When Miriam Spiteri Debono was voted in unanimously by our parliament, many of us - possibly too many - spoke highly of her. Her inaugural speech was hailed as a breath of fresh air.
She dared - yes, this country is as bad as this - to mention Daphne Caruana Galizia. She said the wound generated by her murder was still "wide open and bleeding." Such wise words, such a departure in form and content from anyone connected, or previously connected, to the Labour Party.
The President said more fine words in the first few days of her tenure than her predecessor had said in five years; in fact, she probably made more sense than Dr George Vella had done throughout his political life. The present holder of our highest post rose way above party politics and political pettiness and shone like a bright star.
However, it is very easy to shine in words. But in reality, given the real test, when she had the perfect opportunity to shine, she was as useless as George Vella and all the rest of the Labour brigade.
Right now we are well into the commemoration of all things which make us proud to be Maltese. In the space of a few weeks we celebrated Il-Vitorja (Victory Day), L-Indipendenza (Independence Day) and soon we will enjoy the grand celebration of our nation ditching its regal ties and becoming merely republican. This should mean we are at our best, celebrating our most historic events.
Yet when we celebrated Victory Day, the day we commemorate in full pomp the successful ends of sieges or wars, Madam President might just as well have been invisible. She could have made her presence felt but sadly failed to do so; she joins the ranks of the toothless, another president brimming with meaningless platitudes.
Victory Day came and the Daphne Caruana Galizia memorial was cleared by the authorities. Both before and after the celebrations. Because the poor journalist's murder means nothing to these buffoons.
This clearing of the memorial was done because, unlike what the President tried to intimate in her inauguration, the state - including the President herself - is intolerant of anything connected to Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Because Caruana Galizia in life and after her murder was and remained a pesky blip in our narrative where all is fine and rosy. Beyond a few words, when it comes to really doing what is right we are all cowards, all sustainers of this state that goes on covering up everything that could make the state look bad. All is like the Great Siege monument: a sanitised, aggrandisement of reality to make-believe that once we were heroes.
Words, if not tied to actions and reality, are hollow.
The state of Malta was found guilty - by three leading judges after a long inquiry - of having allowed the murder of Caruana Galizia to happen. The state found the state itself guilty.
The authorities, however, do not really care what happened to Caruana Galizia. They care about looking good; they care about photo ops. A makeshift memorial with photos of a murdered journalist hardly adds glitz to our pristine whitewashing of reality.
The Victory Day celebrations are a sham, proof being the clearing out of the blemish that is the memorial. The heroic we are elevating is diminished by a cowardly dastardly act.
If the President had made a fuss immediately - or had at least spoke about the cleansing of the site - and admonished the hand that cleared the memorial, she would have shown that her words were backed by actions.
Where are the actions that she so beautifully spoke about when she became President? She promised that she would be the guardian of all things sacred not of the pomp of silly celebrations.
Why didn't she rise and defend the right of freedom of expression which the memorial to Daphne represents? Even the courts had found this clearing of the memorial anti-democratic.
The President should insist that the recommendations of the Daphne inquiry be implemented. Otherwise, all is just a show, a travesty, a few crocodile tears. Till that happens, till real action is taken, till justice is seen to be done with regard to Daphne Caruana Galizia, we will remain stuck in our present predicament.
People - from all walks of life - need to move on and not view Daphne Caruana Galizia as someone who went too far. No one - certainly not a journalist uncovering corruption - should be treated the way she was before and after her untimely execution. Whether she was sometimes wrong is not even worth discussing. Nobody should be dehumanised, murdered, then vilified in death.
The fact that most of what she uncovered and said was right makes her horrific murder even more poignant. Never in this country's history - this country of heroes and pomp - was anyone murdered like Daphne for trying to uncover corruption in the highest places of the land.
The President missed a marvellous chance to try to change the way this country treats its real heroes. Daphne's terrible anniversary - the seventh of her callous murder - is imminent. The President could lead the country in mourning the physical termination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the person and her pen. If H.E. Miriam Spiteri Debono could do that and if she could tell the Labour Party to change the way they view this woman, this journalist, then maybe the country would start breathing a fresher air.
Only then could we feel that Her Excellency is excelling.
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