In 1990, Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. A Gulf war loomed as the US assembled an international military alliance. And many Maltese began to stock up on groceries and other supplies.
The theatre of war was a long distance from Malta but there still was a risk of a run on the shops. The then prime minister, Eddie Fenech Adami, felt compelled to assure everyone there was no need.
What a different world Malta is today. War is much closer. Bombs are raining down on Gaza. Attacks have been conducted on Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli soil. Maltese-flagged shipping has been attacked in the Gulf. Thankfully, there has been no need to warn Maltese consumers from making a run on the shops.
Indeed, to go by the most recent Eurobarometer poll, defence and security ranks a mere eighth in the list of concerns of Maltese voters. Only 17 per cent of the 506 Maltese voters polled in February rated it a top priority. The EU average is 31 per cent, while the concern tops the polls in nine EU member states.
The poll was conducted with an eye on June’s European Parliament elections where voters, notoriously, are often driven by domestic rather than pan-European concerns. This helps explain why, in Malta, migration and asylum topped the list for half the people polled, while only a quarter of other Europeans, on average, rated the issue so high.
Some have interpreted this lack of security concern as a sign of disconcerting complacency. Whether you think Maltese neutrality is dangerously out of date, or, on the contrary, more important than ever, one would expect that the State’s first duty – defence and security – would feature high on the list of priorities.
The conclusion to draw from the Eurobarometer poll should be, therefore, that if voters have their priorities not quite right, part of the blame should be attributed to weak leadership
It is tempting to conclude that the Eurobarometer reveals an excessively insular view among Maltese. But we should resist temptation. A closer look reveals that would be simplistic.
No issue is less insular than climate change, where meaningful action requires the planet to take concerted action. Concern about climate, however, sees the Maltese average surpass the European – by 33 to 27 per cent.
This suggests a different way of reading the poll. It reveals more about political leadership. People’s understanding of priorities follows the lead given by the politicians.
One may debate the effectiveness of government policy on climate change, but there’s no debating that the environment minister, Miriam Dalli, keeps it high on the public agenda. So does the education system.
Voter concern with climate change reflects the government’s readiness to address the subject. In contrast, its approach to defence and security is to operate by stealth and avoid the real issues. Sometimes it has even misrepresented the issues for short-term electoral gain. The same point applies to the high concern shown about migration and asylum. No doubt, being a frontline State matters. There is room for objective concern. But what also matters is how government and opposition address the issue.
Many things have gone wrong in recent years with respect to irregular and labour migration. We’ve seen the race card played. We’ve seen the issue used to stoke insecurities. We’ve also seen government inaction on a proper regulatory framework and integration policy. We should not be surprised that, therefore, migration features high.
The conclusion to draw from the Eurobarometer poll should be, therefore, that if voters have their priorities not quite right, part of the blame should be attributed to weak leadership.
We expect better leadership to be shown on the issues and priorities as the European Parliament campaigns heat up.