All’s well that ends well.

Or rather, all’s not well not even when it ends well.

The thinking and reflecting part of Malta will long remember the anguish it was made to suffer on Tuesday, 9th July, when reports started coming out that the 100+ asylum seekers who had come in that same morning were about to be pushed on to Air Malta planes and sent back to Libya with flights taking off between midnight and 4am.

Now that the danger seems past, all are asking why was it felt necessary to make the country suffer that trauma, and who has gained anything from that, and who hoped to gain anything by this tragic and ominous strategy.

Let us begin from the very beginning: why ever did this happen? Did it happen because of that 100+ boat, or the fact it was the second boat in two days? Or was it an accident waiting to happen and the prime minister and the new administration were coming under intense pressure to do something about this rather than just mouth words?

One would not imagine the ratcheting up of emotions and of planned unilateral actions was all leading to the inevitable result – that the government ended up with egg on  its face and with its knuckles rapped by the European Court of Justice. But that is what it all ended up with.

Never or at least not for a very long time has the country or rather its thinking and reflective members suffered such anguish as that which was physically and psychologically suffered on Tuesday afternoon as the push back appeared decided and inevitable. People were shocked that their perception of their own country had suffered a shock of seismic proportions. Never did they imagine their country was on the brink of becoming a pariah of the civilized world.

At the same time, perhaps, not for a very long time have such widespread and drastic xenophobia been aired on the social media. Things have been written that should have been subject to criminal investigations on racism and which should have not been allowed to run not just on the social media but also on comment spaces on news websites.

The Opposition rose to the dramatic importance of the hour with some very noble speeches in Parliament and it is to its honour that the House heard the voice of reason and of humanity.

Among the more cogent arguments that were put forward were questions asked such as those which asked whether advice had been asked from the Attorney General on the legality of a push-back of these asylum seekers, and by what criteria were some of those who came in going to be reprieved and others not so. Or whether the hypothetical push back was going to be carried out without the asylum seekers being questioned or without their being able to request asylum or refugee status.

The reaction, both by the prime minister and by the minister for national security were weak and rather incoherent. At the end they seemed to find no better argument than to remind the House that it was a Nationalist administration that had sent more than 200 to torture and many to their deaths in Eritrea. The timid reply by the Opposition that those had had their request for asylum and refugee status turned down does not remove the sheer ugliness of that episode.

It is a matter of national amazement how people, such as those who afterwards claimed they had been assured that Eritrea was ‘safe’ and people such as those who allowed the Egyptian security forces to attack and enter the Egyptair plane on the tarmac at the airport and who, at the same time, stopped far-better US shock troops from leading the attack, how such people can sleep well in their beds. Dr Muscat felt aggrieved he had been asked how he would sleep in his bed but he should thank his stars the European Court stopped him from making such a huge mistake that could have led to tragic consequences.

Now that that dark day has passed with no dire consequence except for public loss of face for the nation as a whole and for its government in particular, the basic situation has not changed. Malta’s geography is what it is and there are thousands of asylum seekers roaming around in a deeply unsettled Libya trying to make their way to Europe and to a better future, away from all the wars. These are unfortunate people who desperately seek a less tragic life. Let us by all means act against those who benefit from the tragedy of the unfortunates and let us ensure that there is true security at the closed centres and retain the closed regime for the first year and a half of all asylum seekers  but at the same time let us be humane and charitable with those who have found their way here. Many of them did not even want to come here.

And even if we are now a post-Christian country, let us listen, reflect and act on the noble words uttered by Pope Francis in Lampedusa on Monday.