Where Does History Start

Maltastar 

 

Nobody seems to dispute that we have a crisis of confidence in our democratic institutions. Attempts to consider the judiciary corruption scandal as dead and buried by the resignation of the ex-Chief Justice and an ex-Judge were soon abandoned as both unsuccessful and counter-productive.

 

Instead in reaction of Labour’s arguments that the event cannot be considered in isolation but in the context of other odd events and decisions which always worked in favour of drug traffickers and against society at large, the government friendly media is making the argument that past Labour governments are equally responsible for the loss of moral values of society.

 

This always raises the often rhetorical question of where does history start?

“It all changed in the first few months of 1977 and for me that’s where the history of loss of moral values starts. Eddie Fenech Adami engineered the removal of Borg Olivier and his own election to PN leadership”

 

It is difficult to find one particular point in time which marks the start of history leading us to where we are today and identifying the start of the journey which led us from point A to point B.

 

What I do know however is that in the sixties society at large still had values and even small corruption and petty crime used to cause big scandals. There were no rapes, no teenage pregnancy and the vast majority was happy with the little it had. My mother’s little haberdashery shop used to extend credit to the poor parishioners who in spite of hardly having enough to feed their numerous families never failed to meet an installment. It was a matter of honour and honour still mattered.

 

In the seventies apart from sighing relief at the termination of the religious interference with politics, a vibrant Labour administration brought self-confidence to the nation making us belief for the first time in history that we can make it much better on our own and had what it takes to reach positions that we were conditioned to think that were beyond us and could only be filled by more brainy expatriates.

 

Respect for democracy was however supreme and taken for granted. Politicians were respected as people giving a service to the nation and whilst they disagreed frontally on most issues they treated each other with reciprocal respect. The relationship between Mintoff and Borg Olivier on a personal level was always excellent, active and open for free dialogue. Even though two elections were unfairly denied to the MLP because of the vulgar religious intrusion in civil political affairs making it a mortal sin to vote Labour, the MLP still played within the rules of democracy and waited till they were mandated to govern by the majority in 1971.

“It was democratically OK not only to criticise but indeed to obstruct the government in the execution of a democratic mandate.”

 

It all changed in the first few months of 1977 and for me that’s where the history of loss of moral values starts. Eddie Fenech Adami engineered the removal of Borg Olivier and his own election to PN leadership.

 

From the early days he made it clear that it would be a different kind of leadership which interpreted the rules of democracy very flexibly to suit the party’s own interest. It was democratically OK not only to criticise but indeed to obstruct the government in the execution of a democratic mandate. People had rights to topple government if they did not like it any more without regard to the term of a democratic mandate given earlier. And it was also OK to engage Zeppi l-Hafi type of bodyguards to offer physical protection irrespective of the dangerous obligations that such association with unsavoury characters give rise to.

 

White collar workers in segments dominated by the PN were marshalled into obstructing strikes to destabilise the economy which was restructuring from defence spending dependency to a broad based commercial one.

 

“Here we are in a society where most are living beyond their means”

The perverse result of the 1981 election did irreparable harm to society. Instead of taking a book from Mintoff’s book in waiting 9 years between 1962 –1971 for his turn in spite of having the democratic process disturbed by the mortal sin church interference, Fenech Adami cared nothing about the country’s wider interest and decided not to wait. He abandoned parliament risking turning the country into a banana republic and promoted foreign interference in the little island who in foreigners’ eyes could not find a way to manage itself democratically.

 

Even worse when his turn finally arrived in 1987 he ridiculed the values of thrift and dedication and hosted the vices of extravagance and laissez-faire making people believe that they need not really work hard for living. The consumption based economic policies, much as being juicy and effective upfront, were unsustainable for the longer term creating artificial wealth at the expense of debt mountains the burden of which is a shameful legacy for our children.

 

“the connection between powerful drug merchants and political accommodation is entirely the prerogative of governments premiered by Fenech Adami”

So here we are today, from a society where everyone could be trusted and where honour did matter we have to question whether we can trust anyone these days and whether honour stills has any meaning. Here we are in a society where most are living beyond their means, struggling to keep up with installments of house loan, car loan and credit card bills which absorb a large part of the disposable income from the basic salary. Earning an extra buck is a necessity and when overtime and part-time jobs get scarce the conflict between money and honour gets tougher and tougher. It seems to have overcome even the highest levels of the judiciary, which sets an extremely bad example for all the rest.

 

But the government is continuing to turn on the screws squashing honour and rewarding money. Engaging a CEO for Air Malta and paying him a princely six digit sum sets a very bad example in our pressure cooker economy where benchmarks are easily set. I have no idea what the new KM-CEO is worth but engaging him at this level as a full time employee of the company sets a bad example not only for KM itself but for the rest of the economy which is already suffering from excessive cost push pressures. Add to this the secret compensation of Lm40,000 revealed over the weekend by TMIS to Pietru Pawl Busuttil with strong smell of political accommodation and you just cannot but conclude that this country has lost its head and its values.

 

Whilst my chosen point of where the history of society’s moral decay started could be subjective and others could well cite different start points with equally valid reasons, the pitiful state we are in today leaves no similar room for interpretation. And for all the faults that could be pinned on labour governments of the seventies and eighties the connection between powerful drug merchants and political accommodation is entirely the prerogative of governments premiered by Fenech Adami.