Later on, years from now, we may come to look on Summer 24 and wonder why such a big number of us remained unconvinced till the very end that things were so bad.

In their defence some might point out at countries far bigger than us and see how even they ended up captured by all sorts of fake news which led them to conclusions that later on would be clearer they were the wrong ones.

Presidents will be elected, governments will be overthrown, wars will be fought and entire peoples suffer – and all because the wrong decisions were taken because right reason was allowed to be overthrown. Because entire peoples chose petty and selfish reasons as against the best choice for the community. Because, as Milton has the Devil say, “Evil, be thou my good” and entire peoples come to subscribe to this.

We have had, this past week, the long drawn out Edward Scicluna saga, resisting all efforts to get him to realise that he was indeed involved in the three hospitals saga and that this involvement should have led to his spontaneous resignation.

That he was allowed to resist for so long, that he was not laughed out of the country, that he was even allowed to humiliate his prime minister and party leader is nothing if not shocking.

To say nothing then of the damage done to Malta’s image abroad especially at the ECB. At the time of writing I am still not clear if Scicluna will still be allowed to take part in the Governing Council meeting given he has only ‘stepped aside’ whatever that means.

In my mind it is clear that Scicluna, who I know and respected, is not a politician at all for he seems immune to the immense damage he is doing to his public image with almost everyone thinking he is protecting his four or five levels of revenue.

Scicluna, as is known, did not come to his high post through political militancy but rather through the financial services sector.

This is happening too often, far too often. Consider Robert Abela’s choice of an unknown technocrat for the European Commission. Consider Robert Abela himself – he did not come up through political militancy.

And then consider the opposite version – the present crisis of electricity distribution when it is clear Enemalta needed technocrat leadership, not a political one.

And finally consider the country as a whole with the roads, the construction sector, the mayhem on the roads, the lax enforcement everywhere and which is being considered as connivance by the forces of law and order with those considered as corrupt, especially the ones at the top – all this is being considered as parts of one whole, tainting the country as a whole.

 

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