To let the brutal killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia pass by without stopping and reflecting on the reason behind such an atrocious act is to go against the dignity of our human nature. What happened in Malta on October 16 affected us both personally and as a society.
Yes, now is the time to get together, and, if possible, forget all our differences and partisan opinions, and try to fathom why we have reached such a devastating state. It has been commented on various media that this was not an isolated incident. It happened in a context and it happened as a result of our ongoing amoral climate.
Trying to pinpoint a single factor or cause is to deny the fact that we have been living for the past years in an environment where the ‘I’ replaced the ‘we’, and where everything centred around the individual, leading to losing sight of the common good.
Kristina Chetcuti was absolutely correct in her observation in her weekly column in The Sunday Times of Malta (October 29) entitled ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, when she commented about the lack of students’ participation in the protest against Daphne’s murder.
She pointed out: “We cannot really blame students – they are a reflection of what we have become, a nation without a soul. We taught them that what matters is I, myself and I, and the money in my pocket”.
It is heartening, though, to see people from all walks of life rising to the occasion, protesting and calling out for the rule of law to be observed and for our institutions to fulfill their autonomous functions. Where politicians are failing us, we have to stand up and be counted. We are the nation. Society belongs to us, and if we keep on waiting and hoping for politicians, especially those in government, to take the initiative, we shall be disappointed once more, and it will be too late.
It is already late. We want our institutions back. We want our dignity back. We have to stop being followers and start leading the way. We have to put morals back in everything we do. We have to stop measuring success and happiness against monetary gains.
Let integrity, honesty and solidarity be the hallmarks of our society. What Daphne wrote on her blog concerned us all as a nation. She had been seeing our society crumbling, morally, and that is why her words were sharp, loud and clear. Let us take off from where she stopped and let us make our nation big again, not only economically but socially and morally.