Just what Malta needs right now

This was my column in The Malta Independent yesterday.

When Franco Debono brushed off his interest in the financial health of the country with the cavalier words that the economy is important but his list of complaints about cassette tapes in court and television in parliament more so, he wasn’t joking.

The man who has single-handedly brought business grinding to a near halt over the last few weeks, with no sign of respite for now, must be among Malta’s most despised.

That poor soul Robert Musumeci was on Super One the other night, arguing against harsh criticism of Debono in the press (and the inevitable blokks) on the grounds that it isn’t helping. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?

What isn’t it helping, Robert?

People who write for the internet and for newspapers are not responsible for the psychological equilibrium of politicians. It is not our job, still less our duty, to keep them calm so that they don’t flip again and do something bloody-minded. If those are the sort of mentally unstable politicians we have, if that is the extent of their emotional fragility, then it should be obvious that this – and not what is written or said about them – is the problem.

If Debono and others are the sort of politicians who can’t respect one of the most basic freedoms they bang on about – the freedom of expression – then the sooner they toddle off, the better for the rest of us.

‘Don’t write about me or I’ll lie down and scream and then you’ll see,’ is not acceptable or tolerable behaviour in a member of parliament, and instead of acting as enablers, people like Robert Musumeci, who has much to be embarrassed about, should crawl under a stone and stay there.

How wonderful to know that some of our politicians are made of such stern stuff.

We’ve lost sight of the fact that the country is in this situation because of the selfish pique of just one man. Incredible, isn’t it, how one man can cause so much trouble for so many.

And here I am not talking about the trouble he has created for his political bosses and colleagues, but about the trouble he has created for Malta. Nobody needed this – not even the Labour Party, despite its protestations to the contrary. The scheduled general election was just a year away anyway, and so kicking up this ruckus made no sense at all.

Debono should have let it ride for another 12 months then let the electorate deal with whatever the electorate thought needed to be dealt with. That’s democracy, Franco. What you are doing now is the antithesis of it: one man deciding for everyone else, like a dictator but with negative power, the power of obstructing and of bringing things to a halt rather than the power of doing.

Joseph Muscat is another one with a poor sense of judgement. He could have emerged from all this as the better man, the bigger guy, the statesmanlike politician. “Malta doesn’t need these problems at this juncture,” he could have said. “We’ll go to the people at the appointed hour and not before time. Until then, we’re pulling the same rope.”

By doing that, he’d have emerged the winner in terms of public image, and almost certainly been the winner eventually at the polls. But his chosen course of action has had the opposite effect. It has made him look foolish and desperate. It has brought him out as having poor strategic skills.

It was bad enough that he failed to read the signs that Franco Debono had no intention of voting in favour of Anglu Farrugia’s motion. But then did he have to emerge from parliament wearing such an angry and sour expression, because he had been thwarted?

Worse still has been the way he has stuck to plan A and continued to up the pressure for a general election. The backdrops saying ‘Stabilita’ had been printed already, the suits and ties had been chosen, the speeches written and rehearsed, so he just rode with it as though the government had lost the confidence vote.

With the vote lost, that would have been the obvious thing to do, but in the circumstances, it is not. The campaign on which he has embarked is not sustainable. He can’t keep up this momentum until an election is called, even if that election is imminent, and there are no signs that it is.

Muscat has peaked already and without an electoral programme. He is about to plateau and the signs are there in that the sight and sound of him is increasingly irritating rather than inspirational.

The thing that works most against Joseph Muscat, though, is nothing external. It comes from within and it is called self-love. He cannot conceal his delight in his own nearness to the premiership, his childish pleasure in being brought a year closer to his goal by this unexpected turn of events.

He is no longer able to conceal that growing self-satisfaction. There are times, such as when he spoke at the party’s general conference, that this ‘I made it’ smirking glow takes over his face. A few days ago, a television camera caught him in close-up when speaking at some event. It caught the fleeting but so obvious expression of enjoyment that passed over his eyes and mouth as the crowd clapped at his ‘rousing’ words.

I found the sight of that almost as disturbing as anything his former classmate has done so far.

Joseph Muscat, beginning his work as Prattikament Prim Ministru ta’ Malta, paid a royal visit this morning to an underground car-park in Hamrun.

There was much excitement. Because this was an official government delegation, he left out his backbencher Luciano Busuttil, who became most upset and, following the Tooth Fairy’s example, went on Facebook to expose his bleeding heart.

