Malta is a safe place. One of the safest in the world, in fact. Parents do not have to worry about children playing outside being abducted by strangers, women can walk the streets in relative comfort, and unprovoked attacks are thankfully extremely rare.
However, in the past few weeks two dreadful acts have taken place. A businessman was seriously injured in broad daylight by a gunman on a motorcycle, while a traffic expert, Peter Ripard, lost part of his leg after a bomb exploded at the Transport Malta offices in Floriana last Thursday.
More worrying is that, in both cases, the offenders intended their actions to have more serious consequences. Their intention was to cause death, and that they failed can only be put down to good fortune.
Major Ripard will not, of course, be considering himself very lucky. Apart from suffering a horrific injury, it seems he was not even the intended target. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Whether the offender or offenders will feel any pangs of guilt about this is immaterial. However, the evidence so far suggests it is unlikely they will be struck by any remorse at all.
The bomb they lowered down from the pine grove behind the Malta Transport offices was not a casually-made effort, but a well-constructed device packed with “bolts” that was designed cause widespread, not to mention indiscriminate, pain and damage.
The other man in the room with Major Ripard, the authority’s chief officer for land transport Konrad Pule, will not be considering himself too fortunate either. Though he thankfully escaped physical injury, he will bear the mental scars of witnessing such a scene and, perhaps more significantly, of wondering whether it was him the bombers were after.
While there is no doubting that public officers and all those in a position of authority must be conscious of the need and duty to treat all other citizens with dignity and respect – even though their job may entail having to take unpleasant decisions in others’ regard – retaliating through such violent, cowardly means can never be justified.
If the untimely and unnecessary death of Karin Grech more than 30 years ago – which ironically resurfaced in the news last week – served to teach people in this country anything, it should have been that. But some people refuse to learn.
This is why it is so important that the police apprehend the offenders in this latest case, which was not just a terrorist act against individuals, but also against the state.
And if and when they are caught, they must be dealt with in the severest possible terms when proceedings go to court; though in the light of the unacceptably lenient treatment of a man involved in his latest armed robbery last Friday – who was granted bail after taking part in a foiled heist – nothing can be taken for granted.
In the meantime, the authorities must take steps to improve security not just at Transport Malta, but also at other more sensitive public buildings. This should take the form of better surveillance through the use of more cameras in and around such places as well as an improved physical presence.
However, equally important is for the police to use all the intelligence at their disposal to discover who in Malta makes such devices, cut them off at source and bring them to justice.