A midsummer nightmare

This is the time of year when all of us should be by the sea, relaxing and enjoying the beauty with which nature has adorned our tiny islands. This should be a time when to slow down and reflect on what is happening around us. A time to prepare ourselves for the challenges and opportunities the future inevitably holds.

This year's incessant summer heat seems to be driving us berserk. True, the follies that are taking place at home are petty compared to what is happening further east. Gone is the talk about roadmaps for peace, crusading for democracy and all that. There it is back to war.

We cannot feel but anguish when the very foundations of our society are under attack. So much of the society we have built seems to be crumbling. Many feel betrayed, disillusioned, impotent. This is not the type of society we want. Our country voted for Europe, and we are getting Africa. We are angry that our purchasing power is fast eroding. Many believe we are being unduly cheated as the well-connected few continue to prosper in a disproportionate way. And the Prime Minister continues to talk about economic recovery; as if we are suffering from migraine not cancer.

"Development" is becoming a dirty word in our collective consciousness. Economists are trained to believe that development is about sustained growth, shared welfare, social justice. Now it implies arrogance and stubbornness by the government. Have we seen the end of the story? Hopefully not. Maybe there exists an EU which through its environment directives could rescue us from our madness.

It must be a scorching sun which makes the government behave in this way. Sensing the political sensitivity of the pensions issue, the government decided to play for time. Yet nothing would stop the government from bulldozing its way through Parliament on the development zones issue. Did Cabinet really deem the matter as being less sensitive than the pensions one? The dice must have been thrown a long time ago. The Prime Minister's monologues about the cost of housing and social justice. In that case, is this the best his government could do?

Many wish that this country adopts its own Whistleblower Act. We talk about empowerment and decentralisation, and end up discrediting those whom we delegate or whom we appoint to investigate. It happened to the Ombudsman some years back. This summer it is the turn of the Auditor General. Both offices had their authority embedded in Parliament itself. Then we desperately attempt to defend all that is ours, all that is done by us. The pied piper drowns all accusations of corruption, little caring that the people's trust in authority is fading.

Moons ago the Nationalist government campaigned against corruption. It believed that corruption had become "institutionalised". And now? Can anyone stand up and convince the people otherwise? We had cases of corruption in every sphere of life, in every branch of authority.

We are transmitting a culture that corruption pays. Money no longer just talks. It runs, hides, permeates every nook of our life. Recently, addressing a local conference, the secretary general of the International Federation of Journalists made the case for Malta to have a Freedom of Information Act so as to counter political spin and official secrecy and move towards open government. This is the citizens' dream; the government's nightmare.

Still, we need to drop our southern sense of fatalism, and seek to rebuild our society on sound values. Who can take the lead and show the way if not the government itself? We have sufficient intelligent politicians who realise what is happening to our society. Let them reach out, communicate with the people, share their ideas and principles. This is the best service they can render to our country.

Our society can no longer afford to set up agencies and institutions with the best of intentions, set high expectations and then accept their total mismanagement. We have to maintain a decent sense of quality, standards, ethical behaviour, acceptable level of output. Mepa, MTA, PBS Ltd., Voice of the Mediterranean, ADT, Malta Shipyards, the ports - a mayhem.

And we discover that we, as a people, are xenophobic. We, who pride ourselves of our hospitality, our big heart and our Strinas. We, the Malta brand. In the meantime, the world is getting stories about our holding 11 immigrants for 3-5 days in a small room with no window, no light source and no toilet. We are afraid and feel threatened. We see "uninvited" visitors in one and all.

The biggest threat is coming from within ourselves.

fms18@maltanet.net