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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 SEPTEMBER 2023 Rights, favours and a sick political culture Editorial SILVIO Grixti resigned from parliament in December 2021 when he was first interrogated by the police and implicated in a social benefits abuse racket. At the time, very few knew how big the racket was. Roll over almost two years and the media reveals the racket to be a well-oiled organised system of fraud. It has been reported that as much as 800 people may have received more than €400 per month in severe disability benefits they were not entitled to. The cost to public coffers so far has been put at €2.1 million. These people had no right to receive this benefit. The medical certificates they used to apply for it were falsified. They did not suffer from the medical condi- tion listed in their application and yet chose to play along, even describing their non-existent symptoms to the review board. These cheats not only ridiculed honest taxpayers with their actions but worse, ridiculed those who truly need such a benefit to get by. These cheats should be punished. But catching the cheats and ensuring they pay back the money they stole is only the tail end of the matter. The police must act to dismantle the system that enabled these cheats to get what they did not deserve. Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti is the face of such a scheme. He provided constituents with what appears to be a ready-made package of false documents, going as far as forging the signatures of unsuspecting medical professionals. Grixti was the go-to person for anybody who wanted to receive severe disability benefits even if they were not entitled to them. Grixti must be charged. But along with Grixti, the police must also investi- gate the members of the benefits board to determine whether anyone was facilitating the scheme by closing an eye or two whenever the fake cases came before them. They should also be charged if abuse results. The police must also investigate any other public official who in some way or another aided and abetted in this fraud. Customer care officials in the respective ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister, should be questioned over their role in referring peo- ple to Grixti. And if it results that politicians knowingly encour- aged disgruntled constituents to seek 'help' in this fraudulent way, they should also be investigated and charged. Malta's sick political culture is still very much de- pendent on 'favours' rather than 'rights'. Unfortunate- ly, the creation of customer care departments in each ministry has only served to officialise favouritism. People should be able to access a social benefit, or be treated in a timely manner in the health system, because it is their right and not because someone is doing them a favour. The administrative systems in place must be easy to access, efficient and transparent. Politicians and their cronies must not interfere in the workings of these systems unless they are broken and require fixing. The politician's duty is not to pander to constituents' whims at all costs. It would be worse if this entails breaking the law and abusing of faulty systems. A pol- itician's duty is to listen to their constituents and en- sure their rights are being respected. If the institutions are not functioning as they should then it is the politi- cian's duty to put pressure so that they work well. If a constituent's problem is unresolvable within existing policy frameworks, and the politician feels the claim is justified, their duty is to lobby and make pressure for changes to be made so that anyone in the same predicament can benefit. A culture of favours only serves to erode the dignity of the individual asking for 'help' and in the process, causes injustice against others who may not have the audacity or knowhow to bring their personal grievance to the fore. But there is also a graver injustice against society and honest taxpayers, who expect public funds to be spent judiciously. At a time when the middleclass is struggling to maintain its standard of living because inflation is fast eroding income, the backlash against abuse is likely to be much stronger. Robert Abela's government is at a juncture where any wrong move, small as it may be, will be met by an exaggerated reaction because people are generally fed up and no longer tolerant of abuse. People will start comparing the negative impact of cronyism, corruption and favouritism with their stag- nating standard of living. The stolen euros will mean something and this will anger honest taxpayers even more. The social benefit scandal is yet another grudge people will carry and it will only get worse if Grixti and others behind this criminal scheme are allowed to go scot free. Unless the Prime Minister and the Labour Party want to descend into a downward spiral they have to act fast. For starters, they have to clearly and unequivocally condemn the abuse. But more importantly they have to weed out the bad apples and ensure the customer care system does not transform into a system of in- justice and abuse. If politicians and their cronies are involved, they should resign or be removed. Thirdly, just like he applied pressure on the mag- istrate in the Jean Paul Sofia case to conclude the criminal inquiry in an expedient manner, the Prime Minister must apply pressure on the police to investi- gate and charge anyone who has breached the law in the Grixti case. Anything less will simply perpetuate people's sense of helplessness, anger, frustration and dejection from politics. 9 September 2013 Political decisions and a populist approach rule Muscat's government - Simon Busuttil OPPOSITION Leader Simon Busuttil says Mus- cat fed on electorate's fears and is now resorting to a populist approach and politically motivated decisions. The true colours of this government are com- ing out showing the hypocrisy behind Labour's pre-election stints, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said this morning. Talking on a radio interview, Busuttil said that prior to the election Joseph Muscat had labelled the power station operating on heavy fuel oil as a cancer factory however he has now extended its operation up to 2014, "yet prior to the March ballots the PL had pledged to convert the power station to work on diesel". "Joseph Muscat played on the fears and con- cerns of the electorate to harvest votes", Busuttil argued. The PN leader questioned the memo- randum of understanding signed with Libya and asked when will this come into force now that Libya has problems and is purchasing oil for it's own needs. Highlighting the recent raise in the price of unleaded fuel as the highest ever, Busuttil de- manded the figures showing how much would the Maltese people be saving at the fuel pumps once the agreement is put in action. Another aspect of Muscat's populist approach can be seen in the way the government has hand- ed the issue of illegal migration, said Busuttil, while listing the damage Malta sustained after the Prime Minister's inclination for pushbacks. He explained how during 2013 Malta witnessed more illegal immigration than in 2012. "Muscat fuelled racism and xenophobia in Malta while destroying Malta's reputation in Brussels", the PN leader held. The government led by Dr Muscat repeatedly took wrong, politically motivated, decisions over the alleged air pollution claim at the Marsascala Family Park. Simon Busuttil said that if there were problems in the management of the park, these should have been addressed rather than the park closed down. He said that this was another politically motivated decision from which the public lost a place where to go out as a family and nobody gained anything. ... 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