The political hypocrisy running this country is despicable. I find no fault in people not realising or not admitting that their politician has done something wrong. The fault is not of those who are faithful to one politician or other. The fault is entirely of that politician and of his political party.
It is the party that chooses to follow the lowest standards of good governance lest it should lose a vote. It is the party’s leadership that chooses to retain its MP out of fear that it could lose his personal votes.
It is the party that chooses political messages which feed people’s ignorance of the facts and indeed deceives its party faithful with disinformation and parallel realities.
Those who are despicable, therefore, are not those who are loyal to political parties, in the belief that their political party is the best administrator for Malta. Those who are despicable are the politicians and those who intentionally feed them and feed on them. They do not work to empower people nor to enable people. They work only to grab more power for themselves and, in doing so, they fill their own pockets.
It is, therefore, not with the voters who elect these despicable politicians that I pick a fight but with those who lead these politicians and who retain them within their fold simply to be able to retain power. This is the political hypocrisy of ‘l’état, c’est moi’. No one else can be my equal. That means who dares judges me, questions me or exposes me must be threatened into silence.
Yet, what these political hypocrites fail to realise is that they have by now angered enough people to bring a silent minority to its senses and a smaller but not silent minority to protest.
That youths are choosing to move away from this country is not a surprise. That those who are beyond the age bracket of youths are still in Malta because of family or financial responsibilities they find themselves in is also obvious.
It has not been published in a report as yet but speak to people in my age bracket and you’ll see that our reaction would be of flight were it not for our ties and for our resilience to fight back. And what we need to fight back is exactly that culture of political hypocrisy that political parties thrive on.
Journalists are the only remaining ones who continue to investigate and expose the abuse of power
They say they respect journalists, yet, they have not told their voters that spewing hate on journalists is wrong. Rather than provide the media with an enabling environment, political leaders continue to misinform people and create fantastical excuses for every journalistic investigation which exposes some of their filth.
They say they agree that civil society has the right to protest but they also say that this is a new administration which no longer deserves that criticism. And why doesn’t this administration deserve to be criticised? Has it removed its MPs who were in bed with businessmen interested in public contracts? Has it sanctioned any MP for ridiculing the standards to which that office should be held?
It makes for a mesmerising story tale to sit through a meeting of the Committee for Standards in Public Life and listen to Edward Zammit Lewis defending Rosianne Cutajar who was just found to have breached the code of ethics for receiving funds from a person who is a good friend of Zammit Lewis.
It is wondrous tale of magic to sit through a speech delivered by Glenn Bedingfield on tolerance or learn that none other than Owen Bonnici will be championing the cause against hate speech.
It is incredulous how several MPs abused of free speech to protect their own when the latter were attacking Daphne Caruana Galizia and activists but are then silent in defending a cartoonist who is branded a witch or a bitch simply because she dared comment. It is indeed mind-boggling to learn that our leaders consider themselves to be above all the rest and consider voters their ignorant puppets.
These are the most obvious examples I met with in one week of politics. They are symbolic of the attitude with which decisions are made. There is only one remedy to this political hypocrisy. The remedy is empowering and enabling journalists and civil society activists. Journalists are the only remaining ones in this country who continue to investigate and expose the abuse of power.
Activists are playing a major role in keeping the flame of accountability burning. They fulfil their role in democracy, despite not being given an enabling environment.
They face a government well-oiled machinery of puppetry and deceit. They are the real patriots while the political hypocrites are the real traitors.