker he goes way, the quicker the country can start to hopefully rebuild its image.
We just hope that the damage is not “irreparable”.