The prime minister seems determined to defy the consistent advice of various organisations and some former admirers. He refuses to quit now rather than in January to stop harming Malta’s reputation. He is either delusional that he can still salvage his lost credibility or refuses to acknowledge his gross mistakes when surrounding himself with crooks.
The new prime minister has the daunting task of cleansing the Augean stables of Castille and the entire government structure. It seems that the country has to wait for some more weeks before this vital exercise starts. Dr Muscat continues to squat in the corridors of power despite having lost all legitimacy to do so. In the meantime, it will be good for whoever will be the new temporary tenant at Castille to start defining his priorities. Mending Malta’s shattered reputation cannot wait.
The top priority should be the appointment of a new Cabinet. It will be a mistake to reappoint most of the existing Cabinet on the pretext of achieving a smooth changeover. The new prime minister will undoubtedly engage in intrusive due diligence of the present Cabinet ministers to decide who of them are more likely to support and implement a programme of change.
This change will involve most areas of government including governance and the division of power, economic strategy, and the enforcement of law and order. Preserving the status quo will not be sufficient to instil confidence in Malta’s reputation as a vibrant democratic country.
It is customary for the most senior persons in the public sector to offer their resignation when a new prime minister takes office. A new prime minister should send a clear signal that there will indeed be a change in direction. The country needs to eradicate the structural weakness that has ruined its reputation. Law and order, environment protection and urban planning, as well as financial regulation and economic planning, must be reformed. These functions need to be led by persons who understand the extent of the damage caused in recent years by state capture and the cosy but perverse relationship between big business and the political elite.
The political mindset of promoting growth at all costs will perpetuate the heavy criticism of the international media and regulatory organisations. Political leaders must not ignore the risks that the country’s ultra-liberal economic policies pose to economic sustainability. EU politicians will become more intrusive in their oversight of Malta if they perceive that Malta’s citizenship schemes are a security risk to the rest of the Union. The new prime minister will do well to suspend the passports scheme immediately. It is one of the issues that has attracted justifiable criticism from the international media and EU political leaders.
Just as significant is an acceleration and intensification of investigations on the way that specific public contracts were awarded in recent years. These include the contracts for the new power station, the management of three public hospitals, and the St Vincent de Paule extension.
The senior staff, especially the persons of trust, that inhabited the Office of the Prime Minister in the last few years, will do well to ask to be assigned new duties. If they do not ask, they should be instructed to report to some other post away from the centre of gravity of government decision making.