Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/640308
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2016 16 MATTHEW VELLA SINCE the twilight of the Gonzi administration, much store was set by Malta's worsening global rank in Transparency International's 'cor- ruption perceptions index'. But last week, Labour oversaw a one-point improvement in the CPI index – the same week that MaltaToday's sur- vey on concerns registered a seven- point increase in people's worries about corruption. While the government can boast it has improved in Transparency In- ternational's ranking on corruption perceptions, Labour's promise as the great white hope to rid the island of its problems with nepotism and cor- ruption may have fallen flat. Only a regular survey on major concerns – MaltaToday's surveys – seems to be the only publicly-avail- able, reliable confirmation of what the man in the street thinks. Corruption worries grew by 6.6 points over September 2015, to be- come the fourth main concern for the Maltese after bus problems, mi- gration, and traffic congestion. The fact that 26% of National- ist voters (2013 election) said they viewed corruption as a concern, as opposed to just 2.4% of Labourites, shows just how politically charged perceptions are. But so are switch- ers – the ones who voted Labour in 2013 after having voted Nationalist in 2008 – judging corruption as their second highest concern (20%). In the last three years, Joseph Mus- cat saw two major scandals – bail- ing out the leaseholders of the Café Premier with €4.3 million for them to avoid court action for not paying their government lease payments and hand back their 65-year owner- ship; and an irregular expropriation of Marco Gaffarena's 50% share of a Valletta property that has cost Mus- cat's junior minister, Michael Fal- zon, his job. Both scandals concern the department of lands, which falls in Muscat's portfolio. But corruption also affects people differently according to their educa- tional level, an indication of which socio-economic groups can leverage their knowledge to demand their rights: 30.4% of university-educated respondents told MaltaToday cor- ruption worries them, but only 6.9% with primary education had the same concern – the latter group, who may include elder respondents, are more concerned about inflation, low income, traffic and migrants. The question to policymakers is whether they should be ignoring what switchers and university-ed- ucated voters say, appearing to be at loggerheads with the impression that Transparency International's CPI gives after bumping Malta up a few notches in the ranking. The reason for this is partly found in CPI's methodology, which uses 12 data sources that provide percep- tions of business people and country experts on the level of corruption in the public sector. Malta's score was calculated using only four of the sources, when the top 20 'least corrupt' countries had scores based on seven data sources – a far more dependable ranking. Crucially, none of the four indexes used for Malta appeared to have used popular polling. The World Economic Forum's executive opinion survey (EOS) is an annual survey of business execu- tives; the Bertelsmann Foundation's sustainable governance indicators (SGI) examine governance and policymaking in all OECD and EU member states in order to evaluate each country's need for, and ability to carry out, reform; the Political Risk Services (PRS) of New York assess risk profiles; and the Global Insight country risk ratings are com- piled by 100 in-house country spe- cialists, who also draw on the expert opinions of in-country freelancers. Back to the ground-zero of public opinion, none of these fancy acro- nyms make much sense. It is words such as 'Café Premier' or 'Gaffarena' that instantly conjure up unhappy connotations of politicians still do- News Malta gained 1 point in Transparency International's corruption perception index, but this newspaper's surveys registered renewed concern over corruption. The fundamental difference is simple: MaltaToday actually asked people what they thought The fact that 26% of Nationalist voters said they viewed corruption as a concern, as opposed to just 2.4% of Labourites, shows just how politically charged perceptions are Global corruption ranking polls 'experts' but not common folk Should Malta say 'no' to Azerbaijan? Labour MEP Miriam Dalli says Baku's regime should not be isolated I believe that repression of fun- damental human rights and free- dom of expression particularly through punishment, detention and more so through torture is unacceptable wherever it hap- pens. This is a principle I believe in. The European Parliament has been putting pressure on Az- erbaijan to respect its commit- ments and obligations under international human rights law for quite some time, particularly through a resolution voted upon in Parliament on 10 September 2015, and which I voted in fa- vour of. This pressure led also to the release from detention of Leyla Yunus (a political prisoner) and her husband Arif who are now on probation. This is definitely a welcome step even though much more needs to be done. I believe that the international communi- ty, the EU and the leaders of the EU member states should keep up the pressure on all countries, including Azerbaijan to address the human rights situations in their respective countries. In this regard I am sure that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has never shied from discuss- ing human rights related issues with the Heads of Government he meets. Isolating countries will only result in further deterioration of human rights. Maintaining a healthy relationship and an open line of communication will provide more possibilities for change. The EU itself has strong economic and trade partnerships with Azerbaijan particularly when it comes to the energy sec-