This column first appeared in Malta Today

Each week I sit before a blank page on my computer screen, wondering what I can possibly say which I have not said a million times before.

Occasionally, a news story which has dominated the headlines can give me enough material to write about a new topic, but there are times, like today, when all I feel is fatigue and ennui. The same problems hover over us, weekly, monthly, yearly and yet the government seems to have been consumed by inertia or indifference or both; unable or unwilling to tackle what really matters to the average person.

Robert Abela is satisfied with having won the election, his supporters can gloat to the Opposition that they were given a trashing (“kaxkarnikom”)  and he is secure in the knowledge that he doesn’t have to worry about votes for another 4 or 5 years.  This attitude is reinforced by those who prop him up, in the warped belief that, once elected, politicians do not have to answer to anyone. More than once I have seen the comment, “let this government do its job and govern, that’s why it was elected, it is in charge and makes the decisions.”   

I don’t know what they have been teaching at school for the last few decades, but there are definitely gaps in people’s grasp of what a functioning democracy looks like. Sure, the Labour Party was elected to govern, but it does not stop there – it still needs to be accountable to the electorate for every decision, and it is the duty of the public and the media to question and demand answers. We pay their salaries through our taxes remember? Otherwise what we have elected are a bunch of petty dictators, and we have enough of those already wherever small-minded people are given a modicum of power. 

All over social media the problems which plague the country are invariably a topic of conversation, so I find it hard to believe that Abela and his Ministers are oblivious to them.  Once in a while, however, they seem to wake up from their stupor. In fact, when the Minister for Local Government Alison Zerafa Civelliherself admitted that keeping the country’s streets clean is one of the “biggest challenges facing councils”, it was a blatant admission of failure.  However, she left out a crucial piece of the puzzle, namely that the responsibility for rubbish collection was taken away from the councils and went back to central government; as a result the service went downhill even more after that. It is a failed rubbish system – anyone who has eyes and a sense of smell can see that, yet what is done about it? A big fat zero.  Instead, those who are always looking for someone else to blame trot out the usual suspects: it is the fault of these “dirty” foreigners.  The reality is that the infrastructure is hopelessly archaic and all the threats that people would be fined for taking out the wrong bag on the wrong day was just talk, especially in the areas where there is the most flagrant abuse.  Maybe the Minister needs to come up with a better system rather than just stating the obvious. 

If there is one recurring theme which haunts our feeds it is that of over-population, but when it is pointed out that it is this administration which  has actively encouraged the current situation, it does not go down well with Labour diehards who flail about trying to find scapegoats.  This very week Finance Minister Clyde Caruana also tried to shrug off responsibility, pointing his finger at employers. So let’s break it down for the people at the back.  The entities which need to be involved for a non-EU worker to come here for work are JobsPlus, Identita’ and the Housing Authority.  Those planning to work in tourism and hospitality also need the Skills Pass from the Maltese Institute of Tourism Studies.  According to the website, the Police force carries out due diligence on a prospective employee. All of these fall under the respective Ministries.  

At every stage, the government is making money off every single worker who applies to enter the country.  It is clearly stated on the Identita’ site that “fees are non-refundable even when an application is refused, withdrawn, revoked or deemed inadmissible.” Now, multiply that by the number of TCNs who are not only working here but those who are clamouring to come to Malta (in case you are curious just check out a FB page called Skills Pass Malta and you will get an idea).  And yes, granted, employers are begging for more workers, but it is in the government’s power to stop the demand by simply not issuing any more permits for new establishments. It is also in the government’s power to stop employing people in its various departments in what are basically non-jobs; by putting so many on the public payroll, they are depriving private enterprise of much-needed staff.  At this rate, every Maltese national will have a “job mal-gvern”.

The overcrowded public transport system is another sore point which is discussed ad nauseam and again the fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction. Apart from those who are advocating for what amounts to apartheid (claiming that only Maltese people should be allowed to ride buses for free, even though TCNs pay taxes like the rest of us), the solution lies in the hands of, you guessed, the people who were elected. Rather than illegal discrimination, we need more buses and more routes. Simple. Of course, that is no guarantee that snooty Maltese commuters will want to set foot on a bus, even if it’s empty. 

One comment I read summed up the collective feeling of the nation perfectly, “We did not ask for all this” and this person is right. We did not ask for Malta to sell its soul in exchange for ten pieces of silver. This country is visibly tired of fighting for its rights. The right to clean streets. The right to decent mass transport. The right to infrastructure which can handle the influx of all these people. The right to an economy which has not been built on the back of imported cheap labour. The right to ensure those entering the country aren’t hardened criminals. The right not to have the Stivalas of this world occupying public space, who are told to remove everything and then who furtively sneak back their chairs and tables on the pavement.   

There is a palpable air of defeatism because with every new fight being valiantly fought by environmental activists, residents’ associations and those who truly love Malta, another five examples slip by us without our realising it and we are faced with a fait accompli. Those making money are so powerful and there are so many who earn their living by being employed by them that it truly feels like a losing battle.  Greed has chomped us up, spit us out and is threatening to squash our very spirit.  As designer Luke Azzopardi so rightly said about Valletta in a recent FB post: “Our capital has been turned into a Kafkaesque nightmare where every available square metre is monetised, occupied, covered, illuminated, advertised, fenced off or filled with plastic furniture…Why bother with walls, architecture, interiors, or, God forbid, some sense of visual order when you can simply throw 47 chairs and tables into the street, erect an ugly canopy, add some uglier chairs, surround the whole thing with plastic, fake turf and perhaps a television, and call it ‘al fresco urban dining’.”

When you look around and see what our country has been reduced to thanks to this administration’s policies (or lack of them), it is no wonder that people hop on cheap flights and escape from here as often as they can.