We must act now as we owe it to the next generation

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry is unequivocal that the outcome of the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder inquiry cannot be trivialised or ignored.

The President of The Malta Chamber, Ms Marisa Xuereb said that “we must act now on what needs to be done without further procrastination as we owe it to our people and to the next generation. The country has gone through an ugly spiral that culminated in the death of a journalist, a heinous crime that seared our collective conscience and damaged our international reputation in a profound way.”

“We cannot truly heal before we all detach ourselves from partisan emotions and commit to an objective assessment of failings and an honest and unconditional process of reform, centred around the values of transparency, accountability, integrity, and civic responsibility at all levels of Government, politics, journalism, business, and social interaction,” said Ms Xuereb.

The Malta Chamber reiterates that corruption is bad for everyone, but it is especially bad for business. It favours the few at the expense of the many ethical businesses who are unfairly excluded, or worse still, compromised by having to settle for the crumbs that fall off the table in full knowledge that they are not operating on a level playing field. The outcome of the public inquiry is stark reminder to be fair to everyone since it is not big business, but corruption that has brought the country to its knees. Not every big business is corrupt, just as not every politician is corrupt. It is in this spirit that The Malta Chamber has consistently promoted ethical business and appealed for good governance at all levels of Government, politics, business and regulation.

In the context of business, public procurement is extremely sensitive. The Chamber has published a detailed report on public procurement reform that it expects all entities involved to take very seriously.

“We cannot continue to justify unfair practices on the grounds of a lack of resources or expediency. We cannot continue to trivialise wrongdoings because others may have done worse. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye on unethical behaviour and blatant conflicts of interest for fear of losing favour. We need to consistently adopt a high moral ground in everything we do,” said the President of The Malta Chamber.

This has far-reaching implications for the way we do business, but also for the way we conduct journalism, for the way we finance politics and for the way we appoint public officers. Let us all be brave and rise to the challenge of doing what needs to be done without further procrastination. We owe it to the next generation.