Why time stands still

As if recovering from shock, the Press is awash with comments and reflections, arising from the tragic death of 19-year-old Jeanette Mifsud.

Jeanette was a university student, who attended a New Year's Eve party at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, and who met her death when she fell off the adjacent bastion. Now, everybody is wise after the event. Some speak about "lessons to be learnt", others are calling for 'a culture change', a movement away from widespread and pervasive binge drinking. Others still, generalise and discuss the technicalities of police licensing and the sale of alcohol to minors.

While the Press speculates, there has been a deafening silence from the authorities and the party organisers, all of whom declined comment until an ongoing magisterial inquiry is concluded.

This, unhappily, is the standard "Maltese" way of reacting to tragic events, ranging from explosions at fireworks factories to traffic fatalities in localities with a propensity for accidents.

Public authority stays mum, public opinion agitates for a while, the hullabaloo abates, and life resumes as if nothing happened. This explains why the Maltese milieu is resistant to change, sometimes giving the impression that it is ossified. The real explanation springs from lethargy, indifference and plain dereliction of duty, sometimes sanctioned from the top, out of political motives.

This is not the first time that a public plea has been made against binge drinking. Neither is it the first time that strong public feeling has been expressed in support of legislation prohibiting the sale of alcohol to underage children.

I, for one, have spoken repeatedly in Parliament against the authorisation of certain 'rave' parties. Some years ago, I advocated following the example set by other countries and imposing a curfew for unaccompanied minors in districts like Paceville.

Mine was a voice in the wilderness. The media were indifferent and the relevant authorities were stone deaf. There seems to be a reluctance to step on the toes of faceless interests, who make hay while their sun shines - no matter at whose expense.

There are laws of sorts to regulate public entertainment and alcohol consumption. But these are not systematically enforced, much less updated to meet the exigencies of our times.

In the rare cases where the authorities intervene, time-consuming 'inquiries' and interminable judicial proceedings often trivialise the final outcome. One never hears of bar licences being withdrawn.

That is why things seem to get from bad to worse and why it is, therefore, difficult for Malta to adjust itself to modern needs. The Jeanette Mifsud story is tragic and heart-breaking. But the challenge before us all is to focus on the big picture - which is the persistent lack of courage to take up the battle against powerful vested interests involved in the entertainment and alcohol industry.

The law has to be updated and enforced with determination. In the second half of last year, the local media narrated the story about "three youths jailed for beach rape". The central figure was a young man, aged 17, jailed for raping a 14-year-old student, three years earlier, after he had made a bet with two of his friends (both 16 years old) that he would bed her by the end of the night. In this case, the 17-year-old youth was jailed for four years, and his two friends were jailed for two years for complicity.

It resulted that the 14-year-old girl, who was with her boyfriend, as well as the three accused, were in a bar. The latter noted that the girl was drunk. All of this was in flagrant breach of the law. The girl was a foreign student who came to Malta to learn English.

What keeps the authorities from declaring entertainment meccas like Paceville out of bounds for minors? Is prompt simultaneous action, if any, taken against bar owners in cases similar to this one? In the unlikely event that the answer is yes, the media displayed no interest, as far as I am aware, and had nothing to report. While the world is on the move, Malta slumbers and hankers for a quiet time.