The 2007-2008 global financial crisis was the most severe worldwide economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. The targeting of low-income homebuyers by banks, the excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions and the bursting of the US housing bubble culminated in the global crisis.

During that time, the UK Treasury – the UK taxpayers –forked out £20 billion to bail out the crippled Bank of Scotland while Sir Fred Goodwin, CEO of the bank, defended his £16 million pension.

In 2023, Open Democracy, an independent international media platform in London, reported on a dark money investigation which revealed the UK parliament’s £180 million expenses bonanza in photoshoots, business-class flights and hotel stays.

On October 10, 2023, the Malta Court of Appeal, made up of the chief justice and two judges, declared the Vitals Global Care and Steward Health Care’s contract to run three State hospitals in Malta and Gozo officially null and void because “senior (Maltese) government officials” were complicit in the privatisation fraud and the Maltese government had failed in its duty to protect the national interest. Maltese taxpayers had forked out €400 million for ‘the deal’.

As a result, many in Malta are insisting that those politicians responsible for these misdeeds “should shoulder their political responsibility”, which probably means primarily resigning from office.

If Maltese politicians resign from office will this be enough? We have already seen how those who did resign from their office for one misdeed or another turned up at other well-paid jobs, not as ministers, but as top government officials in other government institutions.

In January 2020, a former Labour minister was given an annual €80,000 job as a consultant in tourism and business development for the Malta Tourism Authority, two weeks after resigning because of his misdeeds.

On December 20, 2021, a Maltese Labour MP resigned from parliament because of his apparent involvement in the disability benefits racket. A short time after, he appeared again as a consultant, with hefty pays, at the Office of the Prime Minister, to boot.

Action by the police commissioner and the attorney general may also be taken and those politicians and senior civil servants involved in the “collusion between Steward and senior Malta government officials or its agencies” in the three hospitals saga may be found guilty of criminal action and may end up in prison.

In this scenario, Maltese society’s response to such wrongdoing will be retribution. It is known that in other countries several expense fiddling MPs have been subject to humiliating public scrutiny of their finances and lifestyles.

Such vengeance can feel good but it plays to the lowest parts of the character of many people. And establishing guilt, and effecting punishment, does not always mean establishing remorse.

Effecting custodial punishment as a deterrent may also be another response to political wrongdoing. 

Napoleon used to say: “Punish severely to punish less often.” But a policy of deterrence does little or nothing to change the underlying attitudes of the wrongdoer: someone who has gamed the system once may modify their behaviour only as much as they need to in order to game the system again.

Establishing guilt and effecting punishment does not always mean establishing remorse- Tony Mifsud

Less than one year after the collapse of a string of investment banks during the Global Financial Crisis and as banking reforms were being drawn up, bailout survivors Goldman Sachs again reported record bonuses and profits gained largely as a result of rivals being eliminated.

When considering the failed morals of its political leaders Maltese society cannot afford to compromise its moral standing or miss a valuable opportunity to fix what went wrong.

An alternative response to wrongdoing is rehabilitation of the wrongdoer.

Criminal justice studies have shown rehabilitation to be the most effective way to prevent reoffending. Rehabilitation could and should focus on fixing the relationship between Maltese MPs and those they represent.

Many Maltese MPs, as public servants, do need rehabilitation. They are not reflecting the values of the Maltese people.

Rehabilitation must, therefore, focus on fixing the relationship between the people and their MPs.

Direct engagement through community work has a great transformative potential.

It is also much more likely to bring about a genuine culture shift.

An MP who puts in some hours at an old people’s home might be better equipped to understand the priorities and concerns of the people he represents.

MPs who are lawyers, accountants and business management consultants have much they can offer the charity sector with their expertise, acting as consultants or trustees, or simply helping with financial or legal literacy and education. 

A dentist might offer free teeth cleaning to low-income patients. Many lawyers can offer legal aid either to help poor clients or because the outcome of a case would serve the public good.

On October 20, 2023, a court in Malta sentenced the millionaire driver of a sports car who, during the 2015 Paqpaqli għall-Istrina, crashed into the crowds and injured severely many spectators. The sentence was to perform 300 hours of community service. 

Tony Mifsud

The Englishman will be doing community work with Malta’s Puttinu Cares for cancer patients in the UK. He is to do the work in two years and the court has to be updated on the progress regularly. 

Tony Mifsud studied politics and social affairs in Oxford.