It would not be an exaggeration to say that our country is in a sorry state. In Malta, too many supporters of both major parties are colour-blind and oblivious to the failings of their politicians. Their major concern is that their party achieves power.
At present, many Labourites are indifferent to the fact that the ideals of a party that claims to champion the working class and the underprivileged has been dragged through the mud by the scandalous behaviour of Joseph Muscat and a gang of thieves.
Sadly, as an ex Jesuit alumnus, Muscat must have confused the Jesuit motto of ‘men for others’ with ‘men for udders’. People who betray their professed ideals and training should have no place in the political arena.
In tribute to the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the disturbing book Murder on the Malta Express brings out with chilling detail the intricate web of criminal corruption that was the fruit of cold-blooded and well-planned operations in collusion with outside evil interests.
The murder of Caruana Galizia, who, against all odds, tried to unmask the truth has been clouded by the fact that her comments were at times caustically personal and partisan. However, this does not diminish by one iota the courage and importance of her journalistic crusade against corruption.
In seeking the truth, the government does not seem to be doing enough serious soul-searching and it does not take too much intelligence to realise that the course of justice is painfully slow and frustrating.
The tension of the forthcoming election has only made matters infinitely worse. The government is in a state of denial as it wants to alienate us from its responsibility in Caruana Galizia’s assassination and resorts to seducing us with the feel-good factor of economic success, important as it may be.
One is dismayed that, with few exceptions such as Desmond Zammit Marmarà, too many Labourites seem quite happy with the status quo. Even those who should know better will go into overdrive to defend their side when presented with the sad reality of criminal corruption and environmental degradation. And, usually, their conclusion is always a reminder that, at the end of the day, the opposition is also corrupt.
Meanwhile, we have an opposition party that, once again, has jettisoned its principles in what it thinks is a strategy to win votes. Lighting up the Nationalist Party headquarters with the rainbow colours of LGBTQ activists is a case in point. Respecting the dignity of homosexuals is one thing, pandering to the corrosive LGBTQ agenda is quite another.
A political party and politicians without morals and principles do not deserve one’s loyalty- Klaus Vella Bardon
It is, therefore, with great regret and beyond belief that now the Nationalist Party also stoops so low as to promise our youth free contraceptives and abortifacient drugs. This shows callous disregard for life and the real interests of the young and the future of the family. It panders to the pro-abortion lobby that has been shamelessly claiming that it is advocating for a more emancipated and progressive society.
When raising one’s concern over such disgraceful electoral campaign methods one is told to accept such ‘pragmatism’ and is reminded to choose the lesser evil. A high-ranking Nationalist official’s uninspiring answer was: “Don’t you want to win the election?”
For the Nationalist hierarchy it seems that the winning of votes trumps principles and ideals. For me, this corrupt philosophy that upholds ‘the end justifies the means’ is abhorrent. It opens the floodgates to every vile and dishonourable action in the name of achieving results. By now, history should have taught us what this misplaced reasoning leads to.
My categorical answer is that I do not support politics on such terms. A political party and politicians without morals and principles do not deserve one’s loyalty.
In The Defendant (1901), G. K. Chesterton brings this out with his inimitable clarity when criticising false patriotism and loyalty, be it of one’s family, political party or country when writing: “’My country, right or wrong’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober’. No doubt, if a decent man’s mother took to drink he would share her troubles to the last; but to talk as if he would be in a state of gay indifference as to whether his mother took to drink or not is certainly not the language of men who know the great mystery [of love].”
At the end of the day, it boils down to whether we really love our country. Do we want it to be run by rogues, opportunists and parasites, which Mark Camilleri, in his shocking book on the current state of affairs, labels “rent seekers”?
I believe in the involvement of sound and principled people in struggling against the disastrous situation we are in and that the principles of Christian democracy provide the best formula to promote and underpin a healthy society.
Otherwise, once again, the incisive comments of Chesterton resonate all the more when he said: “Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old child-like faith in practical politics… As much as I ever did, more than I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals.”