On June 16, 2014, then prime minister Joseph Muscat proudly announced: “We will turn Malta into the next Dubai.”
Why was Muscat so enthralled by Dubai’s glitzy glamour? Brash and flashy with Lamborghini police cars and with the tallest skyline in the world, Dubai captivated Muscat. He was always enthralled by outrageous wealth. A city built on the glorification of money and which obscenely flaunts its riches couldn’t fail to mesmerise Muscat.
“We are attracting the global rich to become citizens of Malta,” he bragged.
For Muscat, the value of people is gauged purely by the size of their fortune.
For Muscat, the value of people is gauged purely by the size of their fortune
His crush on opulence was manifested in his brown-nosing of Malta’s pre-eminent tycoon, Yorgen Fenech. Despite his role, Muscat simply couldn’t resist inviting 17 Black’s owner to his private birthday party, sharing chats and accepting lavish gifts.
Muscat’s obsession with Dubai was entirely predictable.
While still leader of the opposition, Muscat travelled to Dubai to meet Maltese expatriates. On June 9, 2012, he organised drinks and a buffet-dinner on the ‘dhow boat LAMA’ at Bur Dubai creekside. Muscat would visit the city multiple times, each mired in controversy.
Far from the paradise Muscat projected, Dubai is a tasteless parody.
Behind the glitz lurks ominous repression coupled with reckless disregard for real worth. Muscat’s threat of turning Malta into the next Dubai was no empty promise.
Dubai conjures images of shiny skyscrapers, the Burj Khalifa, the Burj al Arab or Muscat’s favourite, Atlantis Palm Jumeira. Dubai embarked on a frenzy of unrestrained construction.
Everybody wanted to build all at once.
Dubai just found space for everyone to build what they wanted, how they wanted. The unbridled construction earned Dubai the title ‘city of cranes’, a title that Muscat’s Malta fully deserves.
Beyond the shiny seven-star hotels and famous skyscrapers, large areas of Dubai remain half-built and abandoned. The chaotic and inefficient mess resulted in a rich man’s dystopia in the desert. The building craze was so expensive that Dubai couldn’t afford a drainage system.
The tallest building on the planet, Burj Khalifa, is not connected to city sewers.
Every day, dozens of orange trucks line up outside the skyscraper to suck up excrement generated by its wealthy residents to transport it to sewage treatment plants.
Joseph Muscat not only turned Malta into Dubai but beat it at its own game. Malta was greylisted even before Dubai
On April 6, 2015, Muscat laid the foundation stone of what he promised would be a €120 million mega development project in Gżira named Metropolis Plaza.
Muscat proudly hailed the project as evidence he was attracting the right investment. He guaranteed it would be completed in four years and employ 400 people.
Six years later, the site remains a gaping hole. Not a single brick was laid.
Even Muscat’s foundation stone has been removed.
More of Muscat’s promises at Żonqor Point, Gozo General Hospital and St Luke’s Hospital suffered the same fate.
Unfinished projects are the least of Dubai’s or Malta’s problems. Dubai is effectively a slave state exploiting thousands of southeast Asian workers lured by the promise of stable employment and attractive salaries.
Once there, labourers have their passports confiscated, are made to work 12-hour shifts seven days a week and earn as little as $175 (€148) per month. Frequently they’re not paid their wages for months, making them default on payments to their recruitment agents.
Muscat’s Malta also attracted thousands of foreign workers, frequently living in squalid conditions and often abused.
Muscat issued visas to indentured North Korean and Vietnamese workers at the infamous Leisure Clothing Ltd. Labour’s government is still recruiting hundreds of Asians through recruitment agencies, which charge these workers exorbitant illegal fees.
Behind the rosy facade of wealth, Dubai is a fragile economy struggling with high public debt. The Economist estimates Dubai’s debt to be as high as 140 per cent of its GDP. Dubai was compelled to take a massive loan from Abu Dhabi’s central bank to avert bankruptcy.
Similarly, Moody’s recently highlighted “the significant increase in the (Maltese) government’s debt burden”.
Malta’s deficit of 10.2 per cent of GDP is the EU’s second-highest. Its debt has increased to 55 per cent and will rise to a staggering 66.4 per cent of GDP. Muscat’s boasts of his financial genius seem as hollow as his Metropolis Plaza now.
Dubai’s biggest threat, however, is its attitude towards dirty money. It is the shadiest of the big financial centres. It is a haven for money that needs laundering, money linked to sanctions-busting or funds stolen by kleptocrats.
The chaotic and inefficient mess resulted in a rich man’s dystopia in the desert
It is the biggest hole in the global anti-money laundering system – by design.
It is one of the most uncooperative jurisdictions, refusing to help with foreign government investigations. It actively encourages tax evaders to park their undeclared money in their banks.
Dubai sees taking dodgy money as a competitive advantage. Muscat did his best to emulate Dubai. His courting of the notorious Pilatus Bank owner, prosecuted in the US for sanctions-busting and money laundering, enabled Azerbaijan’s kleptocrats to park their illicit gains in Malta.
It also allowed Brian Tonna and Keith Schembri to execute their shady financial transactions. Muscat’s passport sales to dodgy crooks aimed to bring shady money to the island.
Dubai’s scariest side is its flagrant human rights abuse record. Its relaxed welcoming atmosphere conceals a brutal stifling of free speech. Voicing even the slightest criticism against the government is met with ruthless retribution.
In 2018, a British PhD student spent five months in solitary confinement before his government’s intervention freed him.
Muscat’s Malta has outdone Dubai. A journalist critical of the government was relentlessly persecuted and finally blown up.
Malta beat Dubai in other areas too. The FATF issued a stinging report on Dubai in 2020 and placed it under a year-long observation. Failure to implement money laundering laws would lead to greylisting.
Muscat can be proud of his achievements. He not only fulfilled his promises but exceeded them. He not only turned Malta into Dubai but beat it at its own game. Malta was greylisted even before Dubai.