Article

The international perspective 01 October 2009

Salesmanship is not just a matter of producing a product, nor simply that of producing a perfect product that is well tuned to its future users’ needs. It is also, as any student of advertising knows, a question of giving the right impression, of creating the right brand awareness, of making the product seem like heaven’s response to a deeply-felt need. So far, so simple. But when it comes to selling a country, its various offers, its main attractions – far more important than the products themselves and the attractions – one must also invest heavily in that country’s international brand image. Malta is not just a case in point, it is the case. The ability of Malta to sell itself and its products depends on the quality of the image that Malta gets internationally. It is not enough to have hotels all ready and waiting for the next plane-load of tourists to arrive. Nor is it enough to produce the right products for the international market at the right price and with the right qualities. What matters, more than many things we normally think are essential, is the international perception of Malta, in other words, what people around the world think of Malta. Over the past weeks Malta has been in the public eye more than is good for its well-being. We have had, all through summer, the illegal immigrant issue, caused by some tragic events which entailed people dying a terrible death. But also caused by internal political reasons, mainly the over-reaction and (fake) horror of the Italians in order to find a scapegoat the Italian public could understand and react to, rather than react at the decision by the same Italian government, to push back to Libya any boat that comes from there. There was almost nothing Malta could do to avert the mud, the opprobrium, that has been unfairly heaped on its head, and the consequent negative impact on Malta’s image and all that is Maltese. The Italians seem they would only have been ‘appeased’ if Malta were to cede, undoubtedly to Italy’s benefit, a sizeable part of its Search and Rescue area, with all the rights consequent on this move – a move that sees Malta quite united in opposing. There is, as we report in today’s issue, a persistent streak to name Malta as a tax haven. This charge seems to fluctuate with the times, but it has come up again with renewed vigour as a result of the international recession. Again, there is not much that Malta can do about such charges, more than Malta has already done. Malta removed its off-shore tax breaks in mid-1990s. It moved to the OECD White List. It has not been among the countries clearly labelled as tax havens for many years now. But still people come up with the same charge, clad perhaps in different words. Like the article in Der Spiegel. There will always be jurisdictions that try to run Malta down, by innuendo if not by direct charge. Perhaps the real reason is that Malta is small and agile, it is flexible where other countries are big and massive and take long to realise what is going on. It is this flexibility, this ability to adapt, that many times has enabled Malta to get there far ahead of bigger competitors. The downside to this, obviously, is anger and jealousy, which traits are very active and pernicious on the international level. There was yet another issue where Malta’s name was dragged through the mud over the past weeks and this was, once again, about the Lockerbie terrorist attack. Now people in may countries all over the world seem to have made up their minds that the Libyan al-Megrahi, was not the real bomber. But at least there are as many people who still believe that the Libyan is the terrorist and that the bomb left Malta in a suitcase. The issue, where Malta is involved, was definitely not helped at all by the ham-fisted manner in which Libya handled his release on health grounds. Many countries were outraged, and the relatives of the victims justifiably felt that justice had not been done in their regard, that the festivities in Tripoli were an obscene sight. Then the penny dropped. This was all a part of the media preparations for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the coup d’etat. And this is where Libya miscalculated big time and where Malta was not at all careful not to get in the slipstream. Here is how The Independent (UK) yesterday reported the celebrations: “The celebrations marking Colonel Gaddafi’s 40th anniversary as Libya’s dictator lit up the Tripoli sky last night as a number of international pariahs, described by one diplomat as a “gallery of grotesques”, gathered to enjoy a lavish parade, dance spectacles and fighter jets streaking overhead. “The celebration was meant to be the crowning act in Gaddafi’s rehabilitation on the international stage, but the Libyan leader’s respectability, already undermined by the controversy raging over the release of the only convicted Lockerbie bomber, was further eroded by accusations that a notorious Somali pirate leader was among the VIPs in attendance. “Mohammed Abdi Afweyne, a confessed leader of one of the largest pirate gangs that has been terrorising shipping off the Horn of Africa, has been in Tripoli since Saturday, according to sources in Somalia. “Government sources refused to confirm or deny the presence of Afweyne, the leader of a gang of hijackers that seized control of the MV Faina, a Ukrainian cargo ship loaded with tanks and heavy weapons. Reports also suggest that Afweyne had met with senior Libyan officials. “Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese ruler who is indicted for war crimes in Darfur, were among those enjoying the party which was expected to go on until dawn. “The only European leader to accept an invitation to the opening of the week-long extravaganza marking the Libyan leader’s 40 years in power was the Maltese President George Abela. France and Italy were represented at ministerial level while Britain attempted to distance itself by sending an embassy chargé d’affaires, Mark Matthews. The British government has been deeply embarrassed by repeated accusations that it traded the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber in return for Libyan oil and gas. Britain’s ambassador to Libya, Vincent Fean, took the opportunity to visit Malta instead of staying for the party, while in private, British diplomats were said to be deeply concerned with the content of last night’s show.” Now of course Malta is Libya’s neighbour, many Maltese work and invest in Libya, there is a whole history of friendship between the two peoples, and so on. But did we have to be so ready to send our President to join in the “gallery of grotesques”? Why did Dr Abela not do a Vincent Fean and remember some long-forgotten commitment to visit people in Malta? It is definitely not in Malta’s interests to get itself in the kind of negative international publicity outlined here.