With the passing of the United States’ 38th President, Gerald Ford a couple of days ago, the debate over whether he should have given the disgraced Richard Nixon a presidential pardon for his involvement in the infamous “Watergate” scandal once again came to the fore.

With hindsight it was the right thing to do. A country torn apart by ideological divisions and with its system of government riddled by scandal could not possibly endure another high profile trial full of recriminations, witch hunting and retribution.

It was time to wipe the slate clean and President Ford did that with courage and conviction.

There have been endless rumours that there was a deal between the former President and his Vice President but Ford denied these rumours strenuously over the years. Nixon was a crook, a big one at that, but everyone has praised the integrity and common sense of the man from Michigan who became the nation’s 38th President without having received one popular vote, rather like Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in Malta just 10 years later.

Although Gerald Ford was no visionary, one need only compare his style of leadership to Mifsud Bonnici’s where Malta almost descended into the depths of a maelstrom that threatened to tear the country apart.

And this comparison brings us to our shores where there is definitely a massive lacuna in the way we conduct our soul searching and politics. We have had presidential pardons in the past, one to a notorious international drug trafficker and another to a well known criminal.

And then there are the turbulent times of the 1970s and 1980s where political violence was the order of the day with a lot of promises that after a new party was elected to govern, the slate would be wiped clean.

Apart from a high profile trial in which a former police commissioner faced trial, the judicial process to finally provide true justice for countless crimes and injustices has been pale and weak to say the least.

We have recently remembered the political killing of the young Raymond Caruana from Gudja who was brutally shot in the late hours of December 1986.

Although that did serve to bring about much needed electoral reform, we find ourselves 20 years later without any clue as to who the killer was.

In Malta, the days of the 1970s and 1980s are only trumped up when it suits us especially for political convenience.

But when people start asking just and legitimate questions, they are told to shut up and keep to themselves.

Are we capable of trying to heal the wounds of the past or do we simply not want to know and keep everything under the carpet?

Then there are those who argue that sleeping dogs should be left to lie.

But does our political class have the courage and will to lay the dark ghosts of the past to rest and move on? It is a question that we should all be asking ourselves as the year draws to a close.