Editorial: The day we give up, they win

In the last fortnight, social media comments boards have been rife with sarcastic comments whenever another planning controversy emerges, or another beautiful building is gutted or threatened.

The refrain is familiar: “Well, that’s what people voted for.”

All these messages do is simply promote a deeply cynical notion of democracy: that once an election is over, citizens should simply accept whatever follows and refrain from holding the elected officials to account.

It is also unfair to tarnish every Labour voter, believing they endorse every planning decision, every environmental abuse or every manifestation of greed. Truth be told, there are several Labour officials who fight the system from within.

The one positive thing about Malta is the way NGOs, activists and journalists have armed themselves stronger than ever to scrutinise power long after election day has passed. Governments derive legitimacy from elections, but they derive accountability from an engaged public.

Few could have imagined that Joseph Muscat, one of the most popular prime ministers in Malta’s modern history, would be forced to resign in 2020. Yet, sustained public pressure, fuelled by the shocking revelations emerging from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation, created a movement that could no longer be ignored. Thousands gathered in Valletta week after week demanding accountability – and political reality became impossible to escape.

The same can be said of the public inquiry into the death of Jean Paul Sofia. It was only secured through relentless campaigning by the victim’s mother, supported by civil society organisations and ordinary citizens who refused to accept the lack of accountability.

Manoel Island will soon be turned into a public park thanks to the relentless work of NGOs and residents.

And again, it was environmental organisations, residents’ groups and citizens who managed to press the brakes on controversial planning laws last year.

There is strength in numbers and when those numbers speak in one unified voice against decisions impacting the common good they can force change.

That lesson is currently being demonstrated with remarkable force in Albania.

What began as opposition to a controversial tourism development project (backed by an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump) in Albania has evolved into one of the country’s largest civic mobilisations in years.

In just a few weeks, there is a movement demanding the resignation of the government, with thousands challenging corruption, oligarchic power and a political system many Albanians say has exhausted the country.

That is just one example. We have seen revolutions started, despots deposed, laws dramatically overhauled in countries where protesters did something more than just complain on their Facebook walls.

And that is why the worst thing we can do is throw up our hands in resignation simply because an election has returned the incumbent to power. To do so is to assume that those who voted for the winning party will blindly endorse every decision, no matter how damaging .

Malta’s civil society lost no election – on the contrary, since the May 30 election, many NGOs have been at the forefront of calling out environmental crimes, from the illegal Armier villa to hunting incidents. And they do this because they know self-censorship is simply abandonment.

The forces driving overdevelopment, environmental degradation and poor governance thrive on public fatigue. They benefit when citizens become convinced that resistance is futile and they win when people retreat into cynicism and disengagement.

Of course, there is an ominous sentiment where it comes to Malta’s construction mayhem, especially. But the fight for accountability, transparency and environmental protection is not over because an election has ended. If anything, it has only just begun.