Shaking off the big tax evasion outrage

You know that you are living in a cocooned society when there is more frenzy about the colour of a dress (blue/black or white/gold? Honestly, who cares?) than there is about things that really matter.

I wonder if it is just the result of comfortable, relatively well off, complacency which has brought us to this point, where our First World Problems (so amply described in a recent article by Swag online magazine) have absorbed us to such a degree that we cannot think beyond our immediate desires and gratifications.

The Swiss leaks story, in which it was revealed that two former ministers had hefty undeclared amounts in secret bank accounts, is a case in point. Apart from a few pointed remarks on social media and a handful of opinion columns on the subject, it has hardly registered on the public opinion radar. In fact, when it does come up in conversation, it is not anger which I hear from people but rather that kind of grudging admiration reserved for those who were clever enough to get away with squirreling away so much loot.

Rather than outrage at the tax evasion, I hear the kind of ironic banter which the Maltese are so good at, “jien lili zgur mhux se jsibuli xejn l-Isvizzera” (they’re sure not going to find anything of mine in Switzerland), followed by a wry chuckle as they nurse another drink and point out with a world weary shrug that after all, this took place in the 70s and 80s, a time when, they point out, “everyone was trying to hide their money” from the restrictions imposed by Mintoff’s government.  

It doesn’t seem to bother them one bit that tax evasion by politicians is, in fact, a double whammy (it’s illegal when anyone does it, but when the person you voted to legislate about things such as taxes does it, that’s even worse). In other countries, cheating on your taxes can land you in jail, here it’s taken about as seriously as the ever growing potholes in our roads.

I’ve been wondering a lot about this nonchalant attitude; why is it that when ordinary people are told of a politician’s wrongdoing, they find it so easy to just shake it off? Unless I missed it, there hasn’t really been that much of an uproar about it at all. There has simply been a more hardened reinforcement of an already existing belief that politicians are not to be trusted and that they are all out to get rich. I think there was more fuss made about Madonna being almost strangled by her own cape and being dragged down a couple of steps.

I find this lack of national outrage very disturbing; almost as disturbing as the actual tax evasion. It not only indicates that we have seriously lost our moral compass, but I’m actually beginning to wonder whether, as a nation, we have ever had one to begin with. (A word of warning: Never speak to expats about this issue as they will come down on you like a ton of bricks with endless stories of how they were fleeced by the locals who smile genially on the one hand while screwing them over without batting an eyelid).

So maybe those of us who were expecting more of an indignant reaction are looking at this the wrong way. Given half a chance, perhaps the sorry truth is that most people would probably have done what Michael Falzon and Ninu Zammit did, and their only fault is that they were careless enough to get caught. 

Even more perturbing is when you see people twisting themselves into pretzels trying to justify the unjustifiable. I have seen and heard comments to the effect that “it was their money and they had earned it legally, so they could do what they want with it.”  It’s the kind of mind-boggling statement which so misses the point that you begin to wonder whether, in all the years of obligatory religion classes, duttrina and muzew, anyone was actually teaching the concept of right and wrong. What part of “undeclared assets” is so difficult to understand? At a time (it bears repeating) when these two formed part of the country’s government, no less.

As for the argument that they have now regularized their position and been given an amnesty, yes I will be sure to remember that when I’m filling my own Income Tax return and paying my VAT, because it’s sure to give me a nice warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Excuse me while I unclench my teeth.

The pick-and-choose selectivity of what people get worked up about is so bizarre and random that I have long given up trying to make sense of it. On the one hand they go positively berserk at seeing a single mother flaunting nail art and blow-dried hair because all they can think about is that she is living the life of Riley on the back of their taxes while she pops out one baby after another.

And yet, thousands and thousands of Euros in taxes which should have been paid to the national coffers but weren’t because, to be blunt, two former ministers lied about their income, just doesn’t seem to get their goat quite so much. Or else, if people do talk about it, it’s with a shake of the head and a shrug of the shoulders and a blasé “well, what can you do. They’re all the same aren’t they”?

Who cares if those who were there to supposedly represent us have become fat cats at our expense; we are much more engrossed in endlessly debating (yet again) Angelik’s mystic visions.