Category: Politics

Categories
Election22

Election22: The Solution

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

The Solution: Bertolt Brecht

The election announced, the speculation begins. All forms of calculation are based on the ultimate constant: the rules of the game have not changed and ultimately the duocracy provides the only viable alternatives to electors. Anything else is offside.

Against all odds. The polls are unforgiving. Labour shall and will win. The question faced by those whose eyes have been opened is whether any credible opposition can be raised at this late stage. We will see different theories on the best ways to make opposition count. From the urgency of voting them out (vote PN) through the tired and illogical holding of the nose we will be presented with different reasons why voting PN is the only way to mitigate the onslaught of LabourAgain.

Even with the last minute purge of its undesirable parts the PN has failed miserably by turning up at the election as a loose collection of parts that is still committed to salvaging the system. Having been so close on numerous occasions to taking the leap into the unknown and transforming itself into a revolutionary party, the PN limits its odds to the quintessential “vote me for I am not Labour”.

We are still to see a commitment to the dismantling of the PLPN system that is necessary to rebuild the nation from scratch. It is only then that a vote for the Nationalist Party will mean anything more than simply voting in an alternative abuser of the system.

At this stage, with this kind of odds involved, the blank ballot becomes a powerful and attractive alternative. I strongly doubt we could ever reach the 83% level of blank ballot “terrorism” described in Saramago’s Seeing but the blank ballot is fast becoming the clearest form of protest vote of real opposition.

Unless a party provides a clear and unqualified commitment to a systemic overhaul the solution for those who are no longer blind can only be the blank ballot. Turn up to the polling booth and register your dissatisfaction with what is on offer by posting a blank ballot in the box.

Miegħek. Flimkien. Vot vojt.

“Casting a ballot is your irrevocable right, and no one will ever deny you that right, but just as you tell children not to play with matches, so we warn whole peoples of the dangers of playing with dynamite.”

José Saramago, Blindness
Categories
Constitutional Development Rule of Law

Alarum! Inflation!

Households will experience the biggest fall in their living standards since records began as they face soaring inflation, tax increases and rising energy bills. In a bleak assessment of the year ahead, the Bank of England warned people that take-home pay would fall by five times the amount it did during the financial crisis of 2008. It will be the worst hit to real incomes since comparable records began in 1990.

Britons facing biggest drop in living standards – The Times

It’s a ticking time bomb and it is among us as we go about our daily lives. The warning signs are increasing daily and we ignore it at our peril. It is the result of a combination of a number of factors that might be contributing to speed up the countdown to D-Day and these factors include the pandemic, the energy crisis and the return of threats to global stability. The worst contributing factor, if not the main one, is the degeneration of liberal democracies and the proliferation of false republics.

The armageddon that I speak of is inflation. Not to be confused with a simple rise in prices, it is a possible breaking point, a crisis moment that will force a shift in the social paradigm.

Malta has already begun to feel the rumblings of the storm. Unable to operate in a vacuum the dangers of rising prices, increased energy bills and a general devaluation of the money in people’s pockets would spell disaster even in the case of a diligent government trying to navigate through the latest international crisis.

We have been there before. In 2008 the Gonzi government did manage to cushion the impact of a global financial crisis. Which did not mean that we did not emerge with a disgruntled business class. This time round we would do well to harbour strong doubts with regards to the capability of the Abela government to weather such a storm.

Here lies the problem. The Abela government inherited a system of governance that had already compromised the real republican constitution. An all-powerful executive hijacked the remaining pillars of the constitutional checks and balance denuding the system of any semblance of a republican charter based on the rule of law.

The compromised state is unable to generate any kind of policy beyond the populistic and is only able to plunder public funds for the benefit of the select few. The power of incumbency is used to maintain an illusion of normality notwithstanding the imminent signs of economic and social disaster.

Take the latest measure announced of distributing 200 or 100 euro cheques as one-off compensation for the damage caused by the pandemic. At an estimated 70 million euros this measure falls far short of creating a clear far-sighted policy to weather the impact of the incoming storm. Instead it is a temporary distraction for the population.

What we are facing is a collapse in living standards. The price hike will be the last thing on our minds compared to the devaluation of take-home pay, rising energy bills and rising cost of living. There will be a limit to the number of times the government chooses to plunder public money.

