The government’s decision, reportedly implemented on 9 March - the very day after the last general election, and before the government was even sworn in - to reduce the Floriana War Memorial’s two eternal flames’ working hours from 24/7 to a half-day shift between 6pm and 6am is a national disgrace that will have late war veterans turning in their graves and surviving vets outraged.
And the reason for rendering the eternal flames no longer eternal: cost savings for the state of around €9,000 a year. That may be a lot of money to the man in the street, but, all things considered, it is a mere drop in the figurative ocean that is the public coffers.
For the sake of saving €9,000 a year, the government has tread on the memory of those brave souls who paid the ultimate price to preserve our way of life and provide the peace and freedom that today we take for granted.
And after that crass, ill-informed decision was taken, the government went on to appoint the largest Cabinet in the country’s history, with all the wages and expenses that involves. Of all the arguably useless legacy projects that this government has inherited from its predecessors, did it really have to be this one that was sacrificed in such an ignoble way?
One could understand that if the project were still on the drawing board that it would be scrapped altogether by a new government. But once the eternal flames were lit and the world wars’ fallen were honoured as they should be, what was done was nothing short of a gross dishonour to them and the country.
The brash decision is nothing short of a deep insult to the memory of those brave men and women.
Those flames have been burning, apparently eternally, since April of last year, having been lit on the 70th anniversary of the award of the George Cross to Malta, which is still one of the proudest moments in the nation’s history.
Those who lost their lives in the two World Wars paid the ultimate price for us, and the upgrading of the War Memorial in Floriana paid due homage to those who laid down their lives for future generations.
Honouring the memory of those who laid down their lives for us: priceless. Cost savings for this national insult to their memory: €9,000 a year. Someone, somewhere has his or her priorities seriously wrong and the petty-minded thinking that led to this decision should be revised.
No more neutrality
If the recent Libyan revolution that led to the ouster of former dictator Moammar Gaddafi taught this country anything, that lesson was that the era in which Malta can still hang onto its constitutional neutrality is long gone.
In this day and age, with the Cold War now long done and dusted, and with the country now being a member of the European Union, it is high time that the constitutional clause that stipulates the country’s neutrality must also be done away with.
It is hoped that the constitutional convention being planned by this government will do just that once and for all.
These thoughts about the country’s neutrality are spurred by the government’s recent endorsement of a resolution by the EU’s foreign ministers to drop the bloc’s arms embargo on sending arms to the Syrian opposition battling the Assad regime, effectively opening the way for individual EU states to help arm the Syrian rebels.
This was undoubtedly the right choice even though Malta itself does not intend sending any arms to Syria, and it was with a sigh of relief that Malta did not dispute the resolution and that it in fact signed on to it.
It was also an instance which clearly demonstrates how far Malta has moved away from its previous isolationist policies and its constitutionally embedded neutrality, and how this must eventually be reflected in an update to the Constitution in the upcoming constitutional convention.
The Libyan conflict had shown that there is no place left in this world for strict neutrality and that in such situations a country cannot afford to sit on the fence – in such situations a country must decide to stand up and be counted as being on the right side of history. In the Libyan situation Malta had done just that many times over, and it is positive to see that this new government is not so entrenched in past dogma that it sticks steadfastly to the country’s Cold War mentality.
Overall, the EU’s unanimous decision to lift the ban on arming certain Syrian opposition groups for those countries that want to provide arms to help the opposition fend off the Assad regime’s relentless attacks, namely the UK and France, was undoubtedly the right decision.
The lifting of the embargo comes with the proviso that the arms in question will only be used for the protection of civilians affected by the conflict.
The international community has delayed for far too long now, 70,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the last two years, many of whom were civilians. Far too much blood has been spilt in Syria, and it is encouraging that the EU, Malta included, is now leading the way in this respect.