Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1464865
THE election – rigged, legally of course, to favour the PLPN cabal – has come and gone. The pressing issues – which some sections of the press find dull and boring, preferring to peddle clickbait and advertorials signed off by journalists – such as which burger in Malta is the tastiest, to which candidate or MP uttered 'fuck' on Facebook, remain there. Pending. On hold. Waiting. Recently, EP President Rob- erta Metsola repeated what we have been saying all along – that Malta's tax haven setup is on its way out and untenable. The name-calling and idiotic refrains from PLPN supporters do not bother us, more so because what we have been saying all along is now just around the corner. The Maltese taxation system favours companies or individu- als who want to shirk their re- sponsibilities and evade taxes in the countries they operate and do business in. All legally. They transfer profits to their own 'do-nothing' companies based in Malta, registered on some law- yer's address and contribute an effective 5% on their income to the national coffers. On the other hand, companies actually based and operating in Malta and their employees con- tribute a third of their income to our healthcare system, our ed- ucation system, our infrastruc- ture, our social programmes, and the general running of the state. It should be of no surprise that others find our country's facilitiation of a massive, multi- billion tax evasion operation un- acceptable. Whether we like it or not we are not in a position to continue with this business as usual. PLPN brag that they are 'united' on 'defending' Malta's tax piracy. Good luck with your defence then! Nationalistic and jingois- tic rhetoric will get us nowhere. Some ask, 'what's the alterna- tive?' The alternative is a diver- sified socially and ecologically responsible economy, not an overdependence on financial tricks and an 'offshore' system in all but name. Another festering wound is the rampant building frenzy. Words come easy – vide the lofty decla- rations by the PLPN during the election campaign. PN pundits take exception when someone mentions the 2006 attack on the Maltese environment. They say that it is a long time ago. For those who choose to forget, who see politics as one long party, with lots of flag waving and loud music, 2006 is 'the past'. But it is the past which is still ruining our present and future. Will the Nationalists in par- liament propose a motion for redrawing the development boundaries and saving what's left? Will government revise the development boundaries? When will the long overdue revision of local plans take place? Don't hold your breath. Tied to the building frenzy is the shameful sale of passports – pushing up property prices, encouraging more and more development and, once again, showing the lack of economic ideas and in- novation. Here again, PLPN offer differ- ent versions of the same thing: the sale of passports will contin- ue until we are forced to stop. Until we are called to the head- master's office. Long forgotten are the PN's Maltese flag-wav- ing and 'citizenship not for sale' protests. In the meantime, peo- ple who have long settled here, who contribute through their work and taxes to our country, whose children are effectively Maltese, speak Maltese as well as any of us, and whose only home is Malta, are denied citizenship capriciously – because there is not clear path to citizenship. It is awarded on the whim of the minister responsible. There is also our constitution and laws which allow our coun- try's institutions to be controlled by the Prime Minister, as if we're still a British colony run on the whims of Her Majesty's Gov- ernor. Then there are the tai- lor-made electoral laws designed and manipulated over the years, with the complicity of assorted apparatchiks, academics from the University of Malta and var- ious pundits, to maintain one of the highest effective thresh- olds in Europe, with additional 'proportionality' and 'corrective' mechanisms applied only to the PLPN cabal. For all the ex- citement by the usual suspects about 'new faces' in Parliament, these will perpetuate the status quo, defend the indefensible and will not change the most impor- tant thing in a truly functioning democracy: the system. There are other pressing issues: sustainable mobility and climate change being two of the most im- portant because of their effect on our quality of life. I might write another dull and boring article about these soon. In the mean- time, we can continue reading about which MP stubbed their toe, who eats the biggest sau- sage rolls, assorted pundits ana- lyzing which stunt was the most effective during the election campaign, and some narcissists telling all and sundry that they would have saved the world had they been given the chance. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 APRIL 2022 OPINION 13 A legally rigged system for the PLPN Dr Ralph Cassar is Secretary General, ADPD – The Green Party ralph.cassar@adpd.mt Ralph Cassar For those who choose to forget, who see politics as one long party, with lots of flag waving and loud music, 2006 is 'the past'. But it is the past which is still ruining our present and future