Throughout the ages, Malta has had a few good men and women. But on the whole, in history, we have all been rather piratical. In spirit, in mood, and in our DNA we’ve always excelled at taking a bit or a lot from others and what wasn’t rightly ours.
Maybe it’s our size, our lack of resources, our overpopulation, our inbreeding, our familiarity. Or a concoction of all. We are too tightly knit, and everyone knows everyone else, along with someone who knows someone powerful. Every local is obsessed with this little isle; and most find it disgraceful to denigrate anything we do or have done. We see ourselves as important globally and we always – most of us – feel we are superior, blessed, and that we are owed a living by the world at large.
Our mantra has always been take all you can from queen, king, and whoever has a cash box available. Illicit, nearly illicit, gains or anything that makes my kitty or my family’s and friends’ kitty grow is, we believe in our deepest soul, permissible. As long as we are not caught it is fine and acceptable.
Today we take our EU membership for granted. Only the extremists still mention our departure from the EU, and fewer believe that the Swiss model invented by Alfred Sant still has any shine or allure. But what really made the majority of us vote for EU membership? Was it a pursuit of some special values, a need to convert from piracy? Our pitch was, and silently remains, that we can suck up funds from the EU.
The EU, after all, pays for most of our road building. So that explains beyond what could be reasonable for this country the need to build roads, highways, flyovers, and the persistent tarmacking of our country lanes. Money and our grabbing of same keeps us sane and full of love for whoever reigns over us.
Back in the olden days of the Order, our other masters of piracy the ennobled Knights turned piracy on the seas into a legitimate trade. Corsairing was in fact sanctioned and loot garnered was taxed.
As long as it was done properly, piracy – that governed by the strict rules of the day – back then was allowed and gave us, or rather the Order of St John, monies to keep the country going. It also paid for lavish buildings which still adorn the land. Larceny on the open seas was allowed as long as a percentage of it was paid into the Order’s coffers.
Maltese entrepreneurs naturally participated or were themselves corsairs. The promise of a few doubloons and we’re in for it. Only loons wouldn’t dip into the lolly.
Robert Abela’s modern-day antics make chickenfeed of the piracy of old. The Prime Minister keeps defending the indefensible. He sounds like someone who is clueless.
By yet again defending or trying to make short shrift of the criminal arraignments and magisterial findings in the Vitals debacle,
Robert Abela is proving once again that our tendency to be piratical is embedded in our DNA.
Which does not mean that the PN when in power were angels or not partly piratical. But, since Labour spokesmen love mentioning what the PN did so long ago before Labour got into power, it’s only fair to make some hardly odious comparisons.
Three of the biggest scandals which happened when the PN in power were the oil scandal, the bribery case of the chief justice and another judge, and the case of the Gozo minister’s husband who was accused of corruption (and later acquitted).
When these scandals were exposed no Prime Minister or minister from the PN ranks defended them or ordered the people involved not to resign, as Robert Abela did with regard to the deputy prime minister, the head of the Central Bank and senior officials in government positions. The PN way was to tell all people involved in the scandals to resign immediately. No ifs or buts. No attack on the judiciary or any other official doing their job. There was no attack on the “establishment”, whatever that might indicate according to the Labour lexicon.
And when these major scandals were unearthed no one from the PN ranks tried covering up and no one unreservedly defended the perpetrators. Justice was allowed to take its course.
This is so much in contrast to what is happening today. The Labour leadership and its exponents are not showing their disapproval of any wrongdoing that was allegedly done by the former prime minister Joseph Muscat and a whole lot of other labour stalwarts. Instead they are defending and glorifying the former leader of the Labour Party who allegedly was involved in widespread corruption, fraud and money laundering.
The PN, in their day, had pirates on board their ship. But once caught they were made to resign, disappear or walk the metaphorical plank.
Labour has decided to turn their ship into a marauding pirate ship. All they need to do is to once more change their flag, this time to the Jolly Roger.
[email protected]