No shame. Just play the aspiration card

The legality or not of Konrad Mizzi’s shell company in the EU-blacklisted tax haven of Panama; the exact dates when the company was set up and the claims that the secret company has no assets are all side-issues.

The fact that Nationalist ministers were discovered to have stashed away funds in secret Swiss accounts when they were no longer ministers is also a side-issue.

The issue is that a standing minister sees nothing wrong with opening a company to hold assets in a tax haven. It speaks volumes about Konrad Mizzi’s attitude to democracy, the rule of law and transparency. It speaks volumes of the government’s interpretation of its ‘pro-business’ slogan.

The Panama story is even more interesting because it is happening at a time when the Labour government and the Nationalist opposition are trying to outdo one another to oppose tax avoidance rules which other EU countries are pushing for. Tax avoidance is theft, pure and simple, even if allowed at law.

It is a way for companies and individuals to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, which taxes support the provision of public services, from the essential health services, education to the physical and social infrastructure. Without a functioning society these same companies and individuals would not have been able to make their profits in the first place.

What’s even more unacceptable about blacklisted tax havens such as Panama is the complete secrecy surrounding the assets of companies and bank accounts. Konrad Mizzican publish all the declarations he wants – we’ll have to take his word and that of his the trust management company for it.

Konrad Mizzi even drags in the tax department to save face – another episode of dragging in civil servants and irresponsibly putting them in uncomfortable situations. Anyway Panama will not disclose anything, it has no treaties with other countries on taxation and financial matters. Whatever the excuses, the aim of a company or accounts in Panama is simple: to avoid paying a fair share of tax in the country in which the income was made. Choosing Panama is choosing to be associated with one of the dirtiest place in terms of financial matters. Tough luck, Konrad.

Joseph Muscat came to Konrad’s rescue in Żejtun by mimicking one of the most anti-worker, anti-middle class Prime Minister ever, UK’s David Cameron. He used the typical neoliberal, capitalist trick – the ‘aspiration’ card. It is ok for Konrad Mizzi to open a company in a tax haven because he worked hard; implying that the thousands upon thousands of workers and employees and of small businesses do not work hard enough. We would all have a shell company and a secret bank account (until someone spills the beans) in some Caribbean banana republic if we did. He equates making money with tax avoidance.

In our books aspiration is the hope and effort to do your bit in the service of others. It is that nurse doing his best to comfort the terminally ill, even after a long and tiring shift. Aspiration is that cleaner on minimum wage who takes pride in keeping that classroom clean and tidy for the village’s children. Aspiration is that bus driver who despite the low wage and tiring journeys through traffic clogged streets takes time to help that elderly lady off the bus.

In Żejtun Konrad Mizzi spoke of ‘helping the vulnerable’. It is not about ‘help’, Konrad. Excuse me but this kind of talk reveals your ignorance of the supposedly most basic principles of the Labour Party – social justice. While you are busy opening trusts and companies in tax havens, and despite bragging of GDP growth, thousands of people on the minimum wage still struggle to make ends meet. Persons with severe disabilities, totally dependent on their families still only get the miserly support of half the minimum wage. The important thing is that you’re so pro-aspiration and pro-business. Cool.

In another twist to the story, ‘Illum’ (Sunday 28 February 2016) reported that PN MPs are worried that their financial interests – presumably in some secret bank accounts somewhere across the globe – will be made public. I have no reason not to believe the story in ‘Illum’. We’ll wait and see what is racked up. If it is true what we’ll get is another zero-sum game where the unethical antics of Konrad Mizzi are justified by similar antics of PN MPs. So what’s new?