On December 3, 2022, a young man went to a construction site in Kordin. He was three months into his new job in air conditioning and dreamed one day of opening his own business in the sector.

His boss had asked him to deliver some tools to the site. While he was there, the building folded in on itself and this young man was taken away from us.

Jean Paul Sofia was full of potential. At the age of 20, he was starting his career and already thinking of ways to fulfil that potential.

Unfortunately, he was swiped away by a poorly constructed building on state land given to friends of friends with access to higher-ups in government. 

I have always firmly believed, as a Christian Democrat, that the role of government in society is to bridge divides and offer support to people in fulfilling their potential.

Coupling this tragedy in lost potential with reminders from my stint as a delivery driver, I felt deeply about the pain his family was going through. 

It is only right to expect one’s government to think the same way. To see this tragedy and take the opportunity to do all it can to learn from it and improve an industry where time and again we receive news of tragedies and injuries, mostly stemming from poor regulation and weak enforcement.

This was a golden chance to finally grab the bull by the horns and work on improving ourselves. Alas, it was not to be.

Throughout the last seven months, this government led by Robert Abela has resisted, at every turn, any attempt to bring a public inquiry to fruition.

This has ranged from shifting blame onto the magistrate in an inquiry that can only decide whose fault it was, not how to improve things, to ignoring Jean Paul’s mother in her quest for justice, to even blaming the opposition for wanting to make this affair into a “TV show”.

Some of those MPs looked sick during the vote, knowing what they had just done

All this culminated when the prime minister forced his parliamentary group to unanimously vote against a public inquiry. Eyewitnesses have told me some of those MPs looked sick during the vote, knowing what they had just done.

My political bias is well known, and I am not ashamed in it. But I am really trying as hard as I can to tackle this impartially, because this case means so much more than party politics.

For years, the government has adopted an attitude of complete tolerance in regard to business, and those who remain loyal are regaled with permits, tenders and contracts.

This was a chance to finally tackle an industry that could easily be described as one of the worst offenders where the sense of impunity is concerned. Instead, Abela decided to maintain the status quo.

I see a lot of faults in our prime minister. I see him to be someone who has never had to reach for anything, born with a near right to occupy top positions in the Labour Party, who practically walked into Castille on the back of the outgoing prime minister.

I see him as weak and divisive, incapable of making tough decisions. But I also know he is a father and a husband, a human with faults and feelings. And that’s what upsets me the most.

How can you be so heartless to do this to Jean Paul Sofia’s family? How can you disregard the will of tens of thousands of Maltese just to defend people in the circle? How can you look Isabelle Bonnici in the eye trying to justify yourself, knowing you were going to do this?

How can you then find it quite apt to go to a concert at Girgenti and leave Malta on your yacht, knowing the anger you’ve left behind?

I am not angry; I am upset and disappointed, and today I will be outside Castille with a candle, paying tribute to Jean Paul, a young man we lost and a symbol of the values we hold dear as Maltese.

Alexander Jacobsen is PRO of MŻPN and a student at the University of Malta.