I will be extra careful today because while I will be writing on what I consider the most topical issue, I do not want to get involved in any way that may cloud judgement in the Joe Sammut case.

It is up to the Court to judge that.

Nor will I get involved in all kinds of spin-offs with regard to Mr Sammut’s past or present political allegiance.

But there are serious issues involved, very serious issues that concern the safety and freedom of this country today and in the future.

It would seem that one central facet in the story regarded the amount and ease with which certain people from Libya obtained residence and even citizenship in Malta.

Given Mr Sammut’s track record, these people who registered an enormous number of companies in Malta came from Libya and may somehow be linked to the Gaddafi regime.

This is obviously subject to verification.

If this is the case, it is very serious news for Malta. It means Malta is becoming a haven for people who may not be exactly welcomed back in their home country, such as it is now in a state of extreme precariousness. Will this influx carry dangers for us? Obviously, Gaddafi’s victims know very well who the people are. So far, we do not seem to have had revenge actions, but can one exclude anything when people coming to Malta see the former overlords swanning it in Sliema or St Julian’s in what may be ill-gotten goods?

That may be the least of our concerns. What should worry us more is the apparent ease with which the process took place, the connivance and compliance from lower-down clerks at various key offices, the incredible facility with which papers were signed and registrations accepted even when they seem to have had ludicrous info in them, with one trading in Nutella, for instance.

To be self-critical, it would also seem the new companies were publicly listed but no one had a close look at them until one case came rather fortuitously to the investigators’ attentions.

It has been said before and it bears saying again: we have no defences at all, not just from the armed forces, such as they are (decapitated by short -sighted politicians), starved of proper funds and proper equipment, nor from the police and the security services who must carry out a million-and one tasks which they should not be doing while important investigations await funds and time, but not even from those whose duty is or should be to defend our country from becoming so weak as to offer no resistance at all.

Am I the only one, I ask, to notice what may be described as a radicalization of some of the Muslims in Malta, when a man (slight evidence, I know) who has lived in Malta for many, many years, and who has always dressed in western clothing suddenly begins to wear the long flowing dress favoured by radical Muslims?

One does not need to ask what kind of sermons are being delivered at the mosque or mosques for there are enough radical Muslim websites on the Internet, nor what kind of indoctrination can be given at the local Madrassa.

One must be careful to separate and distinguish who may be adherents to a religion, a civilization that is alien to what passes for Maltese tradition, who may be still law-abiding and aghast at the extremism one sees and people who have been convinced by extremist thought such as happened elsewhere, such as in Britain or France.

Whether we think about it or not, we are living very much under the influence of what happens in Libya. Libya is a failed state, with two competing governments, racked by violence and fighting, with ISIS gaining ground on the back of the internecine rivalry.

We are just a short distance away, offering refuge and healthcare to combatants, safety for their families but not so distanced that we are not affected by whatever happens over there.

We have lost the immense benefits that peacetime Libya offered us, from opportunities for Air Malta, to job opportunities and work potential. Even though this is already too much, what we lost is nothing compared to what we may still lose if the fighting in Libya continues or escalates, if ISIS makes more inroads and stymies the peace-keeping efforts, if the fighting comes this way, if the people we allowed in because of their rich style of living turn around and start demanding things from us.

But before we lose all that, before we even begin to lose all that, we may lose the ability to defend ourselves, the ability to see dangers ahead, the ability to avoid pitfalls. The facts that came to our knowledge these days show we may unfortunately have begun to lose these. And, as always in cases of petty corruption, for the sake of a pittance to a lowly employee. That is what our sovereignty and independence may come to depend on.

 

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