Following the events connected to the apprehension of the alleged assassin/s of Daphne Caruana Galizia, I feel duty bound to pronounce myself.  To start off I feel jaded.

A Country comes of age not only when it obtains independence and when it banishes all external military forces from its territory.  A ‘democracy’ grows when it shows that it has the ability to withstand shocks to its systems and is able to deal with them in a just and fair way.  We are precisely in that situation. 

Back in the days when in Opposition, the MLP that morphed into the Labour Party, sold us this amazing idea that Malta is going to be a better society - a ‘fair society’ it was called, a brilliant interpretation of what we should all aspire to.  Everyone wanted to see our Country move forward after having been caught in a rut and bogged down by the Nationalist Party during its last years in power.

True, the time was ripe for change. 

To be completely honest, I was enthused by the political intimations that Joseph Muscat was floating around; the notion of the ‘Movement’, the thinking around getting people together and the fact that all would be involved in making Malta a better place.  I did warm up to this fresh, renewed and crisp way of doing politics.  It was about targets, achievements and KPIs.  Finally, I was relieved that this Country would go forward not out of whim and impulse but by locating a business model to our governance.  This was hopeful. I started seeing people who were bushed by the PN’s way of doing politics and now wanting to be part of this vision.   

I was thrilled to see this commitment towards minorities that had been pushed to the side for so long. 

I was happy to see that we had an economy that was blossoming and so could provide for those at the ‘margins’. 

I was intrigued by the notion that we no longer had politics founded on anonymity but on the principles of solidarity and social justice.

But as they say, ‘beauty is skin deep’.  Something in the way our communities were developing these last years’ broke.

Daphne’s writings and more so her slaying brought about an uneasiness. She was murdered because she unmasked the malevolence of some or many.

This woman was demonized throughout her life and consequently rolled into a target, releasing the embedded evil of someone who wanted her out of the way, quickly and effectively.  Naturally this in no way justifies some of her writings which were uncalled for.  They should have never been written in the way they were, especially when they hit on the personal and this not to mention accounts based on unverified information.  However, other stories started to give a glimpse that in this newly found narrative of the Labour Party there was misfortune. 

The sad question that people all over are asking is whether a Country, previously known for its peace, serenity and laid-back-ness, was liable to kill someone who attempted to say the truth?  Since the death of Daphne, I have felt that there is something inherently dysfunctional in how our Institutions are failing to protect us and the reassurance was dented.  This in my opinion was suckled due to a Government discourse that oozes impunity and an Opposition conversation that made a laughing stock out of the Police Corps, the Attorney General’s Office and other establishments.

And what are we left with?

We are left with a lot of darkness (literally as I am writing this opinion).  As a friend told me, ‘greed, self-interest and self-preservation are the order of the day’.

But not only.  This leaves us with so many other howlers to sort out.

1.                   This Country lacks leadership.  Where are the champions of social justice?  Where is the Church, the academics, the business community, the MP/MEPs?  Where are the Union leaders, the secretary generals of the parties and those leading the professional bodies? None in sight, at the moment. 

2.                   We continue to put people off from entering politics.  This to me is a crisis of mammoth proportions on its own standing.

3.                   We have turned Malta into a pseudo-monarchy, with the Prime Minister taking on the role of three or four key persons in the community and every time someone ‘dares’ speak up they get a ‘Joseph taghna jaf x’ inhu l-ahjar!’  ‘Holy roly-poly, I didn’t say I was going to peck the guy you know!’   

4.                   All that we are seeing unravel in front of us is the result of a business community that has gone to bed with our political class.  This didn’t start today.  It is the way our political parties came to life and are kept alive.  We have known this forever, and yet, here we are.  It’s rich that political parties are now seeing a scandal in this.

5.                   Any other official, Minister and/or MP/MEP who is even triflingly soiled needs to be discarded, dumped and ditched.

6.                   To get us out of this imbroglio we need the reassurance that Prime Minister Muscat was not privy of who surround him in his office.  The Prime Minister is to operate serenely because he is increasingly finding himself in dark corners. 

Now, in my opinion, in all of this pandemonium leading to a Constitutional conundrum, the role of the President of the Republic, Dr George Vella has to take center stage.  He is the Guardian of the Constitution and now it’s his call to help untangle the racket we have found ourselves in. 

 

But I see a glimmer of hope.  We haven’t seen such an active civil society for years.  They are the ones piloting the resistance whether its issues of governance or the environment.  It is also comforting to see the media investigating, digging up the facts and chasing the stories.   

Notwithstanding all our divisions we remain one Country and the mark of our national ascent into mature nationhood will not be the outcome of these events, even though I am sure they will have a major impact.

I augur that we choose the path of spirited but peaceful dialogue and that justice will prevail and this intricate web unbuttoned.  The real test we have is that as a nation we will live out these differences.  I am hopeful.  This country has shown innumerable times that when the push comes to shove we take it on the chin.