I’ve watched this insufferably cringe interview with Michael Stivala for journalistic purposes given that he is a significant person in our political scene: he is the head of the Malta Developers’ Association and one of Malta’s large building contractors. His group, owned and run by the three brothers, Martin Stivala, Ivan Stivala, and himself, Michael Stivala focuses on real estate and hospitality. They have a number of hotels and real-estate projects apart from their own share of controversies.
Michael Stivala is a significant figure in the political scene, both in the formal one and in the informal one, due to his status as a major donor to the Labour Party and his close connections to Joseph Muscat. He even employed Muscat after he resigned as Prime Minister. He also made use of Nexia BT as his group’s main auditors – the same corrupt accountants of Joseph Muscat and his political associates.
During the interview, Michael Stivala spent around four hours playing the victim, lying, pretending, speaking with a forcibly construed infantile-like tone, and pretending he was a completely different person in a totally separate world. I never understood how people could force themselves to be in character for so long. I understand how actors can do it because that’s art, but it takes a lot of delusion to believe that people will take you seriously when you act out in real life.
The biggest red flag with these kinds of people is when they start victimising themselves and virtuously proclaiming that they don’t like money. The poor soul lives in a humble house he says, and he has many expenses, and many troubles, and that for him it’s not about the money and so on and so forth. In reality, there is really nothing wrong in making money and it’s even something to brag about if you are doing it well, legitimately, and by leaving a positive impact. So, what’s keeping him from admitting that money is nice and a lot of money is nicer? At a quick glance at their accounts, revenues and profits for the Stivala group soared during subsequent Labour administrations and the brothers have been taking tens of millions of Europs in dividends. Their company’s finances seem to be in great shape as well, and normally someone would have been proud of these achievements.
Rent-seeking aside, the problem is that the result of the construction boom which made people like Michael Stivala significantly richer, Malta faces potential housing apart from the destruction of the natural and built environment and the collapse of living standards. The problem is not that Michael Stivala makes a lot of money – he can make as much money as he likes and he should be proud of it if it’s done right – the problem is that the cost of his profits is much larger to society. This is an important debate we are having right now in our society.
Of course, Michael Stivala has no good faith, and his ilk has shown no regard for the rule of law and free and fair markets – their success is dependent on a state machine that supports them and this is why Joseph Muscat is an asset to him apart from potentially paying him back for past favours. It is also true that the construction and real-estate industries amount to around just 10% of the economy and it’s quite ridiculous seeing Michael Stivala trying to disown this fact by bringing up KPMG reports – but then again, this is the delusion of these people. They sincerely believe that paying off a big brand for a nice report will put them in a better light, but in reality, no one cares and no one is going to read the supposedly very impressive KPMG report.
What’s more ridiculous to him is that he insists that NGOs are being used and paid by contractors to attack specific projects. He says that he has provided the evidence of his claims to the Voluntary Organisations Commissioner and asked him to investigate his claims. I think a child is less pathetic. In reality, I know a couple of media owners who are paid by construction contractors to buy their silence, and I wonder who they might be.
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