2013 in review | Muscat, from poetry to theatre

Joseph Muscat, the young prime minister who clinched the reins power in a spectacular landslide victory in 2013, has been keen not to lose his reformist sheen. He stood up as a the principled emancipator piloting legislation that will give same sex-couples the same rights as married heterosexuals, including that of adopting children. But he also gave us a taste of a very different kind of leadership: a hawkish strongman who contemplated pushing back a group of migrants to war-torn Libya days after inviting European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström to take some of the migrants in Malta, to her home country Sweden.

Only a few months after calling on Europe to "wake up and smell the coffee" on Malta's challenge to cope with migratory influx during summer - the numbers of which remain a far cry from those that Spain, Greece, Italy and even Sweden itself cope with - Muscat found himself marketing the Individual Investor Programme in Miami, offering a fast-tracked Maltese citizenship and EU passport to anyone willing to pay €650,0000. Muscat had placed Malta under the international spotlight, for reasons that will have other countries watching us carefully, with some tut-tutting at the new prime minister's guile.

And when he turned meritocracy into an electoral battlecry, 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, while balancing this out with a few meritocratic appointments, like that of veteran journalist Reno Bugeja as PBS head of news.

Ever conscious of the power of political theatre and symbolism, he was magnanimous enough to appoint one of Labour's pre-electoral pet hates: Lou Bondì, on a board responsible for celebrating Malta's 50th anniversary of its Independence, effectively turning the self-serving media merchant into a walking advert for the 'Taghna Lkoll' campaign slogan. 

Excelling in balancing acts, his government clamped down on the previously untouchable Charles Polidano, while changing the goalposts in favour of land speculation through policies relaxing building heights and allowing even more development in the countryside. 

And in yet another gesture of political theatre his government awarded environmental crusader Astrid Vella a national honour on Republic Day, just a week after she launched the first national protest against his government's tottering environmental record.

But even this strategy of grand gestures can backfire, as demonstrated by author Alex Vella Gera's refusal to play the game when he refused a national honour on Republic Day that was originally meant to underline Labour's liberal credentials.

Muscat the reformist

One consistent trend in Muscat's politics was his determination to push forward a secular agenda that inevitably contrasts with his predecessor's conservatism. 

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 bond in a civil union.

Muscat himself has shown a remarkable evolution from a declared opposition to marriage and adoptions by same sex couples in 2008. Muscat's reformist and progressive 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.

Moreover in the budget speech, Muscat also signaled his intention to commence a national discussion on the decriminalisation of drugs, a suggestion that the PM will continue to appeal to a more liberal constituency by taking a liberal stance on a number of social issues.

Muscat was also keen to emphasize this particular aspect of his agenda by including transsexual Joanne Cassar and anti-censorship campaigner Mark Camilleri among those included in the national list of honours.

The government acted swiftly on other fronts: abolishing prescription in corruption cases and introducing a Whistleblower Act. One may safely say that on these fronts Muscat did more than the PN ever did in 25 years.

Still, Muscat has so far failed from presenting a party financing bill. Before the election Muscat had promised that the whistleblower law and the law on party financing would be the first two laws the new government would introduce. Moreover Muscat's reformist zeal is conditioned by a conservative streak in a number of other issues.  In this way he appeals to three different audiences all at the same time: the liberal audience by taking up issues like gay rights; the redneck vote by sounding hawkish on immigration and warming up to the hunting and fireworks lobbies; and the pro-business audience by preaching a trickledown economics doctrine.

Not all minorities are equal

While he has clearly steered the country in a liberal direction on a number of social issues, his hawkish stance on immigration culminated in an attempt to push back migrants to Libya in July (which was only stopped after the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights), blemishing his progressive credentials.  

His rash action suddenly legitimised xenophobic sentiments like those expressed by Labour's equal opportunities officer Rachel Tua who with reference to "illegal immigrants" she wrote on Facebook: "if they have no respect for the citizens of Malta, who [sic] on earth should we respect them... Our people come first and foremost."

Ironically, Muscat's major success on the migration issue was not achieved by his belligerent "wake up and smell the coffee" antics but by the creation of a common front with southern European nations like Italy in the wake of the Lampedusa tragedy, which saw Muscat adopting a more rational stance in calling for greater EU cooperation. While in Opposition, he supported Italian right-wing minister Roberto Maroni's decision to blockade a Maltese patrol boat from delivering rescued migrants; now he might have well discovered the value of solidarity amongst nations who cooperate with each other.

But he may well end up being judged by the unrealistic expectations he himself raised when he gave the impression that he would accept no solution except compulsory burden sharing.

Surprisingly, the same PM who contemplated the pushbacks found himself pushing a brand new citizenship scheme, which effectively creates a new class of rich migrants who immediately qualify for citizenship without even having any sort of bond to the country.

Retrograde or progressive?

In stark contrast to his liberal overtones and going in the opposite - and retrograde - direction, Muscat's government has not only re-opened the spring hunting season, but it also waived the €50 spring hunting license. Birdlife not only described this year's hunting season as being worse than last year's, but also went on to describe the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Welfare, Roderick Galdes, as the "hunting secretary".

The escalation of illegalities - some of which involved FKNK members - prompted the government to deploy the army in the final days of the season in a clear indication that the situation had got out of control. But despite these problems, the government also proceeded to increase hunting hours during the autumn season permitting hunters to shoot birds till 7pm.

Moreover, Muscat also finds himself at odds with the vocal environmentalist movements on land use and planning issues. 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.