The real question is: how long before the anger spills to the streets? How long before partisan loyalty no longer suffices to blindfold citizens from the real effects of a faltering economy? How long before they realise that the institutional rape of our state has left our country exposed to the elements?

Categories
Constitutional Development Politics

The Government Spokesperson

““Incongruous, out of line and condemnable”. The government reaction to the insipid insinuation by Labour stalwart, deposed mayor Anthony DeGiovanni was left to a “government spokesperson” who was fielding questions from the press. DeGiovanni had appeared on a radio programme earlier and repeated a Labour troll’s favourite concerning the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Matthew, Daphne’s son, was somehow to blame for the “mistake” of parking the family car outside the house leaving it exposed to possible assassins and their bomb planting ways. DeGiovanni comes from the same school of crap-spewing sewage producers as Mario Azzopardi who also this week inveighed against Robert Abela for having begrudgingly declared his support of Roberta Metsola’s EP Presidency candidature.

Coming as they did on the wave of the latest poll results indicating a swell of support for Labour, DeGiovanni’s comments are a good example of the kind of swill that feeds the masses. The same kind of swill that is provoked by Abela’s nationalistic comments with regards to Roberta Metsola. These “tropes for trolls” are woven through repetition and mass reproduction while being given undeserved space on the media.

Tellingly, the condemnation of DeGiovanni’s wild insinuations only come as a reaction to further press inquiry and not as an instinctive calling into line. Furthermore the condemnation is in the form of the anonymous spokesperson with no further repercussion seemingly on the horizon. DeGiovanni remains a 72 year old junior lawyer appointed to the public payroll by his daughter notwithstanding his history of unreliability as a public servant.

One last remark concerns the subject that led to DeGiovanni’s baseless assertions. The discussion concerned the calls for resignation of Anglu Farrugia, Speaker of Malta’s House of Representatives. Matthew Caruana Galizia, among others, had called for the bumbling buffoon to resign following his latest contribution to the neutering of the power of the House. Much like a government spokespersons sterile “condemnation”, Farrugia had informed Rosianne Cutajar of a decision that she be reprimanded without following through with the reprimand itself.

These are our institutions at work. Alas the filthy hand of a poisoned faculty that keeps churning half-baked lawyers can be seen once again in the latest series of events. Speaking of which, the theory by law-chitect Musumeci whereby any decision concerning justice should be left to the people remains strong among the Labourite community. Rule by law of the majority continues to threaten our constitutional set up.

It is a theory and system that goes against everything that democratic representation through a system of checks and balances should be about. It flies in the face of the very roots of what law is about and is a recipe for the total annihilation of our fledgling liberal democracy.

We are servants of the law so that we may be free. For how long?

Categories
COVID-19

Monetizing Disasters the Labour Way

Minister Clayton Bartolo is not having a good week at the office. The tourism sector for which he is responsible is the playing ground for a huge dilemma that pits two different priorities of a nation against each other. On the one hand, the sector depends heavily on the free movement of persons into the island – an economic priority of the first order. No tourists means no money to go round. On the other hand, the current resurge of the pandemic menas that measures need to be taken to protect the citizens of Malta from another dangerous wave.

Health vs Economy should be a no-brainer. In his interviews the Minister repeatedly uses keywords such as “caution” and “responsibility”. Each time he is forced to toe the fine line between encouraging the tourist sector’s economy and reassuring the rest of the nation that all steps are taken in a way not to imperil the health of the residents of the island. As we watch the story unfold it is not always so straightforward. The rush to reopen the tourist sector, especialy the language schools, has had some negative results that may be even more painful in the long-term.

Take for example the case of the stranded and quarantined students. Malta’s language school sector has taken a definitive negative blow in Italy with the coverage of the quarantine conditions that the Italian students have been obliged to live in. Have a look at the title of this article on La Stampa which I am sure disgraced former PM Joseph Muscat would love to read:

Coronavirus, Dubai non è come Malta. Lo studente bloccato: “Assistiti da medici e infermieri. Per i miei 18 anni una torta dal ministero della Salute”

(La Stampa)

Lovely no? Malta is now the reference point on the negative end of the scale. Insofar as dealing with the pandemic is concerned, we have moved from top of the class in Europe to being the bad example that no one wishes to emulate. Incidentally, you would have thought that with all the talk the tourism sector has going about its importance they would have mobilized their resources better in order to avoid this kind of situation.

