Alastair Campbell: “Joseph Muscat’s vision for Malta is Singapore”
Campbell revealed today that Muscat’s vision for Malta is Singapore.
I quote from a report in Times of Malta of Alastair Campbell’s talk at today’s conference organised by EY Malta:
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, he said, was right in his vision of Malta in relation to Singapore because that was the reply to a question on where Malta wanted to be.
Alastair Campbell letting slip that Muscat’s vision for Malta is actually Singapore should have been the headline and the main news peg for that story. Instead, it was buried deep within a chronological summary of what Campbell said – which was, incidentally, nothing that we didn’t know already, except for Singapore.
Though Singapore was under British sovereignty for roughly as long as Malta was, and also uses the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, it is effectively a one-party state and is widely perceived in the west as a ‘benign dictatorship’.
The People’s Action Party has been in government since the start of home rule in 1959, and never obtains less than 60% of the popular vote. It controls the institutions which in Europe are the bulwarks and guarantors of democracy to exclude other political groupings from growing to power.
The Opposition cannot criticise members of the government personally, but is permitted only to criticise policies. In Malta, there is nothing to prevent the Opposition from criticising members of the government personally, but insanely, they are heading down the Singapore route of their own free will, and Muscat must be delighted to have them cooperate in his unstated aims without even knowing they’re doing it.
Did the Labour Party in Opposition ever fight shy of criticising member of the PN government personally? Exactly.
Please note, in this context, that the European Commission has now placed John Dalli under investigation for unauthorised secret trips of an unspecified nature which he made to Singapore while he was EU Commissioner.
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https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/Knowledge/Ethos/Issue%206%20Jul%202009/Pages/Singapores-Political-Economy-Two-Paradoxes.aspx
But today’s FT doesn’t say Singapore’s out of cash so it’s selling passports to China. It says Malta is.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d7c1b472-44a6-11e4-ab0c-00144feabdc0.html?segid=0100320#axzz3FadvyZtB
You’re absolutely right, Daphne, but there’s something else, arguably far worse than the dictatorship: Singapore’s much-touted economic success is built upon Chinese slave labour. And I don’t mean Chinese citizens, but ethnic Chinese with a Singapore passport.
[Daphne – Yes, I know that and much worse too in terms of terrible violations of human rights.]
What’s even more maddening is that the mantra of “the Singapore model” is not Joseph Muscat’s invention, nor is it recent. It was invented by the cabal of intellectuals and ‘economists’ of the Serracino Inglott/Lino Brigulgio/Edward Scicluna generation. I won’t mention Mintoff because we all know the reaction it would trigger.
Oh and by the way: http://dinlarthelwa.org/uncategorized/the-dubaification-of-malta-by-petra-caruana-dingli
Singapore seems to be an important connection for the new Labour government here in Malta.
Writing in April 2010 – in the same month when Joseph Muscat was visiting China to sign a secret MOU with Xi Jinping – Prof Dew Mayson, a Liberian friend and “brother” of Ethelbert J.L. Cooper, refers to a journey he made to Singapore and then to China in the previous year.
Prof. Mayson says he visited Singapore “to witness the launching of a Floating Production Storage Vessel (FPSO) which is scheduled to work for the oil company, AFREN, a production and exploration oil company founded by that financial engineer and innovative Liberian brother, Ethelbert Cooper.”
http://www.theliberianjournal.com/index.php?st=news&sbst=details&rid=1404
What is the chance that he visited Singapore with his family and with Mr. Cooper? How could an FPSO be launched for Afren, without Mr. Cooper, one of Afren’s founders, being there?
The rest of Prof. Mayson’s article reads like an eulogy to China following from some state-sponsored trip to China.
Ethelbert J.L. Cooper is a majority controller of Gasol plc, a company which claims to be the lead developer of Malta’s gas-to-power project, a project which entails an 18-year contract worth around Eur 5 billion.
The names of Prof. Mayson and Mr. Cooper are both included in a list of 49 persons recommended for public office sanctions in the final report dated 2009 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia.
Alistair Campbell should have been asked what he thinks about Mr. Cooper’s deals in Africa, such as those in the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea. Campbell’s former boss, Tony Blair, seems to have had some issues with Mr. Cooper’s way of doing things in Africa and had expressed his concern with the Guinean president in a meeting held in Paris.
Singapore is no ‘benign dictatorship’. It’s a dictatorship and an autocracy – period!
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/09/free-speech-goes-court-singapore-201491710135560258.html
Singapore’s success started with a decision to make English the official language for education and business.
Thinking tool courses were mandatory for promotion in public service.
I smell six hats.
Every Maltese businessman thought that Gaddafi was a benign dictator.