The Times, meanwhile, redoubled its efforts at cloning Saviour Balzan’s newspaper, and told us that the Labour leader had gone there to ‘inaugurate’ the car park – you know, because it’s usual practice for Opposition leaders to inaugurate public projects, even if they’re only underground car-parks in Hamrun.

Inaugurating the five-storey 160-car car park, Dr Muscat launched the PL’s campaign for the council elections pointing out that Labour was launching the campaign even though the elections’ writ had not yet been issued, reflecting the uncertainty in the country…

A little while later, the story was rewritten, presumably after sound advice was taken:

During a visit to the five-storey 160-car car park, Dr Muscat launched the PL’s campaign for the council elections pointing out that Labour was launching the campaign even though the elections’ writ had not yet been issued, reflecting the uncertainty in the country.

So there you have it. Labour local council election campaign was launched underground. Amazing. Some time soon, it might come up for air.

Left click on the image

This is a Joseph Muscat fan called Helen Cutajar. She had her picture taken with the Great Leader, then she had the photograph reproduced on her birthday cake along with the Labour emblem (she is one of the few people using it).

Sabih, eh? Il-vera najs.

Simon Busuttil had this piece published in The Times today. It’s uploaded with his permission.

IS ACTA A THREAT TO INTERNET USERS?

Last week, representatives of 22 EU countries, including Malta, signed the international agreement called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement or “ACTA”.

The agreement was entered into between the EU, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.

This news generated a flurry of protests, especially on the web, not least in Malta.

For this agreement to enter into force it requires the consent of the European Parliament. A vote on the agreement will be taken in the first half of this year.

As a Member of the European Parliament, I will therefore be able to cast my vote to accept or reject it. Let me explain what this agreement is all about.

First of all, the aim of the agreement is to combat counterfeiting and piracy of goods by strengthening international cooperation in the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

I am sure we all agree on the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. If we do not, then we would be putting at risk your job if you work in the manufacturing sector or if you work in the software industry – both victims of counterfeiting and piracy.

Yet, a number of complaints have been made in the sense that, despite its good intentions, this agreement can restrict internet freedom and even have other consequences, such as restrict access to generic medicines.

These are serious complaints. I for one, would vote against ACTA if these concerns proved valid.

Let us look at some of them and find the answers. And I am here relying on official information published by the European Commission as well as on the advice of the Legal Services of the European Parliament.

Firstly, the most important point: anything that you can legally do today, you can continue doing even with ACTA. Of course, if what you do is already illegal then it will remain illegal with or without ACTA.

Secondly, there have been fears that ACTA would limit our access to the internet or our privacy.

On this, the European Commission states categorically that ACTA will not affect how people use the internet in their daily lives and it will not limit our rights on the internet. Moreover it will not cut us off the internet. Nor will it censor or shut down websites.

This is a major difference from the draft laws (SOPA and PIPA) that were withdrawn in the US just a few days ago following widespread concerns on their restrictions.

Crucially, the Commission adds that ACTA will not require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to monitor or filter the content of internet users.

Indeed, the Commission adds that ACTA will not lead to the so-called “three-strikes” system.

“Three strikes” is a system which allows copyright holders to monitor internet users and identify alleged copyright infringers. ISPs would then be asked to warn the users and after three warnings, disconnect their access to the internet. The Commission makes it clear that ACTA will not lead to this system.

Thirdly, the Commission makes it clear that ACTA will not limit access to generic medicines, whether in Europe or to poor countries. Again, if there is illegal trade, then this is already illegal and ACTA will just improve enforcement against illegal trade. But legal trade of generics will not be curtailed.

So our access to generic medicines is not affected and nor are our companies that produce generic medicines. If anything, ACTA should help these companies because it hits out against illegal trade.

What happens now?

As I said, the agreement must now be voted in the European Parliament, first at committee stage, then in plenary. So far there has not been a vote on the final agreement. So statements to this effect making the rounds should be ignored because they are clearly incorrect.

Two initiatives that were taken in the European Parliament at the time when ACTA was still being negotiating in 2010.

The first was a Written Declaration that called on the negotiators to avoid the concerns mentioned above. I signed this declaration back in 2010.