Labour’s rush to capitalise on the UK’s green-lighting of Malta was symptomatic on the eagerness to monetize as quickly as possible and make up for lost time. Disguised in terms of “assisting recovery” of affected sectors, such decisions are clearly a result of a twisted outlook that is not new in Labour’s vocabulary. This outlook is based on an unprincipled money-based approach to monetize on any disastrous situation.

Back in 2011 a Joseph Muscat in opposition would speak of the advantages that would accrue to Malta thanks to the instability in North Africa following the Arab Spring. At the time I had commented:

” … there is something wrong when a progressive politician suggests taking advantage of the Arab Spring to boost national tourism. It gets worse when the same politician lauds Italy’s heavy-handed nationalism on the matter of immigration.”

Pulse, J’accuse on the Malta Independent on Sunday

The Labour party approach to international disasters or events is as unprincipled as it is ruthless. Again back in 2011 George Vella (now President, then aspirant foreign minister) saw the troubles in Libya as a possible boon for Malta since they could end up solving the immigration problem once, as George Vella put it, Libya became a Dubai in the Mediterranean attracting investment (see Labour Loves Libya on J’accuse in August 2011). Now if you set aside the inconsistencies between Muscat’s hopes of attracting that investment rerouted away from a troubled North Africa and Vella’s hope that the investment (and the immigrants) goes to Libya instead you find the bottom line: Malta gaining economically on the back of other disasters.

The problem with the pandemic is that turning Malta into an economic hyena also risks damaging irreparably our reputation in particular sectors while also aggravating the health situation on the island. As the saying goes: Prosit Minestri.

Categories
COVID-19

New Rules on Travelling to Malta – Is a fantasy 14-day rule unjustly ruining travel plans?

Most of yesterday’s post was based on public declarations of what the new measures for the 14th July would be as well as on the preliminary reactions by the Commission. The Legal Notice “Travel Ban (Extension to all Countries) (Amendment Number 4)” was published yesterday. As expected, the L.N. “fixes” the terms that had been declared in order to avoid the discriminatory practices mentioned by the Commission. Travel to Malta is extended beyond the possession of a vaccination certificate for certain cases (medical reasons, children aged 5 to 11) while Maltese residents who were expected to return to Malta could do so based on a PCR test.

It is comforting that the L.N. took into consideration these aspects though it is clear that not all persons hoping to travel to Malta will be covered by these changes. One example would be the diaspora of Maltese working abroad who had been hoping to join their family for summer but who have not yet made it for the vaccination.

One particular obstacle to travel for such workers was the extra condition being imposed on holders of vaccination certificates. In fact, according to the guidelines for entry, it was not sufficient to be in possession of a vaccination certificate but there was an additional requirement that the certificate would have to have been issued “at least fourteen days from the administration of the vaccine”. This means that if you obtained the vaccination certificate less than 14 days before your travel date then it was useless and you could not travel to Malta.

Now countries like Luxembourg issue a fully operational EU COVID19 Vaccination Certificate on the day you receive the final dose. As an example I could cite my own family where my wife was due a second dose on the 26th and we are meant to travel on the 31st. IN our case we are lucky we could count on the Luxembourg system and managed to move the date of the second dose to an earlier date to be safe for travel by fulfilling the 14-day condition.

The problem I have though is that the 14-day condition does not result from any part of the legislation in question. The Legal Notice limits itself to the phrase: “persons may travel from Malta to the countries listed in this proviso and from the countries listed in this proviso to Malta as long as, upon their arrival in Malta, they are in possession of a vaccination certificate“. No 14 day moratorium.

As you can see in the screenshot from the Malta International Airport website the 14-day condition has been maintained without any legal basis:

MIA Notice
from MIA Website

This lack of clarity is not helpful especially since this type of problems normally are “discovered” at the point of entry when faced with an employee sticking religiously to the rules and there is no time for an “appeal” to the law. I might stand to be corrected and would be happy for any enlightenment on the matter but in my mind the 14-day rule has no legal basis and might be unjustly depriving travellers to Malta of their right to move.

