In Malta, greed remains good

Forget all the posturing about how different from each other Simon Busuttil and Joseph Muscat want us to believe them.

The party faithful will clap and cheer, but what we have is just a continuation of what started a long, long time ago, bad governance and the closing of an eye or two, letting the greedy stuff themselves at the expense of the rest.

Their economic model is based on short-termism and putting all of Malta under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Take the police force – senior policemen engaging in business with people under investigation. Other policemen in cahoots with local businessmen, not actually known for their straight ways. These policemen were supposed to uphold the law without fear or favour. These same policemen were promoted by the previous government; their ‘good luck’ continued till this day, from the ‘stil ta’ politika ġdida’ (sic) Gonzi era, till Muscat’s ‘tagħna lkoll’ (sic) era.

Until the Italian police stepped up their investigations into the Italian side of mafia-business connections. The Italian police, not the Maltese police, who were left with no choice but to do something

The Italian police have also put our financial and gaming watchdogs to shame. They have shown how our laws allowing so called ‘fiduciary companies’ – are attractive bait for organised crime, tax evasion and money laundering. Our so called ‘due diligence’ process has been shown to be a sham. An ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’ online article reports how a certain Mario di Gennaro was known to the Italian police and investigating Magistrates for ages.

But due diligence “made in Malta” did not. David Gonzi did not know of Mario di Gennaro’s shady history, which says a lot about the background checks of the law firms that provide such services. Mario de Marco ends up defending the betting companies whose licences have been suspended in court.

José Herrera, throwing about figures of our economy’s dependence on ‘fiduciary services’ tells us that ‘other countries are doing the same’ – what he fails to mention is that his government is continuing the previous government’s policy of resisting stricter laws on financial services and gaming. It is understandable why – it is easy money for their peers.

Transnational legislation will become stricter, whatever Herrera says, so he’d better prepare a strategy to diversify our economy and come up with alternative ways of attracting investment. Does he know how much of our economy depends on the mafia? How much on tax evasion and money laundering? Does he think that the situation is sustainable? These are the questions he should answer.

It is obvious that the few, with a different set of surnames from the previous favoured ones, and some others who transferred their allegiances because it suits them, are stuffing their faces. These will transfer them again when the tide turns and they will continue stuffing their faces.

This is the way that the PL and the PN conduct themselves. ‘Għidli xi trid u nirranġaw’, the politics of greed.