Last summer, Daphne Caruana Galizia and I collaborated on the Libyan Visa scandal. Let me start by stating that I was never a fan nor a follower of her writings. I found her style unnecessarily harmful, even spiteful at times. And by using a mixture of the truth, mingled with some personal bias, she herself managed to “assassinate” so many innocent people (family members, associates, etc) in order to expose the real targets and get her message across. Her dislike for the Mintoff surname is known to all and you could safely say that politically I come from the other side of the fence. Nevertheless, we agreed to collaborate on the scandal itself, as we held enough mutual respect for each others’ work to be able to do so. After all, we had enough common ground. We both sought to fight corruption and seek the truth, both wanting a better Malta. We also realised that to get back what had been taken away from us meant much personal sacrifice and attacks on our integrity. We both realised that things were very bad indeed, but neither of us realised just how far down that slope we had actually slid already.

In spite of our differences, I am horrified at how many people actually think that ‘she had it coming’. It is a sentiment that I find repulsive and one which I could never ever agree with. I am uneasy too that many stated that although they are shocked, they are not at all surprised that she would be silenced in this way.

But what I find the absolute worst of all, what makes me sick to my stomach is the fact that we keep seeing the very people that she made it her duty to expose, all lining up on any media, one after the other, in a continual and daily procession, to tell us about their ‘shock’ and to tell us all what they now intend to do to ensure that she gets justice. 

For God’s sake! These are the very people who went out of their way to crush her voice while she was alive. To denigrate her and make her suffer. To stop her expressing herself, as was her right. Now they come over all shocked and want to convince us of how appalled they are? Really?

Instead of keeping some form of dignified silence and letting the investigations proceed in a proper fashion so that the truth might come out, instead of doing something honourable like asking for immediate resignations as would happen in any civilised country, we keep seeing them on all the media, taking front row and jockeying pathetically for centre stage in the most disgusting way possible.

Need I spell it out to them that at this very moment, it is just NOT about them? This should be a time when people are allowed to grieve, think and evaluate where Malta stands right now. Is even that right to be denied, then?

What does it take for them to understand that it is highly insulting to her memory, to her family and to the nation per se just to see them, the very people she took on so directly, turn up at the people’s vigils and for these very politicians (that she wanted so much to expose and shame) to simply take over these events and make the whole issue all about themselves? Do they not understand that the whole nation is insulted to see them grab and create yet another chance to just take ‘political advantage’ and blame the other side?

Or are they now so truly detached from people’s sentiment that it’s just “business as usual” to them? If so, I have news for them. The people are not that stupid as they and their relative political machines think we are.

Yes, the people knew exactly what they were voting for in the last election. And yes, they knew full well what was happening all around them at the time, too. They let party loyalty come before logic and voted for money in their pocket or ‘the lesser of two evils’ instead for doing the right thing.

But they also know that for both the present PN and the present PL, the outcome of this investigation means the difference between who gets to govern (and carry on ‘business as usual’ and which one of them will get to be “assassinated” for good.

The people know that what all the spin in the media, all the TV programmes on your stations and other media mean. They see the fear in their eyes lest the guilt of this crime be finally placed at their doorstep. 

Ultimately, the people are fully aware that the disrespect, the silencing of those who wanted the rule of order before this murder, continues.

What Malta is going through right now is not just about ‘Taghna Lkoll’ or the PN’s equivalent and (therefore) a golden chance for both to take political advantage.

It is about the nation going through four mournings all at the same time.

• To many, it is firstly about the loss of Mrs Caruana Galizia herself and all that she stood for.

• Then, it is about the realisation that Malta has lost the right to speak up and challenge you on the subject of where we find ourselves and where we are heading, as she was doing.

• It is about the realisation of how far some of our own are willing to go in order to operate above the law with impunity.

• And finally, it is about the realisation that the institutions have been used by both traditional parties so that whoever of them is in government, they can never be held accountable before us, the people. For anything. You can act exactly as you please as the public institutions are not capable of functioning properly to safeguard our interests. At all.

Truly now, have these people no shame or any sense of decency whatsoever when they show their faces right in front of us?

Instead of realising (let alone admitting), that it is their actions, their policies and the direction taken by both parties that has led to this murder, shaming us yet again internationally, we get nothing but a continuation of insults and doses of vile spin. Enough now!

Mrs Galizia was assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it. I am convinced that neither Mrs Galizia nor indeed the nation would want mere bland promises of justice for her killing. We don’t want mere words or crass political advantage to one party or another. We want real action and not more nice words. By now, we all should respect each other enough to know that all we all want is change.  

We want our country back.

And next time I see Muscat or Delia or any other party official spurting out spin, I want someone – anyone but preferably all of us – to stand up and scream at them and shame them on TV. To tell them to stop dropping the ball and to start collectively acting and changing the direction that they are both taking Malta in. (She did insist that they worked on the same side after all.)

Having experienced this unique, national event that affects us all equally, our eyes should now be wide open. Dignity, values and our traditional Maltese way of life come way, way before bucket-loads of money. And how we earn that money is very important to us, too.

Before the candles burn out, before this fades into just another bomb attack against us, we should all be resolute and brave enough to tell them over and over that we want our country back. We want our real way of life and not how the world sees us now thanks to their behaviour. And we must insist that the best way to get it back and to honour the ultimate sacrifice that Mrs Caruana Galizia had to make is by standing up against what is wrong, and we should not be afraid to speak up. We must all be united in working tirelessly for this single, noble aim until we get there. We must show the same sheer determination for real work to make change happen.

We must not be afraid to confront them both and tell it to them as it is. That they have both completely lost our trust. We want, no, we demand real change so that all our institutions can immediately start carrying out their constitutional duties properly and checks be put in place this coming week so that we can change direction and go back to an honourable Malta where law and order prevail.

Where no one is above the law.

I want my country back.

We want our country back.