365 days of Joseph

A government that delivers • Too many blunders • The big Meritocracy boomerang • Good governance over a bridge? • Inspiring with a vision

A government that delivers

Joseph Muscat has distinguished himself by delivering on a number of his party’s electoral promises in his first year in office. Muscat’s secular inclinations came to the forefront in his first days in office, when he announced that he was writing to the Vatican to ask for a revision of the Church-State agreement, which gave state recognition to annulment decisions made by the Church’s Ecclesiastical court.

While the previous government failed to deliver a pledge to recognise cohabiting couples first made in 1998, after only nine months of Labour government legislation was presented to parliament which creates an equality of rights and obligations for both married couples and who tie the knot in a civil union.  Moreover, despite surveys showing a vast majority opposed to gay adoptions, Muscat’s defense of the rights of same-sex couples to adopt came across as moves by a principled politician who puts equality before popularity.

Future challenges

1. National debate on drug decriminalisation

2. Constitutional reform - 'a second republic'

3. How to spend income from citizenship scheme

4. Hiving off part of social policy portfolio to Presidency

5. Avoid tax increases, cut spending

6. Creating enough decent jobs to sustain influx of women and unemployed in the labour market

The government acted swiftly on other fronts: abolishing prescription in corruption cases and introducing a Whistleblower Act. A white paper on party financing has also been presented. One may safely say that on these fronts, Muscat did more than the PN ever did in 25 years.   The same reformist streak was also reflected in educational reforms like the introduction of co-ed schools and the decision to teach ethics to students who opt out of religion classes.

On the social front, the Muscat administration has honoured its electoral pledge to introduce free childcare for families where parents are either studying or working. This long-awaited measure may contribute to increased social mobility as more women enter or remain in the labour market injecting money into their family coffers.

Another rational measure was the tapering of social benefits in a way that the unemployed do not lose their unemployment benefit as soon as they find work.  

The government could well bank on an increase of purchasing power following the reduction of electricity bills and the introduction of free childcare.

In open defiance of the logic of austerity economics, the new government is banking on a boom in consumption, which could bring about economic turnaround.

But this depends on the country’s continued ability to create jobs as it seeks to encourage more women and unemployed to join the ranks of the work force.

Accomplishments

1. Civil unions, equal rights

2. Whistleblowers' Act

3. Party financing White Paper

4. Removal of prescription on corruption

5. Reduction of energy bills

6. Revising Holy See agreement on marriages

7. Free childcare centres

8. Tapering of social benefits to make work pay

9. Co-ed schoos, ethics classes

10. ME and FM recognised as chronic conditions

11. Presenting an austerity-proof budget

12. New waste management plan

Too many blunders

Despite its impressive list of achievements the new administration was also gaffe-prone and showed signs of inexperience, overconfidence and outright incompetence. But it was on immigration that the new government hit rock bottom by attempting a push back of migrants to Libya before being stopped by the European Court of Human Rights, despite knowing fully that such acts are illegal.

It was this hawkish attitude that poisoned the social climate, provoking international embarrassments like the barrage of insults on the Facebook page of Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

The contrast between Muscat’s hardline  “smell the coffee” rhetoric and Muscat’s marketing campaign for the Individual Investor Programme in Miami was too blatant not be missed by the international press.

The recent agreement between the government and the European Commission stipulating a year of “effective residence” before the granting of citizenship to rich migrants exposed Muscat’s over-confidence in rushing through parliament a defective law which was bound to stir international controversy and cast a shadow on Malta’s international reputation.

The government ended up accepting what it had voted against in parliament in November 2013 when the original law was approved: namely, the abolition of the secrecy clause, linking the scheme to investment and accepting the principle that residency should precede the award of citizenship.

It exposed a lack of tact, attributable to the inexperience of the new government, and an inability to foresee the all-too-predictable reactions in Europe and the rest of the world. In fact, much of the initial outrage in the international press was directed at the poorly thought-out secrecy clause, which was only withdrawn after the bill was approved by parliament.

Still Muscat’s readiness to accept a deal with the Commission by accepting a residency period exposes another character trait of the PM; his ability to turn a defeat in to a victory.  Instead of being cornered by accepting the Commission’s condition, he can now boast that the scheme has the seal of EU approval.

Controversial decisions

1. New policies for ODZ and high-rise development

2. Removing licence fee and armbands for spring hunting

3. Sudden departure of Arriva prompts uncertainty on future of public transport

4. Retained tax cuts for high-income earners from previous budget

5. Partial amnesty for consumers who bribed Enemalta officials to tamper smart meters

6. Partial privatisation of Enemalta

7. Putting LNG vessel in the middle of Marsaxlokk Bay as part of 18-year agreement to buy gas from consortium, which includes government of Azerbaijan

Muscat’s government has also been gaffe-prone when it comes to symbolic acts like the granting of honours. In December, the Maltese state awarded an honorary membership to the National Order of Merit to the head of Russia’s Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, a well-known supporter of anti-gay laws who is presently defending the illegal occupation of Crimea by Russian troops.

The big Meritocracy boomerang

And while he turned meritocracy into an electoral battle cry, in which he used the Nationalists’ shoddy ‘evil clique’ image to his benefit, it was his government that eventually staffed numerous boards with Labour candidates, supporters and campaign volunteers.

The most controversial appointments included that of the wife of Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi as an envoy for Malta Enterprise, the appointment of former PL general secretary Jason Micallef as chairman of the V18 committee and the appointment of the Labour Party’s former CEO James Piscopo as executive chairman of Transport Malta.

Moreover, Muscat has shown an ability to use appointments to placate individuals who were fully integrated in the Nationalist establishment.  The appointment of Lou Bondi in a national festivities board took this logic to an extreme, with the reviled former presenter becoming a walking advert of Malta Taghna Lkoll.

