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JOSIE MUSCAT is returning to the political fray, but this time it’s without the Nationalist Party
In the 1970s Josie Muscat was the Nationalist firebrand who managed to make inroads in the traditionally Labourite south of Malta. Ironically, after two decades of PN governments, Josie Muscat is the one who thinks the citizens from the south of Malta are being treated as “second class citizens”.
 Josie Muscat’s decision to contest the Marsascala local council election as the frontrunner of a civic list has triggered speculation on the political comeback of the former MP after 20 years of political hibernation. But Muscat won’t be drawn into the national political controversy.
“At the moment I am only interested in helping Marsascala overcome the land and sea-based threats it is facing. Giving a new lease of life to this locality requires a 100 per cent focus,” Muscat says.
He won’t even go into assessing the performance of the present government, limiting himself to saying that the country is now facing a very difficult situation. “Luckily I had no part in bringing this about,” he adds.
What spurred Muscat to take the plunge in to local politics, were happenings during the so-called consultation meeting on the proposed Sant Antnin recycling plant. The meeting, held under a tent in Marsascala, saw residents confront Environment Minister George Pullicino, who defended the choice of siting the plant in the seaside locality.
According to Muscat the meeting only showed that the people of the locality “were being taken for a ride” because the decision to site the plant in their backyard had already been taken.
“The event also exposed the hatred and division among the people of Marsascala,” Muscat says about the consultation meeting, in the aftermath producing a group of citizens irked by partisan politics forming a list to contest the elections.
Initially there were more than ten people ready to contest but finally they decided to field four candidates, which include the former independent mayor of the locality, Marvic Attard Gialanze. According to the ex politician, all members of the new group have decided to shed their past political allegiances.
“We are not a political group. We are a group of people called upon by our civic duties,” Muscat says about the new group’s aim to give a lease of new life to Marsascala and its community.
Muscat contends that the southern seaside locality once earmarked as the main tourist resort in the south is now experiencing a slow death. The doctor does not mince his words on what is happening to the locality: “a lot of shit is coming to Marsascala.”
What irks him the most is that the people of Marsascala are being treated as if they were imbeciles and that decisions are being taken in a roughshod manner. He remains suspicious of the government’s future intentions, which might include plans for an incinerator alongside the now approved recycling plant.
“They keep this hush-hush on the incinerator as if we are stupid people. They treat us like imbeciles.”
Muscat acknowledges that the council has little say in the matter as decisions on the relocation of fish-farms and the siting of the recycling plant are taken by MEPA and the central government but he believes that in a democracy, the voice of the people must be heard. “We believe that this is a democracy and democracy does not mean making a semblance of a consultation meeting after having already taken the decision. They are simply treating us as fools.”
The government has marketed the Sant Antnin plant as an odorless and clean plant, which will only cater for 35,000 tons of waste. According to Muscat the government was dead set to site the plant at Sant Antnin. “They tell us it is odorless and clean but nobody wants it anywhere except in Marsascala.”
Muscat responds to the accusation of riding high on nimbyism, by throwing the ball back in the government’s hands. “The government is saying that the plant will only cater for 35,000 tons of waste. Nobody is telling the Maltese public which other places will be chosen to process the rest of the waste.”
He is also contends that in the future other localities will face the prospect of having recycling plants in their midst. “The rest of Malta is quiet because no one is being told where other plants will be build. I am sure that nobody will want the plant in his backyard.”
Muscat is calling on the three parties to sit around a table and treat the problem as a national issue and not as a political issue. “Unlike other political decisions on social policy, this is not a reversible issue. It is an irreversible decision. If the plant is constructed nobody will pull it down. We do not believe that.”
Muscat proposes that all political parties should sit around a table to agree on the appointment of commission of experts which will be given a definitive time frame and a clear term of reference to earmark those localities which are best to host the recycling plants.
But what if the experts decide that Marsascala is the ideal site?
“If they give the reasons why Marsascala should be chosen we will abide to their decision. But they will also have to state which other four places will be chosen to host the plants. If they fail to do this, we won’t believe that the Marsascala plant will be catering for a sheer 35,000 tons of waste a year.”
Now he envisions a scenario where Wasteserv will go back to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to apply for an enlargement of the Sant Antnin plant. “We know how these things work because we not idiots. They will say that it less costly to increase the capacity of Sant Antnin than to build new plants. That is why we are insisting that the commission should be appointed now and that its choice should not be limited to Marsascala.
“Let’s treat the whole of Malta as a mature country and people. When this commission comes with its conclusions everyone will have to abide to their decision. This is fair.”
But the government has pointed out that Malta might lose EU funds if it procrastinates any further on this project. According to Muscat, the commission can conclude its work in a very short time frame. “Most of the statistical groundwork already exists. We can give them a timeframe and as much money as they want to come up with a national solution and not a sectoral one affecting one locality.”
Muscat rebuts the government’s claim that two other places were considered as alternatives to Marsascala, saying the authorities “had not compared like with like.”
In its policy document, Labour has committed itself that if elected it will conduct studies to establish which four places should be earmarked for the siting the recycling plant.
Muscat is however sceptical of the MLP’s intentions. “Will the Labour Party give us a guarantee that it will pull down the Marsascala plant if it is fully operational by the time it will get elected or will it then tell us that it cannot afford to throw away Lm16 million?”
