It is incredible that the power that be, the hidden power, the power that runs everything, could be so afraid of a photo, some candles and some flowers.

That it would order the Great Siege monument site to be cleaned during the night so that people might not see the blasphemy and who had ordered it.

First they tried to get the impromptu shrine outlawed by the due process of a resolution to the local council.

When that failed, hidden hands added other photos to cloud and distort (as they hoped) the impact of the main photo. Then even this tactic backfired. People still brought flowers and candles to the shrine.

Now last night these hidden hands removed everything – the photo of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the candles, the flowers. Within hours the shrine was back. We have no doubt that on some future dark night the shrine will be removed again. A policy of scorched earth will not permit any remembrance of the woman who single-handedly brought a government to its knees and forced an election to be held a year early.

Why is the hidden power of this country so afraid of a photo and some flowers? The country has moved on, likewise the Opposition which today rarely mentions Daphne. So why is the hidden power so afraid?

To draw a comparison, the killing of a journalist and his girlfriend in Slovakia has occasioned mass rallies, a resignation of a minister and maybe more future developments. In Malta, on the contrary, comments on news portals and blogs still expostulate on Daphne’s faults and refuse to see the truth that is so clearly visible.

Even in death, even four and a half months after her so-far unsolved murder, Daphne’s words still ring out, especially her last words: ““There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate”

The situation certainly is desperate – but for those who ordered her killing and who cannot stand that a mere photo of her is so disconcerting that it has to be removed under cover of darkness.