Writing in another section of the press, the Leader of the Opposition, Dr Alfred Sant, raised an important national issue, which, like Mount Everest, is there. He had this to say:

“Since I have been in Parliament, I have seen cases of importance being swept under the carpet just because well-connected people here and there felt threatened. Even if they were involved in no criminal or administrative hanky panky, letting those cases be investigated seemed, from their perspective, to puncture their standing.

“So there was the case of a death at the police depot that was buried, despite our insistent pleas for an independent inquiry. There were numerous cases of mismanagement or worse that were pooh-poohed and, somehow or other, stonewalled into oblivion, like with the recruitment for the Auxiliary Workers Scheme, the Chambray ‘deal’, and construction tenders for the Tal-Qroqq hospital. The latter involved possible scams or million liri fudges with contracts, to put it mildly.

“The MCC tragedy belongs to another order of happenings. It needs to be explained. And the people involved in the case should not be allowed to give their explanations and have us accept then unchecked. A young woman lost her life. We need to ask why and how. There has to be a proportionate response to the questions raised.”

Painful reality

By raising this general issue, Dr Sant has, once more, stirred the still waters of Maltese politics. He highlighted the painful reality that something is rotten in the State of Malta. And that the dry rot has been rising for a long time.

Our peculiar system of parliamentary democracy does not provide the necessary machinery for prompt, independent investigation with judicial powers when serious allegations of corruption or administrative misdemeanours are alleged.

Dr Sant referred to various controversies that flared up in the past, all of which petered out and were forgotten, as other new controversies took their place.

The issue is one of transparency – or, rather, the lack or it. This is what maims our democratic set-up. The challenge is how to face this issue squarely. Who dares?

Beyond partisanship

The challenge is beyond partisan politics. It has to do with Malta’s Achilles’ heel. It has to do with clean, efficient governance in the public interest. In the short and long run, it is also in the interest of all businesslike, above-board politicians keen to promote the interest of their community, their respective party, and themselves.

It should, therefore, have best been taken up long ago, with vigour and the necessary diligence by the media in their role as watchdogs. Alas, although the spirit may have been willing, the body has been weak. And the Maltese body politic continues to suffer from acute democratic debility.

Meanwhile, the faceless forces of the status quo continue to pull the hidden strings and rule the roost. They know how to raise the winds of polarization, how to take cover behind the smoke screen of omerta. They divide and rule. They survive because they are entrenched.

There can be no progress unless they are smoked out from their entrenched positions. The initiative must come from the sovereign Maltese electorate – not from the European Union.

In the light of hard, bitter experience, there is growing awareness for the need of safeguards guaranteeing transparency of government, and of statutory provisions, providing for independent investigations with judicial powers, when serious allegations of irregularities and outright corruption rear their heads.

This awareness must be translated into action. The electorate has yet to exercise its prerogative, and demand a thorough cleansing of the Augean stables. The way to do it is through the ballot box.

Before this happens, Malta will find it difficult to

make that leap into the 21st century.

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