Since this decision is irreversible, Muscat insists that the only hope of saving Marsascala is to conduct the studies on alternative site now. He also lambastes the leader of the Greens for saying that the project will only take place “over his dead body”, as Harry Vassallo had stated during the public consultation meeting.
“Which dead body was he referring to? I have not heard much from him since then,” Muscat says.
In a typically populist vein, he accuses all political parties for treating Marsascala residents as if they are fools. So what makes the new list for Marsascala different?
“We want to remove partisan politics from the locality. Our civic duty calls us to shed partisan politics. We can only give the best to our locality if we do not have any political strings attached.”
In the light of what he has seen in Marsascala, Muscat is convinced that political parties should have kept out of local councils. “In both parties if you do not obey the orders transmitted from the headquarters, you are either censored or chucked out. A councillor elected with a political party cannot fight for his beliefs if he does not have the blessing of the people pulling the strings at the headquarters.”
Despite his plunge into local politics, Josie Muscat will not shed his responsibilities at the Eden Foundation, the organisation for disabled people for which he has dedicated his energies for the past years. Won’t Eden’s image suffer due to Muscat’s involvement in local politics?
Muscat contends that by contesting the Marsascala election he is in no way associating his organisation with a political party as he is simply doing this out of a sense of civic duty. “The Eden Foundation is not even located in Marsascala. I cannot see how one can even confound my civic duty towards my locality and the Eden Foundation. If anyone comes to that conclusion it only confirms how mean we still are. I hope that this country is finally maturing.”
The final straw for Muscat which contributed to his decision to stand up and be counted in next March’s election was the decision to remove Marsascala from the list of tourist zones. By not being included among Malta’s tourist zones, Marsascala’s fate as a “dumping ground” for fish farms and recycling plants had been sealed.
“The entire south, with the exception of the Three Cities, have been struck off from the list of tourist zones despite the tourist potential of beautiful localities like Marsascala, Birzebbuga and Marsaxlokk.”
According to Muscat this situation has been brought about by the lack of prominent ministers from the south of Malta. “Unfortunately in Malta, ministers responsible for public works tend to embark on works in the district from where they are elected. Unfortunately for the past years the south did not have a minister to push its agenda.”
But what about Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who lives in Marsascala and hails from the south?
“I think he is fully imbued in his work. He does not have time to address the problems of the south,” Muscat says.
He recalled that as a young parliamentarian and a backbencher, he worked with fellow MPs to put Marsascala on the tourist map. At the time, the locality was embellished through the creation of a garden, a square and a playground which today gives Marsascala its present identity. This had created the right conditions for business to flourish along the promenade.
Muscat regrets that apart from some embellishments, Marsascala has deteriorated and that its business community is suffering. And the private sector is very close to Muscat’s heart. Since departing from the political stage in the mid-80s, Josie Muscat has dedicated his entrepreneurial energies to running Malta’s major private healthcare hospital.
On this subject Muscat does not sway away from political controversy. He refers to a survey on the Sunday Times which states that 65 per cent of those questioned preferred the private sector and that 82 per cent would like to have private health expenditure and medical insurance tax-exempt.
“This means that they would choose the private sector if they can afford to.”
He also points out that while 85 per cent accept the expenditure on Mater Dei Hospital, 52 per cent are expecting massive improvements with the opening of the new hospital.
Muscat doubts whether the high expectations of massive improvements brought about by the building of the new hospital will be ever satisfied. He reiterates the view that the construction of Mater Dei was not a wise decision. “It only serves to make some people rich but it made Malta poorer.”
Muscat contends that the real test for Mater Dei is not its opening but what will happen after it opens.
“If they want to satisfy the high expectations and standards, it will cost a hell of a lot,” he warns.
Modernising the present hospital at St Luke’s and working in tandem with the private sector would have been the wisest choice for Muscat. He says that this option would have saved the country millions of pounds. But he laments that government support for private healthcare is lacking.
For the past 8 years, St James Clinic has been trying to build a new hospital in the south of Malta but so far there has been little interest from the government on this project. “If somebody from abroad comes to invest in Malta we give him red carpet treatment. But the same treatment is not offered to a Maltese entrepreneur investing in a hospital in the south.”
Muscat says that if the project had materialised it would have revolutionised the health sector in Malta by offering low-cost healthcare to the people of the south. But Muscat contends that this is not possible as long as the government holds on to its monopoly.
“Our biggest competitor is the government because it is zero-rated. Even the richest clients get their health services for free.”
He also contends that currently the Minister for Health is simply a “Minister for St Lukes.” He laments that the private sector was not even involved in the drafting of the contingency plan for the pandemic flu.
“When somebody asked what will happen to the private sector in the eventuality of a pandemic, the reply was that if they want they can close down.”
The government attitude towards the private sector irks Muscat. “It is useless to ask the private sector to come up with innovative ideas when the government puts hurdles which impede the private sector.”
Muscat’s recipe for the country’s economic revival is simple. “What we need is to create the right climate. Once we create the right climate, this country will flourish due to the great abilities and talents of the Maltese people.”
So what’s keeping us from getting there?
Once again Josie Muscat does not mince his words by asking: “Do we have a government who is leading or do we have four or five powerful people holding the two political parties by the balls?”
Muscat says this is not simply his opinion but that of the perception of the general population. Despite his strong views on both parties, Muscat contends that the idea of forming a new political party has not even crossed his mind. “At the moment I am just concentrating on Marsascala.”
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