Then in November 2010, when the negotiations on ACTA were being wrapped up, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which I supported. This resolution supported the aims of ACTA to fight counterfeiting and piracy. But at the same time it took note of the Commission’s assurances on the key concerns identified above.

Another resolution, drafted jointly by the Socialist, Liberal, Green and Communist groups was defeated. I voted against it because it would have killed ACTA rather than help to improve it – and this would have put jobs in jeopardy. But Labour MEPs voted in favour regardless.

So when the time comes to cast my vote, I will want to make sure that ACTA truly serves to protect jobs by fighting effectively against counterfeiting and privacy. And that it does so without creating undue restrictions for internet users.

PN MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa said that the position of Labour MEPs on ACTA constitutes a serious threat to Maltese jobs in the manufacturing and in the IT sectors and called on them to reflect carefully before jumping to conclusions.

“Once again, Labour shoots from the hip. This is why they always get it wrong.” they concluded.

It looks like Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s disease – sulking in public, bouncing off walls and sharing those eee-mow-shins on Facebook -is seriously infectious to fellow members of parliament.

Having first spread the disease through his side of the house, he is now coming into increased contact with Labour politicians and has begun to infect them too.

Luciano Busuttil’s reaction to not being asked by his Great Leader to ‘izur’ the new underground parking facility at Hamrun is straight out of the Jeffrey and Jesmond School of Pika, Buri u Naqsmu l-Emotions Ma’ Kulhadd.

Call these men? I don’t think so. They’re more like 15-year-old girls to me.

———-

Dear Daphne,

Just a short note (not for publication please – I’m tired of arguing about ACTA, all over Facebook and elsewhere, with people who haven’t even bothered to read the proposed treaty or at least read suitably around it) to say it’s a relief to finally see someone bothering to discuss the underpinnings of it all.

I’ve seen some of your comments in your ACTA thread about the right to private property etc, and at last someone is pointing out coherently that just because ‘we all do it’ (illegal downloads) doesn’t make it right, still less a right.

What we’re all doing is stealing. Fullstop.

And all the fancy talk about the unprecedented freedom of the internet bla bla is all a roundabout way of saying we’d rather enjoy our free access to copyrighted material, thank you very much, and don’t want such petty bothers as ‘legality’ or ‘respect for private property’ to alter our comfy habits.

As to the argument ‘the ACTA provisions might be abused of by [insert totalitarian state of choice]‘, well in that case we should outlaw police forces, because in totalitarian states the police force is used to arbitrarily arrest and torture.

As someone said, just because I object to the – say – greed or unethical practices of a fashion manufacturer, it doesn’t give me the legal right to walk into a high-street store and help myself to their clothing.

And if I have a bricks-and-mortar establishment where I’m allowing third parties to sell stolen goods, and keep on allowing it in spite of official warnings, then yes, I shouldn’t be surprised if the authorities take action and close down my establishment.

You choose to make your blog available for free. That’s your decision and you will have your reasons for it. But if other authors/publishers/musicians/artists/producers choose to make their work available against payment, it’s their choice.

They own the rights to it, and any use in breach of that is illegal. I feel silly stating the obvious, but that’s what we have been reduced to.

A published author tried to argue with me against ACTA, saying ‘ACTA is the equivalent of this: if I were to submit a manuscript to a publisher, not telling the publisher it was a translation of someone else’s work, and then the published went ahead and published it, why should the publisher be held responsible?’

Of course the publisher is legally responsible, civilly and possibly criminally, for stealing the original author’s work. That’s actually an argument in favour of ACTA. The publisher is responsible and so is the person who fraudulently sold the translation.

But we’re – as you’ve often pointed out – an incurably socialist nation, and the concept of private property and respect thereof is at best an acquired taste for us.

Li hu tiegħi, tiegħi; li hu tiegħek, tiegħi wkoll għax mhux sew li għandek iżjed minni.

Apologies for the rant. Back to work …

Mhux kulhadd irid jiekol?

Two years ago, Malta Right Now had run this story:

Stefan Buontempo jabbuża mill-email ta’ membru parlamentari għall-kumpanija privata tiegħu
Josianne CAMILLERI
14 ta’ Novembru, 2009

Id-deputat Laburista Stefan Buontempo qed juża l-indirizz elettroniku, li ġie assenjat lilu bħala membru parlamentari, biex iħajjar lin-nies jikru u jixtru proprjeta’ mingħand il-kumpanija privata tiegħu.