We are into the fifth year since the horrible assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The wheels of justice are turning so slowly that some fear they might grind to a halt. Confused prosecution strategies and alienating legal procedural issues connected to the case are delaying progress. We seem to have entered a tunnel that never ends.
This is bad enough but even more distressing is the issue of how a large part of the island’s population appears indifferent to, if not positively complacent about, a cruel and violent elimination of a human being.
In investigating and highlighting the corruptive behaviour of some of our rulers, Daphne was fulfilling an essential task required by a democracy. A task that should never provoke a death sentence to whoever performs it.
Within a reasonable time, through focused interventions, a malfunctioning justice system can be repaired. A deeply rooted ignorant animosity practised by a wide band of the population is another matter. Such a feature will not respond to a redeeming treatment so easily and so quickly. It definitely will not respond at all if the redeeming effort is contrasted by an unending manipulative and cunning influencing of intellectually lacking people.
This is where a responsibility has to be attributed, and a condemnation declared, to whoever is actively indulging in this political abuse of vulnerable people, people who should instead be helped to pull up to a better higher level of civic behaviour.
This condemnation, however, must not apply solely to these political abusers; it needs to be extended also to citizens who know better and yet persist in displaying a condemnable passive attitude, even when faced with devastating evidence of wrongdoing. It seems no amount of corruptive behaviour disturbs the conscience of these citizens.
Because of a natural disaster, the island is facing tough times but the more serious and pressing problems are not due to COVID, they are due to a corrupt malicious governance that is causing a fatal deterioration in the functioning of our institutions. The police, our law courts, parliamentary committees, the auditor general, the ombudsman and the commissioner for standards in public life are all subject to hostile consideration by this Labour administration.
Malta must be set free from the grip of crooked politicians, developers and varied businessmen- Arthur Muscat
Costly fictitious jobs within the public sector keep on being filled. Scandalous salaries and payouts, coupled with election mode unrestrained government overspending, have led to deficit budgeting and an escalating national debt. A greylisting that is not being convincingly addressed is depriving Malta of much-needed foreign investment. An eerie foreboding of a possible repeat of the 1980/1987 nightmare is haunting the island.
An election is now approaching and particular voter surveys do indicate a repeat Labour victory. Labour will have to face and solve daunting problems of its own making. There are doubts about the ability of this Labour leadership to deliver solutions. This leadership is more inclined towards continuity than change.
Has the corruptive conditioning of the majority of citizens gone beyond recovery? Can this conditioning be pushed back? The possibility is there, however, only if the moderate, thinking sectors within the moviment decide to make their presence felt. There is disappointment and unease within the ranks. Acting by omission, these people can bring about a reduction in the 35,000 vote majority achieved by Labour in 2017. This will be an encouraging dent to “continuity”.
Labour needs a stop to this ‘continuity’, Malta must be set free from the grip of crooked politicians, developers and varied businessmen. Malta successfully managed to stop Labour from preventing European Union membership; it is about time Labour learns how to cease being a recurring menace to Malta’s international reputation.
We need to see a stop to rabble rousing village rhetoric. We need a return to decent good governance that will allow a serene and peaceful daily life to all citizens of goodwill.