At the height of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, we organised a family day out with friends in Bangor, Co.Down.  Nothing special, an ordinary families’ day out – some ice skating, ice cream and chips.  

All was perfectly normal until my friend’s daughter enquired innocently ‘Daddy, what mass are we going to?’  Her father immediately responded by jumping up and saying emphatically to everyone – ‘We need to leave now’.  

At the car park, he explained that the table next to us was occupied by some well-known and rather ‘fundamentalist’ members of the Democratic Unionist Party (now in power in Northern Ireland alongside Sinn Féin).

He was concerned that we had revealed our background and, most likely our politics. He believed this could put us at risk.

Frank and I worked closely together in the Northern Ireland of those times and had to take that reality into account in our movements and behaviours.  

On another occasion, I arrived early at our meeting point in a pub. I asked for a coffee and then realised I had no Sterling with which to pay.  Having checked at the bar that Frank could pay when he arrived, I sat down to read my newspaper. It was the Irish Times, the ‘wrong paper’ for that place. 

Frank arrived, asked how long I had been there and promptly suggested we needed to leave (the pub was close to a Loyalist heartland).  

One of my abiding memories of that period in Northern Ireland was the degree to which that society had ceased to be ‘normal’ – how the realities of the conflict in all its complexities and nuances mediated absolutely everything.  

A great many people had inherited their tribal affiliation and everything that went with it.  

It was a dominant lens through which they viewed life. Without fully perceiving it, many forgot how ‘abnormal’ their society had become and even came to accept that abnormality as the norm.  It is one of the most gratifying aspects of the Good Friday peace process that something approaching normality has now begun to take root. But it has taken a long time and much pain.

I was reminded of all this recently while having dinner in Għajnsielem, when some friends commented on my writing in this paper.  

They warned me to be careful about what I write, as there are Gozitans who would take great exception to criticism of the current (or previous) regime. While discussing the issue further, it was suggested that we keep our voices down for fear of who might be listening.  

Times of Malta opinion writer Kristina Chetcuti last Sunday echoed my experience, by referencing the fact that her local newsagent in Paola hid her father’s paper in another newspaper, lest he be seen reading the ‘wrong’ newspaper in the wrong place.

Because of its own particular brand of toxic political tribalism, Malta has long been viewed as an abnormal society and contrary to the wishes (and assertions) of many, that abnormality continues today and in many respects has deepened. 

Malta’s tribalism has been mercilessly exploited by the leaders of both dominant political parties and by the sectional interests and agendas they continue to represent and serve.  

A boy runs past a burning car in the Catholic area of Shortstrand during the troubles in Belfast in 1996. Photo: AFP

As a result, public life and culture, institutions and resources have been twisted and deformed to an abnormal and debilitating extent.  

Core public institutions and structures from the courts to the police, from the civil service to public bodies, from the persona of government itself to Malta’s stated ‘place’ in the world have been usurped fundamentally.  

This abnormal reality is of stated concern to many Maltese from church structures and figures to the Malta Employers’ Association and other business representatives and importantly by Malta’s vibrant civil society.  

For Malta to begin to function normally, the mega-scale lying, criminality, corruption and denial have to end.  Government, politicians, business moguls and very many ‘public servants’ have to be held to account.  

Carefully parsing the latest official statement for words or signs of hope and for a departure from abnormality is just not good enough, it falls far short of what’s required.   

The current ‘free for all’ culture of Malta is not the way of a ‘normal’ society in any sense of the word.  It is doing enormous damage, especially when Maltese people censor themselves and others and accept criminality for fear of potential consequences.

At the local and street level, normality begins (as it did in Northern Ireland) when sufficient numbers of people insist enough is enough and begin to cast aside that fear and instead speak out in daily life against the abnormalities that poison their society.