Categories
Corruption Zolabytes

Il-bouncer ta’ Kastilja

GUEST POST: In this facebook post Christian Grima takes a good look at what it takes to get into the Auberge de Castille. The standards at the door are those set by bouncer par excellence Robert Abela. Who exactly is allowed in? (Post reproduced on akkuza.com with the author’s permission).

Jekk il-Kap tal-Opposizzjoni biex jidhol Kastilja biex ikellmek, Prim Ministru, irid jirbah l-elezzjoni generali, allura jekk nigu f’dan, inti wkoll, suppost mhux qed topera minnu, ghax sa fejn naf jien, inti ma rbaht l-ebda elezzjoni generali, ghadek. Kien rebbahhielek il-halliel, korrot tas-sena u x’aktarx qattiel jew hati li heba l-involviment tieghu jew ta’ dawk l-eqreb tieghu fl-assassinju barbaru ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia u li llum inti writt is-siggu nkallat tieghu.Joseph Muscat, Illum injot, moralment fallut u rrapportat li nvestigat lokalment kif ukoll barra minn xtutna.

Nexia BT pero’ donnhom rebhuha l-elezzjoni generali hux? Jew qed inhawwad? Ghax dawk dehlin u hergin minn hemm kienu, tant li biex ma tiskomodawhomx u biex ma jarawkomx dehlin u hergin l-ufficini taghhom kull kwarta qiskom boloh, tajtuhom ufficcju Kastilja.Illum kellu jinghalaq dak l-ufficcju kif kellu jinghalaq kull ufficju iehor taghhom bl-assi kollha taghhom iffrizati, pendenti nvestigazzjoni ta’ hasil ta’ flus. B’inkjesta ohra fuq Schembri u Hillman li waslet biex tinghalaq u jigi pprezentat il-Proces Verbal.

Melvin Theuma jidher li rebahha l-elezzjoni generali wkoll skondtok, ghax dak ukoll diehel u hiereg ghand ic-Chief of Staff tal-predecissur tieghek f’Kastilja biex jinnegozja l-mahfra presidenzjali li tah Joseph Muscat, allegatament minn wara dahrek, wara li ftiehmu l-verzjoni maqbula bejniethom li kellu jaghti lill-pulzija u lill-Qrati taghna biex jghattilhom ghemilhom.Illum miraklu li ghadu haj Melvin wara li allegatament ipprova joqtol ruhu b’idejh b’diversi daqqiet ta’ sikkina li ta lilu nniffsu, ghax ma setghax jghix bl-inkwiet u bil-pressjoni li kien qed jaghmillu l-predecissur tieghek, siehbu Keith li skondtok hxih, u r-rimanenti nies gewwa kastilja li wasslulu r-risposti u t-theddid li kwazi gennewh.

Yorgen Fenech ukoll jidher li rebah elezzjoni generali nahseb..jew qed nerga’ nitfixkel, issa?Ghax dak ukoll diehel u hiereg Kastilja kien, qisu sejjer go latrina, kemm qabel, kif ukoll wara li nqatlet Daphne Caruana Galizia, biex jiltaqa’ ma’ Keith u ma dak li qed tpoggi fis-siggu tieghu.Joseph Muscat, illum injot u rredikolat mad-dinja kollha,L-istess Yorgen Fenech li bhalissa ghaddej kumpilazzjoni mressaq b’akkuzi fost ohrajn ta’ omicidju volontarju ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia.Nahseb ahjar tiltaqa’ mieghu l-ufficcju tieghu il-Pieta’ lil Bernard Grech, Robert Abela. Jew il-Kwartieri l-Mile End.

L-ufficcju tieghek Kastilja, barra li skond kliemek ghadek ma kkwalifikajtx biex topera minnu, huwa ufficcju mishut u mcappas bid-demm b’riha taqsamlek qalbek li ma tissaportihiex.Riha ta’ flus jintnu jqattru d-demm. Habatlek sew li trid tilbes maskra.

Sakemm ma tizgurax li ssir gustizzja ma’ kulhadd Prim Ministru, mishut ha jibqalek l-ufficcju tieghek Kastilja u ghad trid tishet is-siegha u l-mument li ntrigajt li tnaddaf il-hmieg li halla warajh il-korrott dinji tas-sena, li fis-siggu mcappas tieghu, inti tpoggi ta’ kuljum, iggorrlu l-mantell

.Joseph Muscat. Illum injot. Illum fallut.