There were two recent acts of vandalism that were reported, and again, worryingly, they were against monuments of sorts.

The first one was against the bastions in Valletta where vandals poured burnt oil down the historic walls that guarded Malta for so many years. The second was the pulling out of letters which were bolted onto the commemorative bust of Pope Pius V in Valletta opposite the law courts.

What is indeed shameful is that these attacks do not seem to be a reprisal, such as when the temples were attacked, or Portes des Bombes was daubed with oil, or trees were hacked to pieces. These acts of vandalism seemed to have been senseless stupid acts that were just committed for the sake of it – and what’s more, they were committed against the whole population.

The bastions are synonymous with Malta and Valletta, and they are one of our biggest trump cards – you do not find many walled cities around Europe, or the rest of the world for that matter.

We have various charitable institutions which pump money into restoring such pieces of architecture and the government is also pressing hard to get funding to make sure that the bastions are with us for another 500 years. Yet, as we have said, in spite of it all, some senseless and stupid individual decided that the walls were to be tainted with burnt oil. Burnt oil well and truly ruins porous stone, and therefore it will be the toughest of jobs to remove it.

The Maltese are truly proud to be a Catholic nation. We shall not get into the ins and outs of what being a pious Catholic means; it is not the purpose of this editorial. However, damaging a heritage monument to a late Pope is nothing short of scandalous. Forget that it might be interpreted as an offence against our religion, that again is not the point we are getting across.

The point is that, again, vandals have targeted something which carries a great deal of meaning to other Maltese and Gozitan citizens. Luckily, this second case did not involve damaging the bust itself, but rather the mount beneath the bust which is modern in comparison to the bust of the pope.

We understand that we cannot have every single place monitored by CCTV – although there might be some footage recorded near the law courts. And we also understand that the authorities cannot go around policing each and every single piece of marble and stone around the islands.

What we do need to get across is a civic sense of responsibility. We used to moan and gripe that we do not look after anything. Now we are all collectively trying to do so, all our endeavours to do so are thwarted by idiocy such as that which we witnessed this week.

While we do not hold out much hope that they will be traced and brought to justice, we appeal for the law courts and the judiciary to start to make better examples out of those who are caught committing such acts.

A short yet effective jail term might do the trick. Perhaps in that manner would-be vandals might think twice about whether or not to commit a crime against the whole population.

Make no mistake – attacking our heritage is an attack against all Maltese and Gozitan people and all that we work hard to preserve for future generations.