A
QUESTION OF CULTURE
(January 15, 1995)
by Adrian V. Muscat Inglott
1) THE GOVERNMENT has listened to Mr. and Mrs. Public as they
outlined their expectations. It then referred Mr. and Mrs.
Public’s expectations to the public service and, in a
combined effort, as a result of their sensitivity to their
customers’ needs, the public servants identified the
need for, and are going through, a “culture change”.
2) As the government desperately tries to form part of the European Union, it identifies the need for, and claims to be going through, a “culture change”.
Is it No. 1 or
is it No. 2?
I would very much like to believe it is No. 1. However, is
it?!
Handicap
To begin with, the major handicap, particularly in the public
sector, is that most of the high ranking, long serving officials
directly involved in the implementation of the so-called “Culture
Change” are the epitome of the very culture they are
supposed to change. While paying lip service to the new culture
they follow “old culture” procedures which they
know are no longer relevant but, “that’s the way
we always did it”.
The “my job security is directly related to my performance” principle must replace the deeply rooted “my job is secure for life and my performance does not come into it” mentality. Whether we like it or not, these are realities we have to face and, to get to the heart of the matter, we ought to do this because we want to and not so that we can join some exclusive club. Indeed, if the latter is the case, it could very well render our eligibility questionable.
On a positive note a considerable number of Maltese private companies with the right orientation are nearly there. Sadly the same cannot be said regarding many public service establishments and parastatal bodies. Within the current culture there are certain predominant traits with which too many narrow-minded Maltese individuals holding key positions are “gifted”! These traits are the root cause of most problems we are needlessly facing.
How can we describe
ourselves?
When I worked in tourism, managing a destination management
company, I described our distinct Maltese character in our
brochure as “highly passionate, fiercely religious, and
laid back, all at the same time”. When St. Paul and St.
Luke were shipwrecked in Malta on their way to Rome in 60
A.D., St. Luke wrote, “The inhabitants showed no small
courtesy”. Indeed not many peoples can say they have
been positively commented on, as a people, in the Gospel.
As individuals we excel but when it comes to working as a team it is different. We do lack community spirit and civic mindedness. A typical non-verbal expression/statement highlighting this is made every day by the Maltese housewife, armed with broom, as she sweeps the dust and dirt in front of her house up to a point she considers to be beyond her patch whereupon she sweeps the accumulated dirt from her patch into the air. The statement being, “My patch is clear and I don’t give a damn about the rest”.
Being the pain that I am, I often take issue with such ladies and some do not like it. Indeed I cannot tell you where one of these ladies threatened to insert her broom stick in. However, on a positive note, there are many successful Maltese individuals who earn for us a good reputation. Although I do not wish to focus on individuals I cannot resist the urge to name two - Miriam Gauci and Edward Debono.
One must never generalise on a national basis but it is only human to compare peoples. Working in an environment dealing with individuals and groups of people of all nationalities at London Heathrow Airport, I soon realised that, after all, although we may not admit it for fear of being labelled racists, there are differences between peoples and we would be silly not to come to terms with this.
However I must stress that what we must recognise and accept is the “cultural” rather than “racial” difference. I remember the way we, my colleagues and I, used to identify the nationality of passengers of the same colour almost at a mere glance. In this context, as we are being assessed by our European brothers and sisters, we hope that they identify us as Europeans. We want to, indeed we must, persuade them that we are European, we think European and we act European.
Although in my years abroad that is what I always tried to do, there was a time when, thanks to some narrow-minded individuals led by one narrow-minded individual, we did not have a European label. I will never forget the humiliation and aggravation a South African colleague and an Iranian colleague used to be subjected to, in our travels, whenever we went through passport control points at various international airports during the apartheid years and the Khomeni years respectively.
While these were related to specific periods there are other nationals stuck with specific labels on a quasi-permanent basis. I have met Germans, away from Germany, pretending to be Finnish or perhaps Icelandic. They would only admit to being German once they feel comfortable with you. The point I want to make is that the treatment we receive from other nations in an international arena depends on their perception of us as a people.
I really hate it when people dismiss us as being backward, narrow-minded, and not having the right orientation. In England I often used to have arguments with certain English people who were under the impression that they civilised Malta when we were one of their colonies. I used to point out to them that they were still living in caves when we were civilised.
However there have been occasions when I had to accept comments about our shortcomings purely because they were based on the truth and I cannot argue with the truth. One occasion I will never forget actually happened in Malta. As I was seriously considering returning home after over twenty years abroad, one of my brothers suggested that, before making any decisions, I ought to seek the advice of a foreigner who had been living and working in Malta for some years as an adviser. We arranged a meeting.
We always have quite a few “foreign” advisers advising us “natives”. This may perhaps be a cultural remnant of our colonial days. Indeed we would rather pay the earth to foreign advisers than maximise on Maltese nationals with the right foreign experience and orientation even though such a Maltese person can make a far better assessment of a given situation and consequently a better contribution due to the fact that he or she can understand the Maltese culture.
