January saw the forced departure of prime minister Joseph Muscat and Malta justifiably started to hope for better times under Robert Abela. It is perhaps still early to assess the commitment of the new prime minister to turn a new leaf in the way Malta is administered.

Unfortunately for Malta, and a further challenge for Abela in addition to the various viruses left behind by Muscat, we now have to add the tragic coronavirus.

In face of this mortal threat Abela overall appears to be pressing the right buttons, protecting the right of all to avoid premature death.

In this survival battle, however, we can do without calls for national unity made by the prime minister through partisan, and not national, broadcasters; these calls may end up irritating unnecessarily. Equally uncalled for are veiled appeals for civil society and the independent media to suspend their vigilant monitoring of the government until the coronavirus pandemic dies down.

No, prime minister, a fight against a pandemic does not require a suspension of democratic rights and duties which include freedom of speech, free expression of opinions and criticism.

In 2013, Malta started on a journey fatally leading to a progressive degeneration in the governance standards of the state. Unsustainable short-term material gain and blind loyalty to a party led a Labour electoral majority to refuse to acknowledge that corrupt and unscrupulous people acquired a dominance on the government.

In a span of 28 months Malta witnessed the violent death of two worthy citizens, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Miriam Pace. 

Daphne was deliberately hounded out of the same society she so desperately was trying to set free from the clutches of evil officials. She was methodically harassed, manoeuvred into a corner and shamefully rendered vulnerable, so that criminal individuals, commissioned by the corrupt, could feel confident enough to move in for the kill, with high hopes that there would be no repercussions.

In 2013, Malta started on a journey fatally leading to a progressive degeneration in the governance standards ofthe state

Miriam was falsely induced to believe she was living in a country administered by people who responsibly assume the duty to protect citizens, ensuring their safety and wellbeing. After leading an exemplary life, creating and sustaining a decent family, Miriam was dismally let down and exposed to the onslaught of callous and rapacious developers.

It looks like all premonitions of previous crashing of homes were ignored, both by the developers and monitoring state entities. Could it be that, as has mostly happened up to now, a state of impunity will once more prevail and what amounts to a cold killing of a person will, in perpetuity, end up unresolved in a legal labyrinth?

Daphne and Miriam are no longer with us, sacrificed on the altar of corruption and greed. And yet there is still not enough outrage and anger at what is so negatively happening to Malta. Daphne and Miriam cannot be brought back to life but should we be resigned that there will be more victims and more martyrs?

Should we, as someone stated, accept that a decent, capably administered rule of law cannot prevail in Malta since the island is a micro state and in micro states rule of family and rule of friendship invariably prevail over the rule of law? What family? What friendship? What nonsense this is!

Unless Malta urgently wakes up and strongly contests blatant misrule by people who, in your face, continuously steal, fudge and lie, we shall see no end to this downward spiral.

Corruption has been encouraged and allowed to escalate out of control. In some sectors the stakes are very high since the money involved in the misbehaviour no longer runs into the thousands but into millions.

The police appear incompetent, muzzled and now also tainted with corruption.

This sad situation nurtures murderous intent in the mind of nasty persons engaged in illegally acquiring wealth.

Over the years we have seen state institutions responsible to monitor, supervise and control, starved of resources and staffed by incapable, devious party loyal appointees.

The result is there for all to see, in the financial and in the construction sectors a disaster prevails.

Malta’s Labour majority needs to remove its blinkers, take a hard look at our dysfunctional government and openly demand honesty, integrity and professionally serious behaviour from its MPs.  This admonishment, to a good extent, applies also in respect of part of the Nationalist electorate and so many Nationalist MPs.

Many ‘ongoing’ investigations need to be credibly closed, the only ‘ongoing’ activity we need is an effective citizen vigilance on our politicians, as is being done by Occupy Justice and Repubblika.

Within the European Union we carry the stigma of a corrupt state that lacks integrity and does not protect and look after all its citizens; a state that does not abide by the rule of law. A state that tolerates, and in instances, encourages corruption at all levels.

Inasmuch as corruption, non-observance of the rule of law and bad governance may never completely vanish. They will certainly be more controlled and contained if more MPs have the integrity and the courage to stand up and speak out.

They need to speak out not as politicians who admit to a ‘micro state’ conditioning and an infection by a ‘family and friendship’ virus, but as guardians of good governance and the rule of law.

In this way, the surviving Daphnes and Miriams of this world may aspire to some deserved serenity after Malta, under Abela, successfully defeats the coronavirus.

Arthur Muscat, former president, Malta Employers Association