One of Malta’s ugliest sicknesses has again reared its ugly head. In the space of two days, we have seen two incidents of vandalism.

While some might distinguish between individual cases, this newspaper does not. Whether it is paint thrown at a door, temples being smashed up, oil thrown at a national monument or even a window being broken, vandalism is inexcusable and to be condemned.

In the past week, there were two cases of vandalism. The first concerned an Arriva ticketing booth in Floriana, where some bright spark decided to smash the front in with a hammer or some other hard and blunt object. The machine was switched off and contained no coins at all. This is, purely and simply, senseless. One cannot possibly understand what sense of satisfaction or purpose the perpetrator had in committing this act.

The other incident concerned the vandalism of the new monument, barely unveiled, at Bisazza Street in Sliema. Forgetting all the polemics and the absolutely ridiculous notion of having a pedestrianised street being pounded by more than 400 buses a day, one cannot but condemn the damage that has been purposely caused to the living monument. Someone decided that throwing a large stone at one of the figures in the monument, none less than the treasured Charles Clews, was ‘fun’. In doing so, the vandals knocked the head off the sculpture.

Aside from making a mockery of law and order and decent behaviour, the perpetrators also threw away taxpayers’ money. In addition, they have also insulted the memory of Mr Clews. Meanwhile, one must commend the authorities for immediately repairing the sculpture.

Malta, as we alluded in the introduction of this leading article, does have a problem with vandalism. How can we forget the horrific rape of the prehistoric temples last decade? How can we forget the burnt oil which was thrown at the Portes des Bombes monument? How can we forget the uprooting and chopping down of tree saplings?

If they are trying to pass on some message, the perpetrators are nothing more than cowards. If they did it for kicks, then perhaps it is even worse. When a vandal act is committed, it is a crime against the people. It does not affect one or two, it affects the whole country and however hard one tries, one can never quite get their head round the motivation to do so.

In the past years, we have seen deterrents in the form of CCTV cameras that have, on occasion, also led to arrests and prosecution. But more needs to be done. Perhaps as citizens, we ought to be more vigilant. Rather than simply retire to our homes in the evening and peer out from behind drawn blinds, citizens should take a more active role in ‘policing’ their environs, like a neighbourhood watch.

One hopes that the police will find some leads that could result in people being prosecuted in court. It’s a crying shame. A lot of money has been spent on upgrading the area and the monument itself is a tribute to some important Maltese characters. The only thing that can be said about the whole sorry affair is simply: “Shame on you”.