Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1510993
THEY say that 'comparisons are odious' – and as a rule, they're generally right – but then again, there are lots of things in life we all agree to be 'odious'; yet which might also serve some useful purpose, in the greater scheme of things. (Like cod-liver oil, for instance; or visits to the dentist; or paying your taxes…. the list is practically endless.) And besides: comparisons may be 'odious' for a wide vari- ety of other reasons, apart from the one most frequently cited (i.e., 'to compare two different things or persons is generally unhelpful, or misleading.') One other reason is that the person making the comparison will inevitably – and often, de- liberately – drag in all sorts of other contextual issues, that do indeed have a lot of 'relevance', to the discussion at hand… though not always in the way they themselves had originally intended. But before I go on to unnec- essarily complicate matters further: let's apply all that to a practical example, shall we? Joseph Muscat. (There, I thought that would get your attention!) In his Smash TV in- terview with Manwel Cuscheri last Friday, the former Prime Minister described the ongo- ing Vitals magisterial inquiry as 'his second Egrant' – not for the first time, granted – and in so doing, he once again invited us to make the same compar- ison ourselves, between those two separate scandals. And let's face it: sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Both the 2015 Vitals hospitals conces- sion, and the Electrogas ener- gy deal of 2013, were after all mired in more or less exactly the same kind of 'criminal/cor- rupt practices'; they were both aimed at embezzling hundreds of millions of euros from the Maltese tax-payer (and if only one of them succeeded, it's on- ly because the Electrogas swin- dle was exposed before it had any chance to actually WORK); and… … what else? Oh, yes! They were both planned and orches- trated by members of Joseph Muscat's own former Cabinet of Ministers; and both equal- ly 'on Muscat's own watch', as Prime Minister… Ah, but that wasn't exactly the sort of analogy that Joseph Muscat himself had in mind, was it? Oh, no! Looking at it uniquely from his (and his fol- lowers') perspective, a whole different picture emerges: one in which Muscat's use of the word 'Egrant' instantly evokes memories of the 2019 inquiry, conducted by Magistrate Aaron Bugeja; which had – always from Muscat's POV – 'exonerated' him of owning that infamous offshore company, to begin with (not to mention its other conclu- sion, that some of the 'evidence' linking Muscat to Egrant was ac- tually 'fraudulent'…) Now: I have chosen to over- look the usual critical response, to all that - i.e., the inquiry only found 'absence of proof'; which is not the same thing as 'proof of innocence' – because other- wise, we'd be here all day. For the purposes of this arti- cle, the important thing is that - in Joseph Muscat's mind, at any rate - 'Egrant' has clearly become something of a 'magic word', that automatically 'ab- solves' him of… in this case, the Vitals scandal; but presumably, also any other link, to any oth- er corruption allegation, that somehow involves either him- self as former Prime Minister; or the government he once led. (And, just like the 'conjuror's trick' it so clearly resembles… it seems to actually work, every single time!) But no matter: because – as I was saying earlier – there are inevitably going to be plenty of other ways in which 'Egrant' and 'Vitals' can realistically be compared… one of them being that both words seem to pos- sess instant 'magical proper- ties', of their own. Having already dispensed with 'Egrant' – which both 'ab- solves' and 'convicts' Joseph Muscat of the same corruption scandal (depending on whether you actually believe him or not) - let us now turn our attention to its 'cousin', Vitals. For it seems that Muscat is not the only one who's been exploiting those scandals, for his own private 'conjuration' purposes … and once again, a practical example might be the best way to illustrate that. So without further ado, let us zap channels from Smash TV last Friday, to TVM a couple of days earlier… just in time to catch a brief exchange that took place roughly halfway through last Wednesday's 'Popolin'. The discussion was supposed to be about 'Budget 2024'… so unsurprisingly, a General Workers Union official (Anne Vella, who represents 'pen- sioners') was eventually given a chance to speak. Addressing Nationalist MP Jerome Caruana Cilia direct- ly, she said (words to the ef- fect of): "I enjoyed hearing the Opposition using the phrase 'theft from the people', because I think you were experts in this…" She went on to "recount how her family had struggled through several PN govern- ment budgets"; reminding Caruana Cilia that "she hasn't forgotten the five energy-sav- ing bulbs they had handed out to households: 'We remem- ber those bulbs! Weren't you laughing in our faces back then? I may be a pensioner now but I won't forget those times and how my family struggled to raise us…" All of which eventually led her to observe that - in her own experience – people's reactions to Budget 2024 were often to approach her directly, and ask her to convey their personal maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 NOVEMBER 2023 10 OPINION 'Vitals is the new Egrant'. Discuss… Raphael Vassallo