Some days ago, a learned judge, sitting in judgment, condemned our national broadcasting in no uncertain way. He basically said that there is no true freedom of expression in Malta. That we are and live in a terrible state.
Interesting.
A few months ago, Joseph Said Pullicino, a former chief justice, had some harsh words to say about local law students and their total disregard for the erosion of the rule of law in Malta. He called out their lethargy and said that if they do not stand up to be counted today they will hardly be tomorrow’s good leaders.
Very interesting.
And, just about a year ago, three judges had concluded that the state was responsible for the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Beyond shocking.
You’d imagine that with so many learned outbursts – not by some silly article-writer like me – we would see some reaction.
We’d have – anyone normal would imagine – unlimited resignations, firings from top positions, calls for reform, uproar everywhere and people in the streets clamouring for a better life, for better politicians, for responsibility shouldered.
Discussions organised, think tanks set up, the local media all concentrating on these incredibly important issues, this and more is what should have been done after so many lashings from such important personages.
Normal people would further imagine scenarios where the student body would rise as one to seek change, resulting in a government in turmoil, the opposition party out in the streets demanding action, shouting for justice, a new era, a new beginning.
These are but wild dreams. Our mild take on anything Maltese is having a good time in these torpid – because of the weather not our anger – times. Life goes on for us all in the heat of summer, lazing it out, lounging about and loving it.
The people, the people who matter, who make up the general electorate, all seem to be in total hypnotic stasis. And the Labour Party remains in power, notwithstanding all the ills the party in government perpetrated or let happen.
This is our reality. The voicing of dissent by people like Said Pullicino might sound admirable, however, the real problem in Malta lies too deeply embedded in our fibre to get anyone moving.
Where are such bodies as the Chamber of Advocates when you need them?- Victor Calleja
Said Pullicino rightly pointed at the law students. But is it just them who should be chided and told to do something before it is too late?
Where are such bodies as the Chamber of Advocates when you need them? They rightly rose in horror when a magistrate overreacted to a lawyer kissing her cousin, a fellow lawyer, during one of her sittings. Yet, when far worse horrors occur, they remain totally dumb.
When a lawyer was charged with attempting to bribe a journalist, they hardly hissed a word of dissent. Instead of calling for a general review of all the workings of lawyers caught in these situations, they chose silence. Instead of condemning such acts they chose to turn a blind eye.
Shouldn’t the Chamber of Advocates cry out for better behaviour from one of its members?
Where are the other constituted bodies of this country that should all rise and demand change and a new breed of politicians who will mark a change in our way of life?
The way Malta is headed is downward and the people are happy with the situation. Therefore, all utterances from judges, these voices in the wilderness, only fall on deaf ears. They bother the people’s preferred way of life which is live and let live and don’t worry, be happy.
Therefore, dear judges, retired and not, on behalf of the happy people of Malta, kindly stop the rubbish you spew.
vc@victorcalleja.com
Victor Calleja is a former publisher.