POINT OF VIEW | Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Being Maltese in a globalised world

Lawrence Gonzi talks of the Maltese dream in Australia

An official visit to Australia, for a Maltese Prime Minister, is never quite a visit like any other. We travel far to arrive in a place that lies so near to our hearts. One hesitates to call it a ‘foreign’ trip when one knows one will be meeting so many Australians of Maltese origin, some of whom contribute actively to the flourishing of the Maltese language and culture, while others, by virtue of their participation in Australian civic life, help make Australia a more familiar-looking place to us Maltese of Malta.
A visit to Australia is always special. Allow me to say, however, that there is something about this visit that makes it especially significant. One of the main aims behind it is to discuss with the Australian authorities the important new amendments to the Maltese citizenship legislation, which come into force this very month.
Essentially, the amendments address a wish that many Maltese migrants – of second, third and even subsequent generations – have been requesting for quite some time, namely, that they should have the possibility of acquiring Maltese citizenship even if they did not have a parent who was born in Malta. Until now, Maltese law did not allow for such a possibility, even though there had been significant reforms to our citizenship laws in 1989 and 2000.
With the present amendments, it will be possible for second-generation Maltese born abroad to acquire Maltese citizenship, through a simple registration procedure, whilst still residing outside Malta. Their children and subsequent generations shall also have this possibility. Naturally, there is some small print, so to speak, which excludes certain cases. But the overall thrust of the legislation is to provide an important mechanism for Maltese migrants to establish a much desired legal bond with their country of origin.
Malta has passed this legislation to acknowledge the valid contribution that Maltese migrants have given, and continue to give, to uphold its name and image in various spheres of life. To acknowledge this contribution is effectively to recognise the role of Maltese migrants as ambassadors of Malta in a globalised world. But the motivation behind this legislation recognises more than just this significant role.
In a globalised world, being Maltese is an identity that cannot be contained by Malta alone. Our history, our language, our traditions, our culture are too rich, too complex, too plural. They take root and flourish in different conditions. They cross-fertilise with other cultures and in so doing they develop ways of being Maltese that are new and yet at the same time strikingly authentic.
The Maltese of Australia are perhaps in a very good position to be vividly aware of this dynamic, multi-faceted character of Maltese identity. Here in Australia, as you know, the Maltese community is made up not only of Maltese who came over from Malta, or who can trace their links to an ancestor who came over from there. There are also those Maltese who came over from North Africa and Egypt, in some cases descendents of centuries-old Maltese communities established in cities like Alexandria, Port Said, Tripoli and Tunis. Maltese get-togethers must be fascinating events! How intriguing it must be to be able to notice striking or even subtle differences in manners, speech, accent and outlooks, and yet also recognise that this cultural wealth gushes forth from the same spring.
Migrants have often told me about the importance that their Maltese identity represents for them – how it enriches both their life and the contribution they think they can give to a country like Australia. Perhaps Malta should tell migrants more often about how important they are to their country of origin – how important they have been, and continue to be, not just to the development of Maltese culture in general, but even to the development of Maltese culture in Malta itself.
I do not have in mind only the fact that the Maltese language as developing in Australia, or the literature written by Maltese Australians, is attracting the attention of Maltese scholars. In some cases, an entire new chapter of Maltese popular culture could not have been written had it not been for Australia.
Perhaps the most striking case is that of Maltese folksinging, ghana. For several decades now, ghannejja have been travelling from and to Australia, the singers of Malta and of Australia enriching each other’s performances and even creating some together. In one extraordinary case, however, that of the late and lamented Frans Baldacchino il-Budaj, it went farther than that. By both popular and critical acclaim, il-Budaj, who unfortunately died, too young, last year, was one of the very best ghannejja of the twentieth century. He had a beautiful voice, wrote poetic lyrics, innovated with form and language, and took ghana to new audiences – like Church congregations and middle-class youth in search of living forms of Maltese folklore. His contribution to Maltese culture has warranted a monument to him in his home town of Zejtun.
Il-Budaj spent some 15 years in Australia, from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. Although he was familiar with ghana from his childhood, it was in Australia that he was drawn to sing it. As more than one interview he gave suggests, Australia gave him both the distance needed to appreciate Maltese culture and the perspective to recognise how it could be developed. A leading cultural critic (Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott) who discussed il-Budaj’s distinctive cultural contribution at a commemorative evening held last year under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, has observed that the way that il-Budaj played with ghana’s language shows a discernible debt to his period in Australia.
Il-Budaj is one example of what it means to be Maltese in a globalised world. He enriched Maltese culture thanks to skills, ideas, experience and even commitment acquired from outside Malta; but Malta, in its turn, gave him the particular art form and resources with which he could explore values relevant to many cultures and societies. This dual relationship between the migrant and the country of origin is what the new amendments to Maltese citizenship legislation are meant to recognise and, if you like, celebrate.
These amendments take effect in a new international context for Malta – the context of Malta’s membership of the European Union. Membership has made a key difference to Malta’s global engagement. It has enhanced it and enabled us to participate in European networks of excellence as equal partners. Membership should give us – is already giving us – an outlet for Maltese initiatives and energy that previously was not there.
Malta’s strategy is to take advantage of this opportunity in a series of sectors where our ambition is to become regional centres of excellence by 2015.