A Cabinet free-for-all?

The waiver of the code of ethics banning Cabinet members from private work granted to parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca also exposed a dangerous trait – that of bending the rules to accommodate personal agendas. 

While Muscat’s nominee for the Presidency, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, has all the ingredients to perform well, the PM’s suggestion that he may hive off parts of the social policy portfolio to the Presidency, which falls outside the remit of parliamentary scrutiny, may well result in a confusion of roles. This may indicate that Muscat is prone to taking decisions based on short-term political calculations without any consideration of long-term implications.

Muscat has managed to keep ministers on their toes through his reshuffle talk.  But his way of dealing with individual Ministers has been shoddy. One such episode was the issue of a press statement ordering the health minister to remove a tent in front of the Mater Dei as a contingency for an expected increase of hospitalisation during the influenza season. 

Some of Muscat’s proposals – like the appointment of government backbenchers on public boards – not only fly in the face of meritocracy but could also be considered as a way to silence the backbench. 

It also contrasts with his hard-hitting criticism of the past administration’s decision to increase MP’s honoraria. This is because backbench MPs are now having their honoraria supplemented by the taxpayer in another way.

Good governance over a bridge?

While Muscat prided himself on establishing good governance, his credentials on this front received a resounding blow after MaltaToday revealed that the World Bank had blacklisted China Communications Construction Company, the Chinese company conducting a feasibility study on the proposed Gozo bridge.

In Opposition, the Labour Party had criticised the Nationalist government for commissioning German-owned Lahmeyer International as an energy consultant after being blacklisted by the World Bank until 2013 after it was found guilty of corruption. The government’s credentials received another fatal blow following revelations the World Bank had also blacklisted that consultant Shiv Nair, who had accompanied Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi in a visit to Qatar.

The recent decision to issue a partial amnesty to people who bribed Enemalta officials to have their smart meters tampered with also raises doubts on the government’s credentials on combating corruption.  While the government justifies this decision as a way of obtaining information to nail the officials involved in the scheme, the government has sent a message that bribery and theft of public resources do not merit court prosecution. It also raised doubts on whether the government was protecting businessmen who corrupted Enemalta officials.

One advantage for Muscat is that he constantly applies the moral yardstick set by the previous government to exonerate itself from any accusations of impropriety.  Probably the re-evocation of scandals committed by the previous administration may well work in the short term to keep switchers on board. But a government elected on a platform of change cannot hide forever behind the actions of its predecessors.

Blunders

1. Ethics' code 'waiver' for Franco Mercieca

2. Pushback of asylum seekers stopped by ECHR

3. Malta Taghna Lkoll defied by political appointments

4. Appointment of Shiv Nair as consultant despite World Bank blacklisting

5. MOU with World Bank blacklisted Chinese company for Gozo bridge studies

6. IIP programme changed three times following international indignation and condemnation from European Parliament

7. Awarded national honour to anti-gay Russian parliamentary speaker Valentina Matviyenko, the same day honour was conferred to transgender activist Joanne Cassar

Inspiring with a vision

A government needs a vision to inspire the public’s imagination.

Muscat has managed to articulate a vision for the future of the country as a business-friendly country where social conflict is exorcised as enough wealth trickles down to improve the lot of the working classes.

While noting that the Labour movement was not “envious of wealth” and inherently pro-business, the Labour leader reiterated his commitment to reducing bureaucracy and make Malta an “automatic” option for foreign investors. In so doing, Muscat may well be deliberately equating social conflict with “envy”.

Muscat has also found a way to reconcile his party’s eurosceptic and autarkic past with the present realities of EU membership and globalisation, giving a strong indication that his mindset is that of exploiting any lucrative opportunities offered by globalisation even at the cost of testing EU waters on issues like the sale of citizenship.  “Malta is open for business, from everywhere. We are ready to work with whoever is ready to cooperate,” Muscat said addressing the party’s general conference in February. But while opening Malta to business tycoons who want to become Maltese, Muscat has shown no readiness to facilitate the granting of citizenship to foreigners who have spent most of their life in Malta.

The appointment of the popular Social Policy Minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as the country’s next President may well be an attempt to balance the government’s pro-business rhetoric with the party’s socialist roots. But by transferring Coleiro Preca from his Cabinet, where she has a direct influence on policy, to the ceremonial Presidency, Muscat could be further relegating the social agenda to the backburner.

Moreover the greater visibility of the PM’s wife Michelle Muscat, who acts as a sort of ‘First Lady’ patronizing all sorts of noble causes, may result in a ceremonial overload.

Completely missing from the vision articulated in the general election was the environment. On this front, the government has been keen to emphasise the improvement in air quality, mainly through the construction of a new gas-fired power station. But so far it has not come up with a coherent plan to address the major source of pollution; the increase in car traffic. 

Much depends on the future of public transport, which remains uncertain following the sudden departure of Arriva.  The government has also presented a comprehensive waste management plan, which needs to be backed by adequate funding to succeed.  But on land use and hunting, two major issues which create most controversy in the island, the government is openly clashing with environmentalists.

Not only are controversial plans like land reclamation, scrapped by the previous administration, back on the agenda, but a number of policies envision more development in Outside Development Zones.

Even riskier is the government’s pandering to the construction industry, which seems to suggest that Muscat hopes to kick-start the economy by giving a new lease on life to the embattled construction sector. As in its hunting spiel, the government hopes to balance out its free-for-all policies by hinting at harsher enforcement on ODZ as exemplified by a well-publicised enforcement action against construction magnate Charles Polidano on the eve of an environmental protests in December.