Cry wolf

I just love it when Maltese hotel owners scream out loud and cry wolf over unfair competition. The latest tirade from the privileged hotel owners was an attack on Airbnb. You had to see it coming. The freedom fighters for unbridled capitalism get very shaky when they cannot eat all the cake.

And the pressure obviously worked its way up the stairs of Castille into the Prime Minister’s room.

The proposal is for Airbnb owners to face some form of stiff regulation. The association representing hotel owners, the MHRA, claimed through a study piloted by audit firm Deloitte that a good proportion of Airbnb are unlicensed. To be fair so are so many other segments of our economy.

The MHRA are obviously not concerned over the unlicensing aspect but rather about the fact that someone else is eating into their profits and taking a slice of their industry. 

Airbnb is one simple and good way for many Maltese and Gozitan families to make some regular extra income. That they should all be licensed and pay their taxes is not in question, but why should they be regulated in such a way that makes it difficult for them to operate?

Hoteliers have benefited in many strange and bizarre ways over the years; they have acquired public land at ridiculous leases to build their hotels on with little respect for the cultural or environmental heritage. Even bays and shorelines have been hived off to benefit hoteliers. 

If that was not enough, they have also had planning policies changed to give them an advantage in more than ways than one.  Allowing hotels to rise by another two floors is one fine example. Now it seems they want it stopped.  You see they had their fill but they do not want newcomers to enrich themselves too.

Others have had a fast-track service at the Planning Authority in sharp contrast to Joe Bloggs who must deal with the unnecessary red tape reserved for smaller developers.  Hoteliers in general have had a great time with the regulatory agencies looking the other way.  The same tolerance seems to exist when it comes to outstanding tax and national insurance payments and unpaid water and electricity bills by some leading hotels. And though there is no doubt that they are important for the economy and employment, hotels have also contributed to stretching our infrastructural capacity to the limit.

Hoteliers like contractors are not only privileged but seem to be beyond reproach and expect to be treated as demi-gods. For years they have been given the exclusive right to act as they please.

This unsurprising concern over Airbnb is fuelled by greed and their (the hoteliers) belief that all profits should be channelled to their personal coffers.

Airbnb is one way which allows normal folk to make extra money that is redirected at once into the economy. In most cases, the big hoteliers take their profits away from these shores for investments abroad. 

So, when regulating Airbnb, Robert Abela should appreciate that his party should also address the needs of the people and not only of the big cats, who have never looked beyond their self-interest and their overflowing gold chests.

*

The Clayton Bartolo episode could well get out of hand. It is perhaps an opportune time for Abela to understand how serious the problem is. There are many stories flying around that indicate this story will not end here and that there is much more to it.

The Prime Minister should recognise loyalty but not at the expense of destroying his government and more, such as actions that will erase any perceived steps taken to strengthen the rule of law.

Iin politics, doing the right thing is never easy. But failure to take the right decision may well throw the government into a spiral of despair and no return.

*

The decision by the International Criminal Court of Justice to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister is a step in the right direction. It counters the weak response of European leaders who have not been able to stand up to the Israeli government.

That Netanyahu faces the probability of arrest as is the case with Vladimir Putin raises some hope that there are institutions that care and are operating and treating Israel and all others as equals before the rule of law.

I would like to see how the EU and its leaders will respond to this new reality.