It’s no secret that Mintoff was a great admirer of Lee Kuan Yew: he tried to emulate him, but fortunately was thwarted by his own incompetence and by the fact that he simply could not subordinate the entire population of Malta.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I can do with a benign dictatorship with the likes of Eddie Fenech Adami at the helm any time as opposed ‘liberal’ democracy of the faux type. Besides, where is democracy in reality? Is not democracy influenced by lobbies, and thus, at the mercy of the mega-powerful players to suit their ends?
What is actually worrying in this would-be scenario, is that the Opposition seems to have been appeased by Muscat’s on-going show.
He managed to actually pull the carpet from under the Opposition’s feet. The sad thing is that the Opposition has not yet realised this.
If Muscat turns Malta into another Singapore, the Opposition will be as guilty as the government.
Don’t you realise the Opposition cannot and will not oppose something as deeply Maltese as turning Malta into Singapore? The chief Nationalist ideologues (including Serracino Inglott) have always been firmly in favour of the Singaporification/Dubaification of Malta.
Heqq, iktar flus ghall-familji Maltin u Ghawdxin, goes the mantra. That’s what the ludicrously confessional Principji Bazici have always been about. Flus. Money.
I don’t expect the new leadership to change any of this. Not when the up-and-coming MZPN “zaghzagh” are all drunk on the Maltese Gonzian dream of Università-Ewropa-Avukat/Tabib/Perit-Flus-Status. Not when unemployment is at 6% and everyone’s happily settled with his siehba.
It would take 25% unemployment and mass rioting to change the sacred paradigm. And that’s never going to happen.
Who’s writing the Opposition’s policies? A bunch of very smug and comfortable intelletwali and professjonisti, with perfect CVs. And you expect change?
Let’s focus on the mass rioting, which is something that should be able to happen but doesn’t.
Until people understand that this is about each and every personal and business decision that they take, the horns that charge will remain those of fear, apathy, lethargy, discontent corruption and deceit.
I’m ready to mass riot. Freedom 5 too it would seem. I think people should mass riot in March 2015. The 1st March is a Sunday. It should be done then. Can you imagine how Joseph Muscat is going to gloat once March goes by and he ends it on an official note of celebration on the 31st, which he could – just out of pure spite and disdain – on an “impromptu” note, turn into that one national day? The day we should be celebrating his departure?
In a sense, by blaming the Opposition we fall into the same trap of laying the blame at someone else’s feet. As long as it’s not at our feet. This is where the issue lies: we are each responsible for what happens. Each and every one of us.
Let’s focus now on the styles of counter charge. It’s not that the counter charge doesn’t exist. It exists with different expectations of style, expression and momentum.
I would next focus on that set of differences, and on what is not the same. That too has strengths. Saying “it’s the same as” and putting everything under that blanket can be a terrific idea killer.
Ok. Say you’re not happy with the style, image, expression and momentum of the Opposition. Not happy with the values and operation of this Government. What next?
What would your 5- or 10-point priorities be, say, if you were heading a counter-charge yourself at this mass riot?
And how would you phase the charge from there forwards?
The Economist magazine’s Democracy Index lists Singapore as a ‘Hybrid Regime’ – that’s third in its four broad groupings of Full Democracy (Malta’s placing), Flawed Democracy, Hybrid Regime and Authoritarian Regime.
Hybrid Regime ain’t good.
Russia has slipped from Flawed Democracy to Authoritarian Regime during the Putin years.
I am a Maltese citizen who lives abroad and a regular reader of this blog. I lived almost 10 years in Singapore and married to a Chinese Singaporean actually she is half Teo Chew and half Peranakan. So I suppose I can speak about Singapore more than anybody writing on this blog.
First the natives in Singapore are Malays, Chinese, Indian and Eurasians. It has been like this for hundreds of years.
The citizens of Singapore all have jobs and their salaries are much higher than in Malta. A bank clerk in Singapore earns about 2000 euros a month. So there is no cheap labour. One can argue that they import construction workers for cheap but who doesn’t nowadays.
Secondly Mintoff was no Lee Kwan Yew. Mintoff was a Communist, LKY was a Capitalist. The vision of LKY can be seen in every corner of Singapore, top class in every sector.
Mintoff’s vision was IZRA W RABBI or FABRIKA TAL-KAPPAR.
Thirdly, yes democracy is not Singapore’s forte, but you know what? Everything works! The country which is slightly larger than Malta has a foreign reserve of about $ 400BLN and the budget has an average surplus of $ 9BLN a year.
So if Malta can get so efficient and wealthy I guess we can do with some.
[Daphne – Your reasoning is not at all right. Giving up democracy for material goods and cash? Selling your freedom? What you are saying here is that you are quite content to be deprived of democracy as long as you are comfortable materially. Everything works? No, it doesn’t. It works for you because you are near the top of the food chain. It doesn’t work for the people at the bottom. A salary of 2000 euros isn’t much even in Malta, let alone in Singapore, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. How does a person live off 2000 euros a month (before tax) in Singapore? By foraging in dustbins? Be serious.]
