Publicly-aired, racist opinions should never be tolerated. What about freedom of expression, I hear you ask. It doesn’t take someone with the brain capacity of Einstein to figure out that this freedom is limited by the tenets of modern-day democracy.
Yes, whatever all those of you who will proceed to label me ‘fascist’ and attempt to lecture me all about democracy (ah, the irony) might believe, modern-day democracy does not endorse incitement to hatred and publicly-expressed racism. So you can all take your misguided notions of freedom of expression and enroll into Human Rights 101.
Expressing xenophobic views towards a section of people is deplorable when it is carried out by me and you, the common people in the street. It becomes a hundred times worse when it is carried out by someone who represents a country’s government in whichever capacity.
Because, you see, whatever said person says is automatically associated with the government of the country he represents. So, when our (writing ‘our’ actually hurts) special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation, Joe Grima, who was directly appointed by prime minister Joseph Muscat, spouted a whole load of xenophobic nonsense on Facebook, yes the whole world believed that this nonsense is embraced by the whole country of Malta.
This is how it works, whether we like it or not. And our prime minister can insist till he is blue in the face (sorry) that this was only a ‘private’ opinion. There is no such thing as a ‘private’ opinion for someone who holds the capacity of special envoy to the WTO. It’s a bit like having Malta’s ambassador to wherever ‘privately’ declaring that he believes women shouldn’t have the right to vote. He’d be sacked pronto. No government in its right mind would keep him on with the justification that it is ‘personal opinion’.
Which is why, after Mr Grima’s statement on Facebook became known, I fully expected the prime minister to do the right thing and declare the former’s position untenable. Instead, this morning, Malta is faced with a “refusal to condemn” because it was a matter of “opinion”. Read the story here.
Does our government think we are all a bunch of imbeciles? Mind you, after the great referendum fail – which was brought about by the voters themselves – I don’t exactly blame it. But no, some of us are not total morons and we recognise bull when we see it. We know that there is no justification for Mr Grima continuing to represent our country. In any other civilised nation, the government would have requested his resignation immediately. Not after being hounded by the media in doing so, but spontaneously.
Any other civilised government would be expressing shock and horror at Mr Grima’s statement, distancing itself from such “opinions” and falling over itself to make amends and control the PR disaster that would be unfolding. But this is Malta, so our government shrugs and continues on its merry way. “Kwistjoni t’opinjoni u xejn iktar”, to paraphrase a song by Brikkuni.
Well, it’s not. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be represented in an international forum by someone who openly expresses racist beliefs. And my government should not be forcing this on me.
I love my country and I do not want someone like Mr Grima to make us all look like a bunch of fascist creeps. And my government should not be forcing this on me.
Unlike all those facile “ashamed to be Maltese” comments that I regularly see online, I’m actually very happy to be Maltese, thank you. Because yes, amidst the racism, the narrow-mindedness, the lack of concern for the environment and all the rest of it, you do find pockets of genuine beauty and kindness.
And then you get someone like Mr Grima who ruins it all with one statement on Facebook, making everyone think that we’re all a bunch of extreme right-wingers who wouldn’t recognise civil liberties if the constitution were to hit them in the face with the relevant chapter.
No, Mr Grima doesn’t represent me. And my government should not be forcing him on me and neither on you. Dr Muscat, please do the right thing.