GUEST POST/L-ghanqbuta tal-haxi saret tapit

By H. P. Baxxter

Being Maltese is a pretty depressing thing.

The web of corruption is now so thick it’s a carpet. L-GHANQBUTA TAL-HAXI SARET TAPIT, to make a free present of a slogan for graffiti artists.

The government is corrupt, the judiciary is corrupt, the police force is corrupt, public servants are corrupt, businessmen are corrupt, financial services are corrupt, and everyone up to and including your nondescript Food Handling Certificate lecturer is corrupt.

Then we have the Opposition, bless them.

Their eyes burn with the holy zeal of righteousness. They talk of quaint things like judicial protests. “Ghandna fiducja shiha fl-istituzzjonijiet” they tell us. Fiducja. I whince in pain. It hurts me, poor honest downtrodden citizen that I am. It really does.

Anyone who says they have faith in Malta’s institutions in 2015 is either a total idiot or a total liar.

What fucking fiducja, for Christ’s sake?

All the branches of power are corrupt. The executive, the prime minister and his Cabinet, who run the country and make all the decisions, are corrupt.

Parliament, which should challenge the executive on those decisions (when they are told about them) is controlled by a majority which supports the corrupt government. Yes, Marlene Pullicino, that includes you. There’s also a minority that colludes in the corruption. More about this later.

The magistrates and judges, who should apply the law of the land, are corrupt.

Before anyone objects that that least those laws are made by parliament, may I remind the nation that there is an undemocratic mechanism which bypasses parliament in our system, and that is the legal notice. It’s all the rage under Labour.

The police – excuse me while I stifle a guffaw. The police, who should enforce the laws, are corrupt on a scale that defies description. They have rewritten the manual of the corrupt cop for the 21st century.

The police are in league with the magistrates and judges, who are in league with the politicians, who are in league with judges and magistrates and police officers.

Kukkanja ta’ haxi. Bizzilla tal-haxi. “A lace of a corruption”, as Manuel Mallia would put it.

So what hope is there?

And why is it that no one ever goes to prison? The sleaziest, most corrupt, most VISIBLY corrupt men and women (our friend from the US) – they don’t even try to hide it – are all running free and laughing in our faces. Why, some of them are regular guests on Net TV’s Newsfeed. Politika nadifa, bil-guest mahmug. Because Jesus had his feet washed by a whore. All right, a “poledancer f’Paceville”.

Let me come back to parliament. We have, we are told, an Opposition. Many of the members on the Opposition benches have jobs as accountants, financial services lawyers and consultants of varied description. They rode the “hub” and have done well for themselves. Good for them.

But it also means their day job consists in making Malta look good, to attract clients. Good for business, good for investment, with good institutions, good standards, good checks and balances and good overall.

We are deluded to think they can or will ever lambast the government on the many things which make Malta not good.

Take the economy. “Minkejja li l-ekonomija sejra tajjeb, u ta’ dan nifirhu lill-gvern”, is the standard prefix or suffix.

Has it ever occurred to anyone – government, Opposition, academics, dwellers of the financial “hub”, to question whether the economy is really doing well?

Malta’s GDP is about 9 billion Euros, give or take a few hundreds of millions. How much of that is drug money?

The GDP is growing at a phenomenal 4% annually. How much of that is fuelled by illegal activity?

Foreign direct investment in 2014 stood at around 140 billion Euros, a whopping 97% of which was from financial and insurance activities (ah, the hub!). How much of that is laundered money?

I don’t expect the Comissioner of Police to start an investigation on what exactly makes up the oh-so-fantastic GDP. It’s complicated, as all corruption is, and a lot of it is not illegal.

If a Maltese and Sicilian decide to set up business running a restaurant, who’s to stop them? Aye, but who’s to say where the capital came from?

If an decent, hardworking engineer sets up an IT company, borrowing money from the bank, who’s to say the money wasn’t deposited by a bloody African dictator?

If a Qatari consortium finances the construction of a technology “hub” in the “South”, who’s to say their money didn’t come from the sale of looted antiquities?

I just wish someone would ask the questions. That’s all.

Even if we don’t manage to burn it, we’ll have punched a hole in the carpet.