I cannot agree more with Martin Scicluna than that the Malta portrayed is not the Malta I recognise. However, unlike Scicluna, the Malta I do not recognise is the one portrayed by him.

Scicluna wrote that Malta is living in normal times, unlike what those ‘gullible’ EU bureaucrats would have us believe. Scicluna gave us some examples.

Let us start with the comical. As an example of normalcy, Scicluna mentions children going to school.

Well, children went to school during the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when our police were indistinguishable from the Socialists thugs. And if we want to go further in time, children went to school during World War II too. However, hardly anyone can describe those times as being normal times.

Moving on to the State institutions. Here Scicluna goes from the comical to the tragic. Under Joseph Muscat’s government, the State institutions have been emasculated through the appointments of Labour Party stooges, tasked to do the government’s bidding. And therefore we have the police not proceeding against those close to Muscat even though they have been handed over damning reports by the investigative financial body, the FIAU.

Now we find out that after this year’s general election two employees of the FIAU were summarily dismissed for doing their work.

As a sign of normalcy we have a government minister and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff still very much in their place a year and a half after being outed with having opened secret companies in Panama.

And to boot, going by the FIAU reports, those same persons should have been investigated by the police for possible money laundering crimes.

And last but not least, does having an investigative journalist and blogger, who unearthed damning truths about the government, blown up indicate we are living in normal times?