When nimbyism goes sour

Had you asked me yesterday whether I could reconcile myself to the fact that within the same month I could express two diametrically opposed views about my fellow countrymen concerning more or less the same subject I would have scoffed at the idea. Well as fact is always stranger than fiction here goes!

For the last three weeks we Maltese have been congratulating ourselves for having collected one of the highest worldwide per capita relief funds for the tsunami victims. Like the rest of the world's, our response has been overwhelming. Can you imagine the shock and horror when in The Times we were faced with the headlines Immigrants Beaten In Peaceful Protest?

It's all very well for us to be moved when the "coloured" tsunami victims are on the other side of the world, however for all the victims of terrible repression and persecution who have risked all to seek a better life and have had the misfortune to end up here the very idea of their being in our backyard has provoked an outbreak of racist violence that should make us hang our heads in shame.

As I write, neither the members of the Jesuit Refugee Service nor Human Rights official Michele Manca de Nissa have been allowed to visit the refugees in hospital. It seems as if the authorities are, like a Deus ex macchina in the Trojan War, about to cast a protective cloak around the military to possibly save Malta further embarrassment. However, the truth is plain for all to read. When a peaceful protest is broken up violently by soldiers shouting "Smash those blacks' faces in" and "Hit him on the head" this is not maintaining law and order but an outbreak of racist violence of the most sickening kind; something that must be curbed immediately lest it become an epidemic.

This is merely the tip of the iceberg. This antagonism must have been building up for ages to erupt in such a horrible way. Why was it not addressed before it was too late? We Maltese are not a violent race. For such a thing to happen with such dire consequences the mounting tensions must have been palpable.

Soldiers by their very calling are not allowed to be emotional; they have a job to do and they obey orders. Their officers are fully responsible for their actions. Any deviation in the strict military code calls for a court martial. Whoever gave the order to attack the protesters must explain and justify why the order was given. Were no order given the entire troop must be charged with a severe breach of discipline. According to eyewitnesses there was no reason why the protesters should have been attacked at all.

We do have a national problem which worsens by the hour with the influx of illegal immigrants. Immigrants that consist of teachers and engineers among others. No solution to this problem is actually possible and whether we like it or not we have no option but to somehow accept them. As Christians we have no option. We cannot call ourselves Christians if we do not. Whatever the cost, the conditions for the soldiers and the detainees must be addressed and fast before another explosion of violence happens.

There will be plenty of conflicting stories about who started the riot and why. The average Maltese is not reconciled to the idea of larger and larger influxes of "coloured" men, women and children, infiltrating our population. That is understandable as we are indeed overcrowded enough already. This is how racism is nurtured and in no time at all becomes monstrous.

This will be the second time that we know that Amnesty International has called for an impartial inquiry. We cannot shirk our responsibilities. Many of these immigrants did not want to come to Malta in the first place. They know that Malta is a small country without adequate facilities to deal with their problem. They know that the conditions in the barracks are horrendous. We simply cannot shrug our shoulders and say "hard cheese" while letting them wallow in detention for months on end when they have given up the very shirts on their backs to escape from the intolerable situations in their own countries only to go from the frying pan into the fire.

kzt@onvol.net