Two years and eight months ago, investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally murdered. We have since seen a civil movement attempting to restore good governance. Some battles were won, but corruption remains the order of the day. Activists are burned out, but giving up is not an option.
Daphne Caruana Galizia challenged the way we think. She taught us how to observe and question facts before accepting for gospel truth anything that comes out of the government’s mouth. She taught us how, because of amoral familism, which years on still penetrates our society, we cannot trust our governments and, frankly, each other.
As a society, the Maltese are mainly interested in the economic interests of their own family, and if anyone or anything challenges what we have always known, it is perceived as a threat. This is the case even if we know that what is being proposed, for example, is in the interest of the common good.
The meritocracy we were promised by the Labour Government back in 2013 was nothing but a false promise. To this day, many are still being handed cushy jobs with the government as a reward for their vote or for running several fake Facebook profiles through which they troll anyone who dares criticise the Labour government. Who could forget the promise of a greener Malta? It all seems somehow surreal how a government can run a campaign on lies, and yet, still have the approval of the majority. Daphne had warned us against this and had also told us to grow out of our selfish behaviour and to become more empathic.
Mind you, the Nationalist Party (PN), which currently heads the Opposition, has its own trolls. The PN is currently busy focussing on rebranding itself rather than finding ways to oust its leader, Adrian Delia. Delia is not only neck-deep in debt, but did not even rent his own place when he decided to leave his elderly parents’ house to protect them from SARS-Cov2. Instead, he took lodgings in his party’s headquarters. Needless to say, many remain vociferous in their support towards Delia. Incredible, isn’t it? And yet, here we are. Daphne had warned us about this too.
What Daphne wanted from us was to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, scrutinise our unconscious bias, and develop a sense of civic duty and protecting the interests of all members of society. If we are not willing to change, how can we expect the country to heal itself and get better?
Daphne taught us to be fearless but she did not teach us how. The conviction to fight for truth and justice is like a campfire that needs replenishing and guarding. Finding like-minded people can be thoroughly problematic: several have and still are using their activism to their own advantage, be it political and/or personal. It looks like there is no winning, but this is a malady which one will observe in all forms of activism. You must decide who and what is the lesser evil.
Those of us who thought that we passed the point of no return when Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated had another thing coming. The present state of affairs could hardly be more confusing. We’ve got police officers whose job is to protect us working as lawyers for criminals on their days off. The deputy leader of the party in government, Chris Cardona, has been mentioned in court proceedings connected to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and has still not been arrested or even interrogated. Then there is the “top guy from Luqa”, former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar who allegedly tipped off murder plot middleman Melvin Theuma about the possible date of his arrest. And, finally, the former head of the criminal investigation into Daphne’s murder, Silvio Valletta, was also mentioned as having leaked information to prime suspect Yorgen Fenech about raids on Melvin Theuma, accusations which he has denied. And these are just the developments we learned about this past week. The country is corrupt to its core, and if you are not mentally exhausted yet, I ask you to give me some of your mental energy.
At this point, what we do next and what direction this country takes remains in our hands. That is unless we would rather live in fear or in frustration at the chaotic situation the country is in. There is nothing to fear but fear itself, and if the like-minded keep getting together and stronger, we can fight that fear together. I would like to think that all of us would like to live in a country free from corruption, where the common good trumps over self-interest, and where criticising government policy in writing or by exercising our right to protest is not perceived as an abomination, but as a sign of political maturity.
Dr Mark Josef Rapa holds a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Malta and Master of Laws degree in Health Care Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester. Mark Josef works as a Research Assistant at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester.