Last Sunday, a group of elderly people who live in Valletta decided to hold a protest in Castille Square about the disgraceful way public transport in Valletta has been allowed to deteriorate.

But for one reason or another, the lines got garbled and many were told the protest had been called off. Only a handful turned up but their message got through and public transport in Valletta has been restructured.

I remember the winter of 1972 when Dom Mintoff was engaged in his battle with the British government over the terms of the British military presence in Malta and the Nationalist Party in Opposition decided to hold a protest in Palace Square. But only an old lady with the Nationalist Party flag turned up. The others presumably had been beaten up before they got there or got scared and stayed away.

I am sure that Castille Square will see far, far more people today than the handful of elderly who turned up last Sunday to protest about public transport.

For although the government is hard at work throwing up other issues perhaps to distract attention from Konrad Mizzi and the company in Panama, this issue has gripped the country and refuses to go away. Ever since Daphne posted two successive and mysterious posts on 11 February for public attention, the issue has grown and grown, sometimes because of government’s half-truths that were quickly seen for what they were – what the Italians call depistaggio – and sometimes because new elements were discovered which added to the already highly-interesting story told so far.

However, there will be people who will be absent from today’s protest, who have been absent the whole duration of this issue and these people’s absence must be noted and remarked on. I am thinking about people in the public eye who are directly involved in this issue and who have kept their heads below the parapet– people in the regulatory role where public finances are involved, the higher echelons at the Central Bank, MFSA, the Income Tax Department, and so on. I urge Dr Busuttil to be clear and state that these people will be investigated as soon as that becomes possible. The same holds true for the Police

For this issue does regard on the one hand those who went counter to the laws of the island and invested elsewhere when successive governments tried their best to get funds repatriated (let alone the fact that the country involved is Panama – see http://www.economist.com/news/international/21693221-tax-haven-professes-stand-principle-risking-pariah-status-problem-child?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/theproblemchild, which is quite the opposite to what its consul here and the ministry in Panama tried to get the people to believe).

But this issue regards even more those who are in positions of authority and prefer to look the other way, either because they are accomplices or because they hold fast to their jobs, perks and positions above all else.

We have here the collapse of law and order spreading from the top downwards. This is what today’s protest is all about. This is what the Nationalist leader must speak about. It is about this that he is expected to commit his party to.

For it is partly true what the detractors say – that the PN in government, especially the last edition, was no paragon of virtue. Even so, it is hard to condense all the faults and mistakes of 25 years in power and not see that this government in just three years has outdone them all.

People do not expect to hear the whole story of Panamagate told over and over again. They do not want to hear empty rhetoric. They want to hear clear commitments, quantifiable, checkable, easy to understand commitments.

This is why it is important this protest be truly national, and not Nationalist, as l’orizzont tried to make its readers believe.

Time and again successive governments declared theirs would be a national government but time and again they ended up being governments run by the party in government.

For when all is said and done, justice will not be restored by removing Konrad Mizzi (or even Joseph Muscat) from office, though there is reason enough to move impeachment procedures if only we had one, but by ensuring that checks and balances are in place again and that the country’s manifold institutions work as they are supposed to work, without fear or favour.

I wonder at people I know and respect, who should have taken the lead in this matter and who have kept silent all through. By keeping silent they have made the situation far worse – for it is clearly becoming evident that it is not just a question of one or two people at the top who are unfit for purpose but the whole administration, the whole party. The longer it takes, the harder the fall and the party as a whole will be held responsible by the electorate.

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