President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca justifiably felt the urge to intervene on the issue of bail denied to an alleged money launderer who happens to be a 26-year-old mother of two babies. The former president argued that, given the particular circumstances of the case, the court should have given due consideration to the discomfort of two young children denied the presence and care of their mother.
I must admit that I subscribe to the view of Coleiro Preca that a caring society should be able to rise above what appears to be a correct but rigid application of rules. Probably, no undue legal precedent would have been created or the legal process jeopardised had this motherhood factor, in respect of an alleged offender, been given due consideration.
Having declared so much, I must record that there are other opinions on this matter. Many persons feel that a mother, with babies’ responsibilities, should have steered clear of an alleged case of money laundering. Now this is easier said than done since the alleged offence of the wife occurred following other alleged offences attributed to the husband. This insight leads me to widen my search for other factors that probably are causing young people to become involved in unpleasant law breaking.
Yes, it is quite unfortunate and disturbing to witness a young two-child family facing charges of serious transgressions. It is worrying when you consider that a steady and reliably functioning family unit is a basic component of a society that should operate according to rule of law and sober ethical standards.
No doubt, our society should be guaranteeing a reassuring environment that permits serene present well-being and a promising future for its families. It should be providing a fair chance to achieve legitimate and reasonable aspirations. Now, can we confidently declare that the current public governance in Malta is of a standard that nurtures healthy and ethical citizen behaviour?
It appears that, at the moment, our governance ethical standards are dismal. Following uncontrolled corruption and defiant stealing of public funds, we invariably get showered with a barrage of insulting half-truths and deceitful language. The breaking of laws, rules and regulations keeps occurring, with impunity accorded to notorious big shots.
Overall, this state of affairs encourages and promotes a thieving and anarchic behaviour by a great number of shallow and greedy citizens. A vulgar display and use of illicit wealth is sending devastating messages to impressionable small fry that misbehaves and, sometimes, does end up caught in a legal net. We are aware of weak investigative and prosecutorial initiatives and this leads us to believe that, in reality, what reaches our justice halls may be just a tip of an iceberg.
Nevertheless, we should never give up hope that we can achieve more decency and honesty in our day-to-day life. Perhaps more of our honourable cabinet members, parliamentarians and public officials can take a lead and promote and project more improvement in behaviour standards. This could induce more citizens to mimic good role models.
We need to achieve fewer sad occurrences of educated young people losing their way and ending up in court. We must not compromise the future of young families and their children. Maybe there is not enough awareness and appreciation of the harm that is caused to children whenever a parent ends up on the wrong side of the law.
Our standards of education should be rising, we must ensure that the up and coming generation understands and embraces honest and correct civic behaviour. Coming fresh out of an election, are our relatively young rulers, many of whom head young families, prepared and willing to work for a radical improvement to the current prevalently miserable style of governance?