But what's the use of greater enforcement when what was previously illegal in ODZ will become legal?

Squaring the circle

So far Muscat's major success has been his ability to retain the tax cuts foreseen in the last PN budget without introducing any new taxes or cutting expenditure, while reiterating his commitment to cut utility bills by 25% by next March.

In so doing, Muscat has so far been able to evade the harsh choices facing other governments between cutting public spending or increasing taxes.  Instead he has shown a remarkable ability to think out of the box by resorting to neoliberal, albeit dubious solutions like selling citizenship and privatising the energy supply.

But the award of the contract to a consortium involving the German multinational Siemens, Azeri government-owned Socar, British-African company Gasol, and the Tumas and Gasan groups, has raised suspicion that the energy deal was cooked well before general elections. In an interview with the London-based International Oil Daily, Gasol chief executive Alex Buxton acknowledged that: "The success of the project relied on the recent landslide victory of the Labour Party, which came to power in March."

The government's energy plans include the partial privatisation of Enemalta by selling part of the debt-ridden company to a Chinese government-owned company. While the government's energy plans may well kickstart the economy as people's disposable income is set to increase after the reduction in bills, it may well result in the ceding of the country's energy sovereignty to foreign companies, some of which owned by foreign governments. Moreover, shifting political allegiances in the Caucasus, where authoritarian Russia is seeking new allies like Azerbaijan in the face of EU overtures to countries like Armenia, may have a bearing on Malta's foreign policy.

Joseph Muscat may be making a trade-off between short-term economic gains in the next five years, and the long-term national interest, which will depend on what happens in the subsequent 13 years, when Malta will rely exclusively on the ElectroGas consortium for the supply of gas to both the partially-privatised Enemalta and the new, privately-owned gas plant.

In its first nine months, Labour made two significant changes to its energy plan, reducing the promised power-purchase agreement from 10 to five years and dropping the promise not to privatise Enemalta.

The new project also envisions development of an offshore floating terminal, which would be located on a ship berthed at Delimara, instead of a land-based one as foreseen in pre-election plans.

Good governance down 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.

Equally dangerous is the new government's policy of appointing poachers as gamekeepers, a policy which sees businessman, lobbyists and active professionals appointed in regulatory posts. Examples include practicing architect Robert Musumeci (the same architect who presented the planning applications for Victor Scerri's Bahrija development) who is paid €24,000 a year to advise government on planning policies, contractor Sandro Chetcuti who was appointed on the Building Regulation board and former Labour candidate and hunter Bertu Pace as advisor to parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes. Moreover, Labour MP Michael Falzon, who acts as the lawyer of the Pyrotechnics Association, was appointed to chair a board drafting a new policy aimed at facilitating permits for fireworks factories in ODZ areas.

Taghna Lkoll?

Perhaps its Labour's promise of meritocracy contrasted with several appointments of Labour candidates and ex-Nationalists who actively supported Labour during the electoral campaign, on government boards, that has rankled the most.

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.

Other controversial appointments was Labour mayor Clifton Grima, a lawyer, as Mount Carmel Hospital chief executive, instead of Dolores Gauci, the founder of the mental health NGO Richmond Foundation.

Some direct appointments were given a semblance of formal meritocracy simply to avoid a public backlash. One such case was that of new MEPA chief executive Johann Buttigieg, who earlier on 20 April was described as parliamentary secretary Michael Farrugia's "point of reference in MEPA". Farrugia had described Buttigieg as someone he could trust who provided him with precise information on what was going on. Subsequently an internal call for applications was issued for the new post, with only two people applying.

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. Such appointments included that of Silvio Parnis as chairman of a committee responsible for the south of Malta.

The Muscat administration has certainly made a number of worthy appointments which do in fact meet the criteria of a meritocracy. The most notable of these were Reno Bugeja as Head of PBS News, the appointment of respected architect Vince Cassar as the new MEPA chairman, and the appointment of Giovanni Bonello as the chairman of the Justice Reform Commission.

Still, both Bugeja and Cassar have so far failed to dispel the perception of political interference in the sensitive broadcasting and planning sectors.

Malta's new hegemon?

Muscat has won the 2013 general election by campaigning in poetry. In the subsequent nine months, Muscat has added a dose of theatre to his arsenal by indulging in a series symbolic acts and gestures.

The choice of the next President will provide another opportunity for Muscat to use his power of incumbency to reach out to the wider electorate on the eve of MEP elections, in a similar way as Gonzi did - without much success - in 2009 when he chose former PL deputy leader George Abela for the post.

But he will have to counterbalance tribal expectations with his post partisan agenda.

If his majority is confirmed or strengthened in MEP elections due next May, it will be Muscat's style of government which would emerge victorious.

For while 2013 was a verdict on Muscat's promise of change, apart from choosing their six MEPS, 2014 will offer the Maltese the first chance to express their verdict on Muscat's first nine months in power. 

Probably boosted by lower utility bills, Muscat will seek to turn the election into a verdict on the Nationalist Party. 

His task will made easier by the PN's track record in government which is still fresh in people's memories and serves as a convenient punching bag for Muscat.

What is certain is that if last March's 55% majority is confirmed in May, one may well start speaking about Labour's new hegemony in Maltese society: something never seen since the mid-1970s when Dom Mintoff was at his peak. 

Ironically, he is doing so by imitating the post-1987 Fenech Adami administration through business-friendly policies, which will only serve to leave the present Nationalist leadership even more disoriented.