Malta’s small size had previously disadvantaged us in our setting and pursuit of targets of a certain ambition. The EU dimension enables us not only to look at European markets from the inside, without important barriers of entry; it also enables us to enter into smart partnerships with our immediate neighbourhood to the south and beyond. Malta can be an important stepping-stone for European businesses looking at the southern Mediterranean for investment opportunities; but it can also be a stepping-stone – and it has already attracted interest in this regard – for companies from outside the EU, from North Africa, the Middle East and the Far East, looking for a springboard into the European market.
This is why the government I lead has committed itself to make Malta the leading regional centre for financial services and for information and communications technology by 2015. In the latter case, we are not only banking on the investment made by the Dubai consortium Tecom Investments in our Smart City project; we have also set up a network, called EuroMedITI, whose aim is to pilot ICT and innovation projects in the Euro-Med region, particularly North Africa.
We believe that a more global engagement will also work out to the advantage in a sector in which Malta has traditionally been strong: education. Malta has had colleges of higher education – including faculties of law and medicine – since 1592, and these were unified into a university in 1769. Despite producing internationally distinguished scholars in a range of disciplines, however, the small size of the country tended to militate against certain specialised research initiatives. This constraint also tended to lead some of our best minds to emigrate to be able to work in their chose field of specialisation.
It is both to build on our traditional strength in education and to overcome this traditional constraint that we have set ourselves the target to be a leading regional centre of educational services. Achieving this target would enable us to obtain the critical mass of scholars, researchers and students that we need in order to be able to specialise in certain niche areas.
The transformation is already happening, with particularly positive results in manufacturing. This sector, over the past three years especially, has been undergoing a radical transformation. The investments attracted in the 1970s were mainly in textiles and many of them have, regrettably, been constrained to transfer to other countries with cheaper wages. The investment that has been coming in its stead has tended to be not just in new sectors – like pharmaceuticals – but particularly in areas where innovation is important. Maltese workers are routinely praised by their employers for their capacity to improve processes of production. ST Electronics, for example, has for this reason chosen Malta as its base for custom-made products. But there have also been other investments – in the development and production of biotechnology (such as nutrients from algae, perfumes and medicines), electric cars and batteries charged with alternative energy.
We are determined to make more of the opportunities that globalisation brings by using our dual membership of the Commonwealth and of the EU to explore different avenues of European and African partnership. Over the past eighteen months, that is, since Malta has held the presidency of the Commonwealth, we have been urging that the available technology networks of the Commonwealth should be enhanced, in conjunction with a European commitment to participate in African development.
These developments – in education and research, regional excellence, innovative services – may seem to be a far cry from the Malta of a hundred years ago, whose economy was based on maritime industries like ports and shipbuilding. However, what brings these various new ventures together is my vision of Malta as a 21st-century maritime state. The sea has retained its importance for communication and trade while becoming increasingly important for new forms of production of food, wealth and knowledge. The sea’s bio-resources, energy, and minerals, to name only three areas, still need much research to be well understood. But clearly they can help underpin a green, knowledge-based, competitive economy in a manner appropriate for a maritime state.
The government is implementing this strategy for a competitive, green, knowledge-based economy across a number of fronts; integrating the maritime dimension is the way to incorporate our natural environment fully – since it of course consists as much of sea, as of land and air-space. Shipping, coastal tourism, the fishing and aquaculture industries continue to be, of course, an abiding concern. But the Government is also taking initiatives in other, newer maritime areas (for example, in coastal management), which span a range of ministerial portfolios. The aim is to build up Maltese expertise – in production or services, training of personnel, research and the development of technologies that explore, exploit, conserve or manage the marine environment.
I have given this short list of Malta’s current strategy and projects not just to update you on our global agenda. I would like also to suggest that there are several areas of overlapping interests between Australia and Malta. They extend beyond our shared commitment to the Commonwealth. From Malta, we follow certain developments in Australia keenly aware of their relevance for us. For example: my office has recently released a White Paper for a Freedom of Information Act; in its drafting, particular attention was paid to Australia’s legislation; and in other fields, such as the governance of maritime affairs, Australia provides a model worthy of close study. Above all, we know that the people of Australia, and especially Maltese-Australians, have much to contribute to us and, we would like to hope, that Malta has still much to offer them.
It is my hope that Malta’s new citizenship law will facilitate the work and recreation we can enjoy together – that it will help us enjoy better not just the heritage we share, but the future we can design together.

Prime Minister’s Lawrence Gonzi’s speech was delivered at the Victoria University during his recent visit to Australia