Ok let me put it this way. Would you exchange 1971 to 1987 Malta to 1971 to 1987 Singapore? Democracy is funny sometimes. Every 5 yrs or so you get to vote and for your troubles you get Mintoff, Lorry, J. Grima, JDG, KMB, etc……
In the so bad, non democratic Singapore you vote and you always get PAP.
[Daphne – Your argument is illogical. No, I would not have exchanged 1971 to 1987 Malta for 1971 to 1987 Singapore. What I wanted in Malta in the years 1971 to 1987 (at least in those years when I was old enough to know) was democracy and freedom and human rights, not money and material comfort. You are asking me to choose between being oppressed and restricted in material comfort and being oppressed and restricted with less material comfort. It is a false choice. Human rights are not optional. I didn’t want to be oppressed and restricted at all, in comfort or not.]
Yes everything works in Singapore for those who want it to make it work. Meritocracy, now that’s a new thing for Maltese, in Singapore I have friends who are leaders of industries who like all Singaporeans come from a working class but because they merited it they have it. You’re good you make it, you want it you got a chance. In democratic Malta?…….well…….depends.
[Daphne – Don’t be ridiculous. Our prime minister is the son of a peasant mother (in the real meaning of the word as a factual rural description, not an insult) and a father who started out as a door-to-door salesman, went into business importing chemicals for the fireworks trade, and made a packet. A good 95% of the people in big business today (or what passes for big business in Malta) are first or second generation working class. Meanwhile, do please tell me about the slave labour situation in Singapore – the ‘ïnvisible’ imported workers.]
So you’re saying all the top posts in government and other political appointments are given through meritocracy? (That’s my point). If that’s the case…..its rich coming from a logical and intelligent person like yourself.
The workers you are mentioning are not invisible you can see them in China Town or Little India on their off days, yes! they work 5 day weeks. They do jobs Singaporeans don’t want to do (mainly construction). These workers are not irregulars they volunteer to go and work there, with a visa. With the money they make they give their families a more comfortable living in their countries. By the way a lot of them come from democracies (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).
As for Singaporeans they are a proud, capable and intelligent and per capita one of the richest people. If you really want to delve into what’s happening in modern Singapore you’ll find that the opposition is becoming stronger and no one is being jailed. They oppose the government were they disagree but back the government when people of other nations try to make them look like some third world country.
Some questions 1. Checked where Sin rates in least corrupt countries
2. Checked were it rates in competitiveness
3. Medical services
4. Education
5. Meritocracy . the list is long and distinguished.
Its not perfect but it works.
Yes I love my freedom, so do Singaporeans, they hold the only passport in the world which has no restrictions anywhere and long time ago, even when we had our beloved green one.
Anyway thanks for your time. Being an idealist is good but pragmatism has a more tangible value in the real world
Take care
deficit in the so called Liberal Democracy with incompetent leaders at the helm…….
I am old enough to remember Singapore’s and Malta’s independence days very clearly: Singapore 1959 and Malta 1964.
We both commenced the road from British colonial rule. We both ramped up our economy based on manufacturing industry, tourism and financial services.
Up till 1971 Malta and Singapore were head to head. But then things changed. Malta was taken over by a left-wing quasi-communist, Castro-like leader and hey presto our economic stalled, our industrial technological advances froze due to Mintoff’s infatuation with manual labour while Singapore continued on its road to what it is today.
The fact that during the 60s, when Malta’s and Singapore’s industrial progress kept head to head, shows or at least strongly indicates that reduced freedom does not result in higher economic progress.
In fact, the Mintoff years prove the opposite. That Singapore is an economic success is not due to reduced freedom, but due to its capitalist, market-oriented policies and the fact that unlike Europe and the US, people have to work to earn a living with no free lunches for the lazy laggards and false invalids.
[Daphne – The US is the ultimate liberal economy. There are certainly no free lunches there.]
There really is no comparison. A lot of silly nonsense has been said about Singapore these last 40 years by Maltese “intellectuals” who know no history.
For a start, Singapore was the gateway to China when Malta was merely a coaling station on the way to Suez. The sheer volume and variety of commerce passing through Singapore dwarfed anything in Malta.
Then there’s geography. Malta is an island in a sea that’s been crowded with ports and Western settlements for centuries. Singapore was a lone Western outpost in an undeveloped – ‘savage’ is the word here – part of the world. The closest modern port was Hong Kong (same story, and no surprise), more than 1000 km away. The coast of India was more than 1500 km distant.
So it’s no surprise at all that it would thrive on commerce. It’s not the policies that made it thrive. It’s history and geography.