Economist IU: “Risk that investors could turn away from Malta”

The Economist Intelligence Unit has in a report issued today analysing the impact of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia concluded that “the international focus on corruption and organised crime in Malta in the wake of Ms Caruana Galizia’s murder does not appear to have had a negative impact so far on the country’s business environment. Nonetheless, if further cases of corruption and organised crime emerge, the reputational damage could be significant, and there is a risk that investors could start to turn away from Malta.”

This is a stark warning for Malta considering the fact that with all the unanswered questions on corruption cases that have not yet been investigated and ongoing inquiries that are not yet concluded, more information on the extent of corruption and organised crime in Malta is almost certain to emerge.

The EIU report states that “With international media focused on Mr Muscat and his government, the Maltese authorities are seeking to contain the political fallout from the homicide. The government is under pressure to address rule of law failings and to show that it is taking action to uphold freedom of expression. A bill to repeal the criminal libel law has been a year in the making, but this will not necessarily address the problem of critical journalists being threatened with costly lawsuits.

“Ms Caruana Galizia’s family members have called for Mr Muscat to resign. However, having won the snap election in mid-2017 and having returned the PL to power with a strong majority, we expect the prime minister to serve a full five-year term. However, if he or members of his government were to be implicated in a corruption scandal, the risk of governmental instability would rise.”

The chomping, soulless zombies, groaning yesterday with blind hate at Daphne Caruana Galizia and the vague fodder they collectively describe as “nazzjonalisti”, will blame Daphne Caruana Galizia for causing the massive fallout yet ahead of us. And they will blame those who continue to seek the truth about the depth and the ugliness of corruption in our country.

But it is the corrupt that are to blame for the disasters ahead of us. They are not worried. Their roadmap ends in the  general direction of their hidden stashes on coconut islands while the rest of us wade in the slime and the mud they leave behind.