Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1472276
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 JULY 2022 OPINION 11 Putin single-handedly revived NATO form the Maltese economy' by 'growing its population' – from the approximately 300,000 of 30 years ago, to roughly half- a-million in 2022 (and which, by the way, the Malta Employers Association now predicts will increase by – wait for it – another 200,000, over the next two to three years!!) Now: I can't tell you exactly what per- centage of this greatly-increased pop- ulation will – somewhere between the ages of roughly 14, and roughly 40 – all converge upon the same nightlife Mec- ca, in search of their own, wildly differ- ent concepts of 'entertainment'… there to mingle with another, equally vague percentage of the roughly 2 million tour- ists who visit the islands each year… but even without any personal experience to back me up, I can safely assert that the results will not be very pretty. There will obviously be more mayhem; more madness; and… yes, in the long run, unfortunately also 'more murder'. (Or to be more statistically precise: a much, MUCH greater chance that those random acts of street violence may result in more frequent, and more grievous, 'bodily harm'.) In any case: I think we can all safely agree that Jonathan Grima certainly has a point, when he argues that the job of 'policing' a place like Paceville should ideally fall to… erm… 'The Police'. Partly because the situation very clearly DOES warrant greater police-presence, in and of itself; but partly also because the al- ternative is for that same job to fall to others… … and no offence to Paceville club-own- ers, or anything; but – even from my own, limited experience with the private security of certain nightclubs-that-shall- not-be-named – the idea of 'Bouncers policing Paceville' does not exactly fill me with optimism, either… But still: if a 'Wild West' is what Pace- ville has so clearly remained… then it is only fitting that its nightclubs would subscribe to the philosophy of so many classic Westerns: "A Man's Gotta Do, What A Man's Gotta Do"… And if there are no policemen actual- ly available, to address that neighbour- hood's growing security needs: then – unsavoury though the solution may be – 'private vigilantism' becomes not only inevitable, but necessary. All the same, however: under the cir- cumstances, we do have to ask ourselves a few small questions. For instance: WHY, exactly, are there not enough policemen, to cater for an increase in crime that was all along perfectly pre- dictable? Why were only 'four or five' police officers assigned to Paceville, in response to a situation that clearly de- mands so much more? (And even then: where were those 'four or five officers' reassigned from… if not another part of Malta and Gozo, that now has no police presence at all?) Unfortunately, the answer to those questions is not exactly 'pretty', either. For it seems that – while Malta was busy deliberately transforming itself into a bustling metropolis (with all the asso- ciated crime, etc.) – its Police Force has not only failed to 'evolve in step with the changes'… but it has actually shrunk by several hundred officers, in the past year alone. This week, for instance, the Malta Po- lice Union warned of "a serious staff shortage problem that has seen over 300 officers leave in the past 18 months." The same union has also just registered an industrial dispute with Police Com- missioner Angelo Gafà, "after he imple- mented policies that limit the amount of overtime and extra duty payments that officers can receive." Naturally, I won't enter into the mer- its of the argument itself… except to say that it more or less fits the same pattern, to a T. If there are fewer police officers, to cater for an exponentially-increasing demand… it follows that the work-load of those few officers will have to increase dramatically. And if the Police Force is reluctant to pay any extra money, for the extra work- hours it is now demanding from its own staff… it can only mean one thing, real- ly: that the annual budget allocated to run the Malta Police Force, very clearly hasn't 'evolved in step with the changes', either… This, in turn, raises yet another ques- tion: whose responsibility is it, anyway, to ensure that this country benefits from the sort of Police Force it so evidently needs (i.e., one that is capable of actual- ly policing its most troubled crime hot- spots: ideally, without the need for any 'private vigilantism')? Is it: a) the Government of Malta (and the Home Affairs Ministry, in particular)? Or b) the private security of certain Pace- ville establishments? But then again, never mind: because it seems that Jonathan Grima has an- swered that one for us already… Frank Psaila is a lawyer specialising in international relations TURKEY has lifted its veto on Swe- den's and Finland's NATO mem- bership. In return, the two Nordic countries are expected to "support Turkey against threats to its na- tional security". This includes cracking down on the P.K.K. which Turkey sees as a threat to its national security. In so doing, Vladimir Putin's attempts to weaken NATO seem to have backfired. Their NATO membership is strategically important for the Western military alliance. Swe- den can control the entrance to the Baltic Sea. Russia shares a 1,340-kilometre land border with Finland. Military analysts expect Russia's reaction to include more airspace intrusions, cyber-attacks, or elec- tronic jamming against both Nor- dic countries. But as EU and NATO members Sweden and Finland are expected to rely on both the Union's and the Alliance's support. Both coun- tries also have substantial military might. The Russian President had warned Sweden and Finland against joining NATO. His threats proved counterproductive. A revived NATO After being elected President of the United States in 2017, Don- ald Trump stated that NATO had become "obsolete". Shortly afterwards, French President Em- manuel Macron said that NATO was 'brain dead'. Following his invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin revived NATO, single-handedly. When faced by the Soviet threat, Finland and Sweden considered neutrality to be in their best inter- ests. More than three decades since the end of the Cold War, both Nordic countries, feeling threat- ened by Putin's Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine, swept aside their neutrality, and sought NATO's protection. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation considers an attack on one NATO member as an attack on all members. The Putin threat Putin now faces a NATO that is stronger and bigger. Yet, the Kremlin is unlikely to reverse course. A pariah on the world stage, hav- ing painted himself into a tight corner, Vladimir Putin is highly unlikely to admit that his was a huge strategic error. The Russian economy shall, eventually, be brought down to its knees – causing huge discontent amongst the Russian population. Yet, despots are rarely swayed by public opinion. And the nuclear threat, often cit- ed by Putin, is of course real. We can't simply assume it's a bluff. He can always push the but- ton – and that will have global cat- astrophic effects. A long war is also expected to challenge Europe economically – it already does, as prices of es- sential items have increased expo- nentially across the continent with millions of consumers feeling the pinch. War fatigue shall eventually set in and unless economic pain is tackled, Western support for Ukraine will wear out. A pariah on the world stage, having painted himself into a tight corner, Vladimir Putin is highly unlikely to admit that his was a huge strategic error