Foreigner’s
good advice
In any case this foreign adviser had a very good knowledge
of the local industry situation from an employment of view.
My brother gave him a copy of my Curriculum Vitae before our
meeting. We talked about many things but the most poignant
comments he made which, I must admit, actually incensed me
were: “Your CV is great. You are just what they need,
you have the right experience and the right track record.
However your CV is what it is and, in Malta it will work against
you. The only way you can obtain the position you want is
by using your contacts. Put less emphasis on your CV. With
your orientation you will find working in Malta frustrating.
Don’t come back Adrian. You have a good job in England.
Keep it”.
My hypersensitive nationalism got the better of me. It goes totally against my grain to accept such comments about my country and my fellow countrymen from a foreigner living in my country. “You are wrong!” I retorted, “we are not that narrow-minded in Malta!” Indeed, out of pride, I ignored his advice and I came back home. I knew I would prove him wrong.
Sadly, however, I hate to admit it, he was - and still is - right, although I still hope to prove him wrong one day. In Malta, while we have an unintentionally transparent form of disrespect for fellow Maltese, we unwittingly show foreigners a subservient form of insincere respect. How can we be so short-sighted? Who knows whether one of our ex advisers, who identified our qualities, is now in Brussels involved in assessing our credibility?
When are we going to start looking at any shortcomings we may have in a broad-minded fashion and, together, work for our country? When are we going to take a leaf out of Israel’s book where they always maximise on their own human resources with successful results? Why do we have so many narrow minded individuals, holding key positions, obsessed with the idea of “being important” and of “being in charge” constantly seeking glory?
Having obtained their position/appointment through contacts and by grovelling to the right people, rather than on merit, they find themselves driven by something which I am sure Sigmund Freud would have had a name for. They intentionally shun qualified experienced fellow countrymen and stab them in the back for fear of being overshadowed while patronisingly surrounding themselves with a bunch of inexperienced subservient “yes-men” for the sole purpose of securing their status and glory. These are a minority of individuals taking advantage of the majority while earning a bad reputation for the majority and minimising our credibility in international quarters.
Small community
syndrome
Some of our towns and villages have two or more “lousy”
brass bands instead of a good one. This is generally a result
of a personality clash between two influential narrow minded
individuals. Too often such clashes, due to narrow-minded
stubbornness, cannot be resolved. Consequently the weaker
of the two forms a new band taking a chunk of the original
band with him. Sadly this syndrome is not limited to brass
bands.
We have so many committees, councils, establishments, associations in so many areas where, regarding one’s eligibility to join, the single determining criterion is whether one belongs to the right clique or not, rather than whether one can make a contribution or not. Consequently any candidate showing potential will not even get a look in because “he/she will outshine us and take over”.
Splinter groups are generated by petty squabbles and, in the process, the quality deteriorates while the same individuals consolidate their position - “President for life”. Some of these individuals, through their acquired position, manage to go on a course and acquire a qualification which nobody else in Malta has and see to it that everyone knows it. They then make sure that nobody else gets the opportunity to acquire the same qualification.
Indeed too often in such situations, when offers are made by foreign counterparts to give Maltese persons a course in a given subject so that we can have more qualified staff, the only qualified person, through his contacts, sees to it that the offer is refused. Yes, these things are happening in our country - a few narrow-minded individuals see to it that they continue to be among the select few. What I find tragic is that, despite this, we are still making progress and I ask you to imagine how much more progress we could make without these individuals tied to our ankles like a ball and chain.
On a positive note
However, despite our shortcomings many feel, rather than think,
that our quality of life is more appealing than that of most
European countries. Germany’s, Switzerland’s, and
other European countries’ infrastructures may be far
superior to ours. They may be more organised than us. They
may not have potholes and vehicles emitting thick black smoke
on their properly surfaced roads. Yet I would rather live
in Malta. You cannot have everything in life.
You may quite rightly think this is ridiculous but, the other day, I was driving behind a lorry when it suddenly stopped right in the middle of the road without any signalling. I just about managed to stop within centimetres of it. It was not possible to overtake due to traffic. We had no option but to wait and there was a relatively long queue of cars behind me.
The driver casually got off his vehicle and, in the same casual manner, he went over to the side of the road whereupon - I shall use the term my primary school teacher always insisted I use to describe what he did - he “washed his hands” against the wall. “I couldn’t hold it any longer”, he casually told us as he, ever so cautiously, zipped up his fly. He knew when and where to exercise caution and, as some of us know, zips can hurt.
Well, it is meaningless incidents like this which make life in Malta so meaningful. Once we manage to sort our shortcomings we will all be in heaven. Until then we must maximise on our good qualities and our good people.
Adrian Muscat Inglott