We ended 2020 with a ray of hope as the first COVID-19 vaccines reached Malta. Instead, we have seen a grim end to 2021 as new variants of the virus lead to a record number of illnesses.

While the frustration is totally understandable, it is remarkable to see so many people dish out advice and challenge the scientists and the authorities who are desperately trying to keep the situation under check.

But while many of us self-appointed experts are vocal on COVID-19, we still choose to remain conspicuously silent on so many issues which desire our voices: from blatant injustices to corruption, to greed, to environmental degradation, to racism. And we all need to take a good introspective look at whether we are unwittingly fuelling that problem.

It is understandable for the sane voices in our country to feel discouraged entering an arena of online trolls and social media disinformation. But we need to understand the consequences of living in a country where fear of speech is replacing freedom of speech.

So instead of speaking out on megaphones, we indulge in self-censorship, whispering and complaining in private, in the ‘safety’ of our homes, among like-minded people we ‘trust’.

We know injustices are happening in our sector/next door, and yet we fear to make them public because we fear recriminations that the individual/authority we are criticising will pay us back, have us castigated/demoted.

The Maltese disinclination to speak out publicly about injustices is somewhat dictated by the fact we live in a small island society where most of us know each other. But the problem runs deeper.

Malta does not have a sense of the collective. We brag about our identity and culture and yet we are deeply fragmented to the extent that we become each other’s worst enemy. We do not understand that unless we call out the injustice our colleague/neighbour/acquaintance is facing, then we could be next.

We refuse to condemn incidents of social injustice in case we are castigated by some authority in future

Instead, we fear talking about politics and issues of rule of law and corruption lest we are branded blue, green, red or orange.

We complain about the constant harm to the environment around us, but then we fear joining NGOs when they take the cause to the streets in case someone spots us.

We are reluctant to report blatant online racism to the authorities, without understanding that calling out racism is a crucial step towards healing.

We refuse to condemn incidents of social injustice in case we are castigated by some authority in future.

While the reluctance to engage in an online war of words or face an army of trolls is understandable, we might want to take a few tips from other democracies, and understand that there is strength in numbers, even if you are up against an army of hateful trolls.

In the UK, most Brexit marches were countered by pro-EU manifestations because the protestors on both sides of the fence strongly believed in their cause.

In the US, Germany and other democracies, right-wing manifestations are regularly countered by pro-integration groups. This is democracy in action.

As much as some would like to think otherwise, Malta is not Belarus or North Korea, and speaking out and protesting remains a divine right, while the (independent) press remains free, a platform to air grievances and reveal injustices.

We simply cannot pretend to be players at the heart of our communities, but yet remain strangely invisible in public consciousness. Complacency and change do not go hand in hand.

Because as the famous sayings go: "we must take sides because neutrality will help the oppressor, never the victim" and "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”