A few weeks ago, I purposefully wrote two very provocative articles on the need for Malta to reduce its population to more sustainable levels. I also suggested how this could be done.
My intention had been to start a debate on the subject and I am satisfied that this objective has been reached. A number of commentaries and articles responding, criticising or agreeing with my extreme suggestions have sprouted. We really need such a debate in Malta since we just cannot continue along the path of Dubai-like apeism. We are not Dubai and should not assume that the Maltese want to be like Dubai.
We are Europeans with a very long history and we are proud of our heritage. We do not start from a tabula rasa of desert landscape that could be moulded into any shape. Instead, we are born in a historical landscape with long traditions of architectural and religious influences that just cannot be replaced by high-rise monstrosities.
For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a fervent believer in the European EU project. I share deeply the values upon which the EU has been built. I firmly uphold the four freedoms of movement and believe in open borders, as well as in the welcoming of real asylum seekers.
I understand that we cannot stop intra-EU movement of people but we can still have policies that make it less interesting and more difficult for outsiders to come here to work or to live here unless they are prepared to abide by our traditions and respect our national identity.
I proposed to have a reformed economic model that would start by stopping the increase in population and then slowly reduce the non-local working population from the present 130,000 to around 20,000 over a period of 10 years. I would also limit the non-working residents coming to live here to a reasonable number and ensure that those who chose to live in Malta do so on exactly the same fiscal conditions as the Maltese who live here. That is that they have to spend over 180 days per year in Malta and that they pay full Maltese tax rates on all their world income from whatever source.
We are angry, unhappy, overcrowded and occupied by a new colonial power- John Vassallo
A comment that I find absolutely abhorrent was one that, in a very colonial tone, suggested that the fault with Malta is not the extreme population explosion and slow destruction of Maltese culture by the extreme foreign influx but by the “natives” themselves since independence. How very utterly superior and anachronistic this sounds.
It is not acceptable in this day and age to use such colonial language, especially by people who freely decided to live among us and, if they pay their full taxes, are most welcome.
We won back the independence we never lost throughout all those 150 years, suffered from being forbidden to enter many areas of our own country and now have it all back.
What we are doing with the country, I agree, is a disaster, and we, the decent normal Maltese, will soon have enough of the Dubai-sation process and vote to put an end to it.
After that, with new policies in place and a sustainable population, we will be returning to what we are best known for: hospitality and friendship. But, until then, we are angry, unhappy, overcrowded and occupied by a new colonial power. That power is the oligarchy of financially strong and morally dead Maltese families who think they can run roughshod over our cultural heritage, our way of life and our beauty.
All they want is to make money.
The Maltese do not share this objective and will soon revolt against it.
But whatever we do, in the final analysis, it is our business and we do not accept interfering people with colonial mindsets to blame us or to tell us what to do.
John Vassallo is former ambassador to the EU.