Memorials are more than just embellishments of public spaces and quaint historical reminders. They can be potent symbols, often serving as lightning rods for people’s passions. One of the enduring visuals of the second Gulf War in 2003 was the pulling down of Saddam Hussain’s statue.
So it is not surprising that the makeshift memorial at Great Siege Square in Valletta to Daphne Caruana Galizia is arousing so much controversy. Still, it was sad to see how last week’s Valletta Council meeting that considered its removal descended into such an undignified shambles. It was a true reflection of the sclerotic and schizophrenic state of what passes for public debate in Malta today.
Not even the dignified presence of Caruana Galizia’s still-grieving widowed husband could stem the tirade of jibes and counter-accusations that marred the proceedings. But these served to underline two important aspects to this sorry affair.
Firstly, it would be wrong to dismiss all those who are not ready to canonise Daphne Caruana Galizia on the altar of journalistic inquiry and free speech as anti-democratic, pro-corruption lackeys. There is real anger for that part of her writing that had nothing to do with investigative journalism. Her lampooning and innuendos needlessly hurt people and trampled over red lines even with respect to political adversaries, such as toasting their death, speculating on their health and commenting on their children.
Of course, a lot of the anger is stewed in petty party politics and seasoned with a good dose of misogyny. But many people who are not necessarily political die-hards feel caught between distaste at what they see as Caruana Galizia’s sometimes classist attitudes and at some of her writings, their admiration of her matchless courage to go after the sleazy and the corrupt and to hold the government to account, and their outrage at her savage assassination that was clearly meant as a message of intimidation.
On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the whole charade about ‘respecting the Great Siege Monument’ is just a smoke screen.
Is the journalist’s death comparable to the monumental sacrifice and victory of our forebears during the Great Siege of 1565? Of course not. But that is the point of neither the supporters nor the detractors of Caruana Galizia’s memorial. The MP Glenn Bedingfield really let the cat out of the bag when he said that the memorial should be out of sight and out of mind, for all the world as if it was commemorating little more than an unfortunate traffic accident that simply befitted one of the innumerable funerary plaques lining our roads.
The real point of where Daphne’s memorial is situated is that it bears mute testimony to the nation’s justice system. It is a daily inconvenient reminder, amplified by the sombre majesty of Antonio Sciortino’s Malta staring mutely at the Law Courts, that justice has not yet been done.
It is as if Daphne’s legacy has been placed under the protection of the most potent icon of our nation’s history, the personification of its courage.
No wonder the government’s supporters are finding the weight of these twin courageous stares unbearable. But what is really worrying is the government’s twin strategy of official silence and rearguard action. On the one hand there has been no official response to the whole memorial saga. On the other, it has been busy moving its pawns in the social media and the Valletta local council, and last Friday evening it promptly removed three ‘red’ billboards put up by Occupy Justice to highlight the lack of action on Daphne’s case.
If the government hoped that this action would crush protesters’ spirit, who at the time were holding the four-month commemorative vigil for Daphne’s death in front of her memorial in Valletta, it will find that it has miscalculated badly.
The whole situation is threatening to unravel. The mad mathematics of political partisanship has multiplied the photographs at the memorial, and the pain of the families of earlier tragic political victims has been reawakened.
While the voices of those demanding justice is undiminished, those of government supporters are becoming more strident. If action is not taken soon, this situation could well become a tinder-box for the increasing recrimination, anger and frustration being felt on both sides.
The government needs to shoulder its institutional responsibility. It should reach out to the Caruana Galizia family and the protestors, perhaps through third parties, to find a sensitive and sensible solution to the siting of Daphne’s memorial in Great Siege Square. It should be a memorial that respects her legacy and acknowledges her quest for truth and justice that ultimately led to her death.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial