During his last new year’s message to the nation in December 2018, the former disgraced prime minister, corrupt Joseph Muscat pompously proclaimed that Malta was the best country in Europe and predicted that 2019 could see Malta as the envy of the world.
He promised a lot of new things that would benefit the Maltese. He pledged that the following year would see robots assisting specialists during operations along with distributing medicine to patients in hospital. He also assured that a new mental health hospital would be built. It didn’t happen, as everybody knows.
What happened were things that nobody thought could ever happen in Malta. The legendary ‘road map already in place’ is the only truth uttered by Muscat and was a ‘go’ from day one. It was a ‘let us get rich quickly’ road map.
Never has corruption, in every aspect, been so flagrant. No one would have imagined that, within a decade, Malta, from a jewel in the Mediterranean, would be transformed into a corrupt mafia state.
Transparency International put Malta in the 51st place out of 175 countries for perceived corruption, an all-time high after being a record low of 25th place in 2005. The Vitals/Steward case, the sale of European Union passports, the Montenegro wind farm,and Electrogas are spot-on examples.
The Maltese state was also held responsible for the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who exposed the government’s sleaze.
No wonder Muscat resigned in shame in 2019.
Scandal followed scandal. The latest, which is still developing, is over fake ID cards. Jason Azzopardi has filed a request for a magisterial inquiry into the alleged fraudulent issuance, against payment to high government officials, of more than 18,000 identity cards to third-country nationals. The fraudulent cards would have enabled their holders to travel across Europe within the Schengen area.
Italy has already reacted and declared that it will not accept an identity card for travel but also a passport. Other Schengen countries will definitely follow suit.
One must not forget other ‘schemes’ like the driving licences scandal, the customs and the social security cases.
And it looks like all this is endorsed by the commissioner of police as no action whatsoever has so far been taken. Angelo Gafà is too busy informing the public about new electric vehicles for the police and about how many police stations are open. Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri is also absent.
Impunity in Malta reigns supreme. It has become normal for people to break the law with no consequences. Look at the number of tables and chairs put on public land by restaurants, cafes and now even the pastizzi takeaways obstructing pedestrians’ passage and making it impossible for wheelchairs and prams to stay safely on pavements.
Listen to the loud music playing from discos and bars in cities and villages, keeping people awake till the early hours. See the infringements of the law by motorists, haphazard parking, excessive speeding and texting while driving. You got a ticket? Talk to your MP or PL official and all will be absolved. LESA officials feel more secure handing out parking tickets.
Muscat’s brilliant economy boost depended solely on the mass importation of lowly paid third-world workers. “They will finance our pensions,” he solemnly declared. You can see them everywhere – from driving cabs to delivering food, on construction sites and serving in restaurants and cafes. They are paid the minimum wage.
Their contribution to Malta’s coffers is minimal, yet, their impact on the health system, especially Mater Dei Hospital and health centres, on the infrastructure such as drainage and energy generation and distribution is all too expensive.
It may take up to 90 minutes to drive from Rabat to Valletta, longer than it takes to fly to Rome- Joe Azzopardi
To accommodate the tens of thousands of workers from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and India, crafty and greedy contractors have raped Malta’s towns and villages, with the blessing of the PA (Permits Authority), building rabbit hatches for 10 people to live in one room.
The sheer numbers and the lack of infrastructure maintenance and upgrading is now playing havoc with the drainage system. Bays are becoming polluted with drainage run-off water. St George’s Bay, in St Julian’s and Birżebbuġa, Balluta and Buġibba bays are, at the time of writing, considered not fit for swimming. While Prime Minister Robert Abela insists no bays are polluted, the superintendence for public health says otherwise.
Traffic has become a nightmare. It may take up to 90 minutes to drive from Rabat to Valletta, longer than it takes to fly to Rome. Apart from drivers’ frustration, this is causing pollution throughout the island.
Road infrastructure works, which take ages to be finished and diversions often leading to nowhere, are contributing to the congestion that has become the norm all over.
The costs frequently double as, once completed, the newly laid roads are dug up again. The effect of hours spent on the road is having negative effects on the economy in lost working hours.
Malta has become as dirty as a third-world country. Despite having three ministries involved in the public cleansing, mounds of garbage bags can be seen in corners around the whole island.
Social media reels have shown garbage collection in Valletta during lunchtime, with tourists having lunch in the capital’s streets and tourists filming rubbish heaps in Buġibba.
Albeit the public relations stunts costing hundreds of thousands and promising millions in investment, such as the latest cleaning robots depicting images of Xummiemu, streets are just as dirty, if not dirtier, than in the past.
In all this, Abela is missing in action. It looks like he has totally lost control of his cabinet and party. He is busy fending off internal dissent and giving all his attention and efforts to securing his leadership.
Meanwhile, Malta has gone to the dogs.
Joe Azzopardi is a former official at the ministries for the environment, justice and home affairs and foreign affairs.