You would be forgiven for being confused by the different Labour Party protagonists’ recent declarations on defence. I listened carefully to what the prime minister said most recently and I don’t actually see many divergences on policy.
If anything, it is Alex Agius Saliba who is out of step with everybody else. His position, as best I can understand it, is that the European Union should spend zero on defence because people can’t eat missiles.
Fair enough. And I suppose his heart might be in the right place. But the obvious counterargument is that, when one of the many psychopaths on our borders and beyond decide to take advantage of our vulnerabilities, we might have limited success in fending them off with baguettes.
It is very unfortunate that we live in a world that is becoming more dangerous by the day. It is tragic that the international order – that has kept us safe for decades – is being eroded, putting our prosperity, security and well-being at risk.
Honestly, I can understand Agius Saliba’s personal impulse to embrace denial and delusion, stick one’s head in the sand and pretend all is fine and well in Oz.
But when formulating policy, some connection to reality is warranted. So, rather than doing an ostrich, we must, albeit reluctantly, read the writing on the wall. The seismic global shifts and persistently increasing threats are not Europe’s fault, not Europe’s doing and not our wish. But they impact us nonetheless. I am nauseated by the grotesquely inane attempts to frame this debate as those who want peace and those who don’t. Isn’t it obvious we all want peace? But, in this world, you can’t secure peace through weakness and vulnerability. You secure it through strength. I don’t think that should be controversial.
In the past, we relied on the United States to buttress the international order. But they have made it clear that those days are over, leaving us with a choice – bend over like Alex the ostrich or secure our future for ourselves. The silver lining is that the Americans have long profited from an imbalanced relationship where protection was leveraged for everything else. The removal of that leverage has been a long time coming.
Robert Abela supported a massive increase in funding on defence at the last European Council summit. He did so while also inserting some vague wording he says refers to Malta, and we might as well believe him. But that position is at odds with his deputy leader’s. And he does well to stick to his guns. Beyond the bizarre linguistic acrobatics he treated us to in Malta on what precisely he voted for in Brussels, his position is sound.
Alex Agius Saliba’s position is that the EU should spend zero on defence because people can’t eat missiles- David Casa
Of course, he couldn’t say that Malta opposes an increase in defence spending because people can’t eat missiles because the prime minister is held to a higher level of scrutiny as to whether his comments have any basis in reality in those settings than what his deputy leader has to deal with.
Malta, of course, is neutral, and we have a history of making that work for us and have had an impact on global politics that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible. But neutral should not translate to naive, delusional, weak and unprepared.
At one point, a journalist asked the most pertinent question. What happens if we are attacked? The prime minister took solace in an EU Treaty provision that requires the other 26 member states to defend us. Thanks also to Abela’s support for a defence ramp-up in the EU, that particular deterrent might actually have some teeth, if, God forbid, such a day ever comes.
When it comes specifically to Malta’s capabilities, you would expect Labour to put their internal party squabbles to the side and make good use of a massive pot of EU financing. They should start by bolstering the security within our armed forces, which recent events have shown to be painfully lacking.
But it also presents an incredible opportunity to invest heavily in cybersecurity, for example. Why not make Malta a centre of excellence in that field and make our jurisdiction even more attractive to companies that depend on tech while also providing protection to local companies from ever-increasing cyberthreats?
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen because Labour is all consumed with obtuse proclamations that have been reduced to “we are more in favour of peace than you are”. They must think the electorate has the intelligence of an ostrich.
David CasaDavid Casa is a Nationalist Party MEP.