I firmly believe that the most urgent and serious problem facing Malta is neither the possibility of legalising abortion sometime in the future nor the possibility of legalising euthanasia after the next general election. The mammoth problem facing the country right now is the institutionalisation of corruption and the immediate effects of that corruption throughout the rest of society.

I am totally against abortion as well as against its legalisation. I am also opposed to the legalisation of euthanasia. I consider both to be ugly signs of the throwaway culture, though I concede that there are well-meaning, good people who think otherwise.

In this commentary I do not take a position about which of the three – corruption, euthanasia or abortion – is objectively more reprehensible morally. What I am stating is that in the current state of affairs, corruption is the worst offender of the common good.

When I refer to corruption I do not only have in mind the ‘populating’ of secret accounts in shady countries by the fruits of evil deeds. I refer to the programmatic corrupting of individuals by buying their silence or by paying for their active co-operation. Another sign of corruption is the massive relinquishing of duty by individuals and institutions that should be there to protect us from corruption. There is the corruption of truth by multi-million spending in State propaganda. Corruption is aided by savage attacks on whoever tries to stem this tsunami of corruption.

Corruption is a great problem that is nourished by the cynical attitude that most people can be bought. The will to corrupt is based on the arch-cynical certitude that the lust for money, besides being the root of all evil, is also the glue that seals people’s mouths, closes eyes and cements ears. Corruption is the key that illicitly shuts or opens doors. I never believed that there were so many people for sale in this country.

Corruption is such a massive and serious problem that the Chief Justice, during his New Year meeting with the President of the Republic, said that we are witnessing a distortion of the rule of law and social justice while corruption goes unpunished.

Corruption was sown during pre-electoral shady deals struck with millionaires who are now reaping the ‘fruits’ of their commitments and have become the big-moneyed bullies we see around. The barunijiet of yesterday have become the darlings of today. Robin Hood had promised us that he would hunt down those evil barunijiet. Today, Robin Hood pampers the barunijiet.

The splitting of the anti-corruption front by these or other issues and for whatever reason is, in our current circumstances, fundamentally immoral

Government’s spin doctors fear the discussion of corruption more than societies of the Middle Ages feared the plague. They try to avoid all mention of the ‘c’ word by using a sickening spectrum of well-tested stratagems. The current discussion about euthanasia and abortion is just an alienation provided to them freely, which they exploit in order to avoid talking about the real problem.

I just cannot understand why injudicious self-proclaimed liberals and the minority of gullible do-gooders within the pro-life lobby allow themselves to be so easily manipulated and alienated from fighting the real monster facing us.

I dread mentioning Pope Francis in this context. For the self-proclaimed liberals the Pope is just glitzy format without any content. They don’t care for what he says, anyway. For many easily manipulated do-gooders, Pope Francis’s teaching is, unfortunately, bad news. But for decent citizens the Pope is a beacon of light.

Consider the Pope’s position before and after the US presidential election. When he was asked about Donald Trump, he accused him of not being a Christian, even though Trump projected himself as pro-life, while his rival was pro-choice. The Pope condemned Trump for his anti-immigration policies and for his obsession with building a wall that denies access to people wanting to try their luck in a more prosperous country. Following the presidential election, Francis, when asked about Trump, did not show any enthusiasm for the fact that the pro-life candidate was elected. He said that Trump should be judged by what he does for the poor.

This does not mean that the Pope is not wholly in favour of the pro-life agenda. It means that the Pope felt that at that particular point in time he should emphasise other aspects of the pro-life agenda besides abortion and euthanasia.

His pro-life agenda includes working for the dignity of all, migrants and refugees included. Pro-life is not just a counter-position to the culture of death. Pro-life includes taking stands for a more just society and an equitable distribution of wealth and an all-out war against corruption.

Pope Francis feels so strongly against corruption that he became the first pope to write about it in the document announcing a Holy Year: “Corruption prevents us from looking to the future with hope, because its tyrannical greed shatters the plans of the weak and tramples upon the poorest of the poor. It is an evil that embeds itself into the actions of everyday life, causing great public scandal. Corruption… replaces God with the illusion that money is a form of power. It is a work of darkness, fed by suspicion and intrigue.”

I am proposing a strategy similar to that adopted by the Pope. We should emphasise the aspect which in the particular circumstances is the worst enemy of the common good, and that aspect is corruption.

Is it short-sighted naiveté, a masochistic attitude, or culpable complicity that prevents many self-styled liberals as well as pro-life lobbyists from seeing this? Could it be that people think it is cool and hip to close an eye to corruption so long as they can legally practise euthanasia? Or are there those who think that having their fingers in the corruption honey-pot is easily forgiven by the defence of a myopic (as opposed to holistic) pro-life attitude? Or is it possible that some hide behind these labels to foment division and enhance alienation so that they can be of service to their political masters?

The splitting of the anti-corruption front by these or other issues and for whatever reason is, in our current circumstances, fundamentally immoral.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt

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