An enormous majority in the country, so opinion polls tell us, now consider that Malta’s joining the EU was of great benefit to the island. Naturally the majority of those who replied to the polls were judging on how they saw events happening around them. They did not have some reference against which to compare; like let’s say, what could have been.
That’s what always happens: decades after the Normans conquered England in 1066, surely any survey conducted then would have seen the Norman invasion as a good thing.
There’s no way by which to compare the situation as-is “in real time” with the alternative that could have been and so the following facts about Malta’ EU membership are hardly taken into account: Malta’s economic growth now relies on services, mostly tourism, financial services and internet gaming, which in no way benefit from the EU; agriculture is moribund; manufacturing has lost in importance; following an initial bonanza, Malta tends to be paying more into the EU budget than it gets from it; immigration is unbalancing totally the demographic profile of the Maltese islands; the construction industry has become the lung of the economy while destroying the character and natural environment of the island.
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TWO THIRDS MAJORITY
As was to be expected, the mechanism by which a two thirds majority in Parliament became necessary to validate high level appointments in the governance of our democracy has failed. It was obvious right from the start that this would happen. It was a mistake to accept to introduce the mechanism without putting alongside a corrective measure to ensure that an appointment would still be made if a two thirds majority cannot be achieved.
The “Europeans” who visited us with the aim of showing how expert they are in democratic governance wanted us to introduce rules that are not in force in their own country. In a democracy, the Opposition has every right to continue to say no at all costs. Rules of governance must however ensure that this “at all costs” does not lead to institutional paralysis.
The government is doing the right thing by now putting in place the corrective mechanism. If at the last minute, the Opposition has a change of heart and after all, decides to reach agreement on the proposals the government has made, it would be a mistake to postpone the introduction of the corrective mechanism. The government should proceed and bring it into effect.
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GOATS AND SHEEP
As part of a church homily, I heard recently an account of the Universal Judgement in the form of a parable. On “his” right, the Supreme Judge can see the Good as “sheep” and on the left, the Wicked as “goats”. The story carries a double libel.
Firstly: the Wicked are always shown on the left side as if to emphasize that it is the natural place where they should stand. But people on the left have always striven for social justice and they wanted it to be implemented as part of the responsibility of the community as a whole, not just as an exercise in charity.
The second libel amounts to a crass attack on goats. I just do not understand why goats should be considered as children of a lesser god. To the contrary they are an animal which is resilient as it can still manage to live well in a land and a climate which are less than comfortable.