What do I infer by this term Malteseness? What are the implications, the meanings, the loyalties, the responsibilities, the expectations and all the other essential ingredients comprising one’s Malteseness? Do these requirements include subservience to officialdom’s ideations one doesn’t agree with? Are we obliged to always follow the official line? What are these essential ingredients anyway? And what qualities make one Maltese, as distinct from say South African, Indian, French or Chilean?

What are the qualities I see in the late Joseph Aquilina’s personality, which to my mind make him more Maltese than any of the currently serving members of the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti (KNM)? Am I saying that those running the KNM are less competent, less worthy than Aquilina would have been, to be occupying such positions of national significance, influence and responsibility?

To answer these questions and all others implied herein, let me qualify the key descriptives. A person’s Malteseness comprises a complex intricacy of emotion, dedication, commitment, belief and other factors – all of which are focused on that single vague notion of patria. The notion of patriotism is a term loaded with political discourse. It is a term driven by the state to manipulate and dominate the private citizen.

Such terminology belongs to the political discourse as opposed to the ethical (Bovingdon, 2010). It is imperative that humanity learns to discriminate between these two modes of operating.

The political is always driven by a fixed and predetermined agenda with an end in mind to which it has to adhere, come what may. The ethical, on the other hand, always seeks to hone in on balanced, moral (not religious) and just reasoning within the limits of humanity’s latest general knowledge.

The so called formal understanding of education, whereby a group of individuals is put through a course of knowledge-bashing and behavioural manners, under strict disciplinary and regimented conditions (kindergarten and primary, secondary and tertiary education) is no more than a moulding of the individual into a submissive, subservient automaton. True education is a lifelong process of learning by observation, by practice, by erring and adjusting, lasting until our minds remain rational (Bovingdon 2010).

What has all this to do with being Maltese? What is Malteseness? This same question is only valid if it can be applied equally to every other notion of national sentiment spread around the globe. Does being American, Australian, Russian, Chinese, Fijian, Tongan, Gibraltarian, etc. not conjure up certain images and notions in your mind? If so then this is a valid question to explore.

Being Maltese would initially imply some kind of emotional ties to the country of Malta. Along with these emotions (the traditional festas, a relatively relaxed island lifestyle, peaceful co-existence with Malta’s immediate neighbours as opposed to permanent antagonism, our prehistoric icons which so many of us revere, our overall historicity, our anthropological evolvement, our Maltese language which currently is so heavily under attack from within, etc.), the individual cultivates a deep sense of reverence for all that is “good” about being Maltese. This of course implies that the same individual with equal fervour rejects all those aspects about being Maltese that are the direct opposite of “good”.

Coming back to my genuine concern about the operations of the KNM (there will be more revelations from me on this subejct), should we continue to accept and allow a handful of “diehards” at the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti impose and rule over the entire nation in all matters of our indigenous language by decree? Are we all such morons as to permit such degrading manipulation of our national tongue? Where have all the heroes gone? Is it possible there are no Vassallis, no Aquilinas, no Saydons, no Ninu Cremonas, no Manwel Dimechs, etc. in today’s Malta to come out in the open and defy this gross travesty imposed upon our nation?

What is the government of the day doing about rectifying this national insult, once and for all? And indeed, what are the members of the Opposition who voted with the government doing about cleaning up this mess?

Roderick (Rigu) Bovingdon

AUSTRALIA