Following the arrest of three lowlifes and their arraignment in court accused of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the campaign that “this is the season to do closure” started in earnest.

All of us who have gone through painful personal experiences know how important closure is, therefore I understand and appreciate that closure is also very important on the national level. But we also know that there is closure and closure.

There is, for example, the type of closure that Will Leamon writes of in his novel Mama, Me & ‘em: Bittersweet Memories. “Closure means the door is ‘kinda shut’... we use it like a temporary swab to dab a bleeding wound that will never heal – only clot.”

What Leamon proposes sounds more like erasure, which is an attempt at pushing everything under the carpet, than genuine closure. This is also what is being advocated by many of those who are continuously saying that after the arrests the country should now move forward. They say that we have had enough of this discussion and that the national interest demands that we turn a new page. They tout the patriotic card: the spilling of the local discussion onto the international arena is harming Malta’s reputation. Sob, Sob.

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Worse still, they don a pseudo-religions garb to camouflage their yearning for erasure. Out of their hats they therefore pull out a canard called ‘Christmas spirit.’ Just a spoonful of national unity cum Christmas spirit helps the closure medicine go down, these latter-day Mary Poppins tell us.

This is erasure not closure. Closure is made of sterner stuff.  It is about facing realities as they are not about skirting them or denying their existence. It is about removing the roots that cause the malady not about sweeping problems under the national carpet. It is about true healing not mere clotting. We did this over and over again in the past. We cannot afford to do it now.

In our collective quest for closure we cannot, for example, ignore the fact that had Daphne been given protection she would not have been killed. The State which absconded its duty to protect her should now leave no stone unturned to find who the real culprits are, whoever they are and whatever their connections. Nothing less is acceptable.

The State which absconded its duty to protect her should now leave no stone unturned to find who the real culprits are, whoever they are and whatever their connections

I do not pretend that I have the recipe for the solution. Though I strongly believe in the correctness of my analysis of the situation I do happily concede that there are others who see things differently and genuinely so. I refer to honest persons of different political or of no political persuasion but not to the crooks that lord it over us.

Frank dialogue and deep-soul searching discernment are the only way forward if we really want closure for the family of Daphne and for the rest of people of good will in our country.

I think that there is a widespread feeling, particularly within civil society, that there is the need to rehabilitate the dignity of politics. One surely observes a certain sense of crisis of the political parties in spite of the massive popular support they still enjoy. The absence of high-level political debates on national projects or strategies that go beyond policies of minor importance is palpable.

In addition, open and respectful dialogue that seeks possible convergences is often replaced by outbursts of reciprocal accusations and demagogic relapses.

There is also a lack of formation and the replacement of new political generations. That is why many people look from afar and criticise politicians, seeing them as a corporation of professionals who look after their own interests, or denouncing them with rage, sometimes without the necessary distinctions, as if all are tinged with corruption.

What is clear is that political leaders are needed who live with passion their service to the people, who vibrate with the intimate fibres of their ethos and culture, in solidarity with their sufferings and hopes; politicians who put the common good before their own private interests, who are not intimidated by the great financial and media powers, who are competent and patient in the face of complex problems, who are open to listening and learning in democratic dialogue, who combine the search for justice with mercy and reconciliation. We should not be satisfied with the smallness of politics: we need political leaders capable of mobilising vast sectors of the population in pursuit of great objectives.

We are in need of a good and noble politics, and its protagonists.

The above is taken, almost word for word, from the video message of Pope Francis for the convention “Meeting of Catholics who assume political responsibility in the service of Latin American peoples” (1-3 December 2017). I have no doubt that the same words could be applied to many other countries around the world. We are not worse off than others. Tutto il mondo è paese.