The outgoing president of Malta’s oldest business lobby has warned of a crisis of the political class, saying that unless political parties get serious about certain issues they would drive themselves into irrelevance.
“Thirty years ago, there were politicians people looked up to. Nowadays, we struggle to look at them in that way,” The Malta Chamber’s Marisa Xuereb said in an interview as she prepared to step down at the end of her two-year term. Xuereb, an economist, finds it upsetting that many people with high standards of integrity have to work shoulder-to-shoulder “with those who clearly have not understood that being a member of the highest institution of the country requires them to behave ethically both in public and in private”.
The Malta Chamber, she said, has had to hold off on a report about the need for a smaller parliament and higher salaries for parliamentarians, because what was happening at the moment made it very difficult for an institution like the chamber to make such proposals.
“In the context of what is emerging about the opinion of certain parliamentarians on how they are to be compensated and the way they behave, it makes it very difficult for us to stand up for MPs the way we wish to.”
“When behaviour in private life does not match what is expected in public life, the shadow that is cast on everyone else and the repercussions are huge, and the entire political class is discredited.”
The chamber’s previous report, ‘A Strong Transparency, Accountability and Ethical Governance Framework for Members of Parliament’, would be presented to the new Standards Commissioner soon, following a six-month vacuum in this position, Xuereb said.
Xuereb expressed dissatisfaction at inaction on issues the chamber has raised, saying it was a case of “one step forward and two steps back” in the country.
While the chamber’s voice for business remained strong and was being heard, whether “the people in power are doing what we would like them to do is a different story”.
She fears a level of fatigue will start to creep in among those who have some ambition to try to clean up the country.
She referred to “a section that is, unfortunately, being suppressed by the few who make headlines for the wrong reasons”, but said The Malta Chamber was determined not to “give up on this country”.
For the few who made headlines for the wrong reasons, there were hundreds who were doing a great job in their own areas of competence, she acknowledged.
It was critical, at this juncture, for the chamber to continue standing up for ethical business and working on restoring its reputation “beyond these incidents and the people who have damaged it so much”.
Business as scapegoat
Asked about concerns on the relationship between big business and politics, the outgoing president said the political crisis of recent years meant “there was a very big risk of business becoming the scapegoat”.
Yes, some people were in business to abuse of certain connections, and when that happened, “it is not business anymore – it is crime”. A clear distinction had to be made, she said.
But Xuereb believes the vast majority earn a living legitimately.
Highlighting some key issues the chamber has been vociferous about, Xuereb mentioned the need for improvement in public procurement standards, which she said was leading to taxpayer money being squandered on substandard things.
Being the biggest consumer in the country, the government was in a position to decide which businesses succeeded or failed, she pointed out.
“If you look at the major failures, including the ones that are making headlines recently, they are all related to public procurement that entirely bypassed processes.”
She called for a clear distinction to be drawn between ministerial competence and the competence of the civil service.
“Deciding whether to privatise is a political decision; but choosing the contractor is the competence of the executive.”
The National Audit Office investigated and published long reports on procurement processes years after they had happened, she lamented, insisting that scrutiny had to happen from the start – before it was too late, wrong decisions were made, money spent and time wasted.
From “kicking the can” to buy time, slow court processes, formalities, loopholes and delaying tactics, Xuereb said the amount of limited resources the country was wasting on looking back at how things were done incorrectly and arguing about who was to blame was highly inefficient.
Xuereb had recently expressed hope that the government would seek a balance between development, the environment and cultural heritage.
But while it was a hope she strongly felt needed addressing, she admitted it was the one area in which she had the least confidence that something tangible would be done.
“When it comes to the environment, it is highly unlikely that the country will ever be held at gunpoint as it was in the grey-listing process, for example,” she said.
Both sides of the house seemed to be in agreement on this area and did not really challenge each other.
“The problem with the environment is also that once an area starts losing character, it is very difficult to stop that process.”
Need to stop kicking the can
On the morning of the interview, as Xuereb was preparing to exit the stage, a Facebook reminder of something she had posted seven years ago popped up.
“It read: ‘Easter is a reminder that whatever you try to bury in a grave can rise again’ And I wept...
“People tend to do this for fear of political repercussions, but when they rise again, they do so with more vengeance. So, the right thing to do is to nip things in the bud,” she advised, insisting on the need to take action.
In her view, the sooner things rose again, the better, “because we will have to address them; we will have to stop running away from things that were not done correctly...
“We have to stop kicking the can and thinking that things will sort themselves out alone, or just disappear,” Xuereb warned.
“The longer we allow things to slip, the worse the repercussions and the cost of repairing them will be,” she said, using the 30-year Air Malta saga as a prime example.
Women occupying public roles
But Xuereb was not put off: “The worse it gets, the stronger the chamber will be. We are realistic about what can be achieved in a short span of time. But we are also mindful of what this chamber has achieved over 175 years.”
Xuereb’s presidency has been characterised by “achieving most of what I intended to do and other things I never anticipated”.
Her exit – when she could have run for re-election – was about “wanting the chamber to have as much new energy and fresh ideas as possible”.
A president was not there to provide continuity in an organisation like this, she said.
That came from the staff she left behind, which she focused on building during her term. She considered this her main area of success.
With predominantly female staff, including the management team, she said this marked the difference between the chamber and most businesses in the private sector.
“I would like to think it is because the chamber is slightly ahead and that they will go through the same beneficial transformation process too.”
Xuereb cautioned, however, against pushing women to take up positions just because they were women, as this could backfire.
“When you are in a public position as a woman, because it is not that common, anything you do reflects on the whole female population,” she said, admitting she personally felt this responsibility.
“Those in such positions need to be mindful of their responsibility towards the female population and especially the upcoming generation of girls who need role models.”
Xuereb took the helm of the chamber during the pandemic; Malta was grey listed within three months, and no one expected a war, which led to issues of supply, inflation and the energy crisis.
Her tenure included a change of government and concluded with the celebrations of The Malta Chamber’s 175th anniversary.
She foresees another challenging two years ahead, both for the country and globally.
While taking a break from public life, which she admitted was not her scene, she intends to remain deeply involved in the chamber, serving another two years as immediate past president on the council.
Warning against being “inward-looking”, she plans to spend more time overseas “to be able to be more aware of what is happening in other countries that are possibly ahead of us in areas of regulation and enforcement, in particular related to the environment, good governance and green transition”.
She encouraged looking outside the country to measure up against those who were better, to learn from the good and bad experiences of others, and to develop “ambitions” with regard to the green transition, for example.
“We need to keep in mind that if we continue to entertain mediocrity, we will eventually find ourselves with our backs against the wall. Because ultimately, the rest of the world, and particularly the Europe we do business in most, is forging ahead.”