This year saw the passing of one of the genuine heroes of human rights, John Lewis.  Best known for leading the landmark march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965, Lewis has left us an immense philosophical, ethical and political legacy.

Many items stand out in this legacy, but to me, one towers over all others.  Arising from a lifetime of struggle for the realisation of basic civil rights, Lewis remined us that democracy is not ‘a state’, rather it is ‘an act’. 

For him democracy is not something that simply exists. It must be struggled for and nourished, and should never be taken for granted.  Democracy springs from a people, not from a government, and amounts to far more than the ritualistic holding of elections. 

In the spirit of John Lewis, an authentic democracy requires the active, informed and critically aware participation of citizens.  It cannot and must not be equated primarily with the policies, ideas and behaviours of individual leaders, governments or political parties.

Sadly, this is a reality that that many Maltese have lost sight of with increasingly deep and negative consequences that are to be seen and experienced in every facet of life.  The civil, political, social and economic rights of citizens and residents of Malta are now being actively undermined not just by government and business but also by Maltese society at large. 

The most basic tenets of a vibrant and alive democracy now appear to have been reduced to a series of ‘options’ which can be set aside as needs be.  Political honesty, transparency, accountability and authenticity have been reduced to meaninglessness in the hands of what amounts to a powerful gang and its supporters, rather than a government and its people.

Democracy in Malta has now become simply ‘a state’ rather than ‘an act’. And what a sad state it has become.  Despite the increasingly aggressive attacks on those who dare challenge this reality, this question must be asked.  Is the ‘life and soul’ of Maltese democracy still alive and healthy, or is it now in ICU and in need of a ventilator?   

Again, in the spirit of John Lewis one must believe that it is still alive and that the ‘other Malta’ has not disappeared but is struggling in the wings. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that all is by no means lost, there are still many options and issues upon which we can ‘act’ should we choose. 

But hope and optimism face a wall of corruption and denial which are daily eating away at Malta’s democracy, threatening to overwhelm it.  There is now scarcely an institution not deeply captured and conflicted. 

How has this happened, how have so many Maltese at so many levels become so compromised?   Nobody can now credibly claim they did not know what has been happening.  We have all had ringside seats,m and yet an apparent majority cheer on.  We have all witnessed the tsunami of criminal acts, the cacophony of lies and threats as well as the incestuousness of power.

We have witnessed Malta’s institutions and (mis)leaders abjectly fail to protect democracy, let alone promote it.  The abuse of democracy has now become the norm and an apparent majority are content with this, even if hesitatingly so.

Pandemic aside, 2020 has proven to be an incredibly challenging and dispiriting year in so many countries.  It has been a disturbing year for democracy not least in Malta.  It has been a year of acts of omission rather than commission.

Malta is urgently in need of rediscovering its other self in 2021.  Again, in the spirit of John Lewis, the ‘act’ in the struggle for democracy locally is my core wish for 2021.