It was Karl Marx who coined the metaphor ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. Maybe, it applied to his times but, since then, religion and moral ethics have been delegated to the sacristy and a new god has emerged, called money.

That explains a lot of things, including the findings of a recent survey by The Sunday Times of Malta that placed traffic (14 per cent) at the top of people’s concerns.

The murder of journalist/blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia came second with a mere 7.7 per cent, more than double the number of people who saw the rule of law as their main concern: 2.7 per cent. Corruption came at third with 6.7 per cent.

It all puts into question the public manifestations organised by the so-called civil society that came about in the wake of Ms Caruana Galizia’s murder. They were civil, no doubt, but hardly representative of society, it seems.

But there were other figures coming out of that survey that appeared to jar, given the strong debate in recent weeks on the issue of rule of law. Trust in the government and the armed forces stood at 72 per cent. The police force, which has been on the receiving end, particularly over its chief, got a 69 per cent approval.

It is a situation that prompted the Prime Minister to remark that, given the “enormous” assault on the country’s institutions, those survey results made “interesting reading”. He was clearly happy with the figures, particularly where it showed he was given a rating of 7.5 out of 10 while Nationalist leader Adrian Delia got a 3.4 rating.

Effectively, the Prime Minister stands at around the same level he was at before the last election. Ms Caruana Galizia’s ghastly murder, and the way it has been interpreted as an institutional failure, did not dent his standing.

One could be tempted to partly blame Joseph Muscat’s high standing on the battered state of the Nationalist Opposition and Dr Delia’s weak start as party leader. But that does not answer all the questions. One is not directly dependent on the other.

Clearly, the Prime Minister is not being blamed for the institutional failure in this country, even though it happened under his watch.

The weakened institutions have not weakened him in public perception, which, in a way, explains the National Party’s abysmal performance at the June election. Then party leader Simon Busuttil had made corruption and good governance his main political platform. It did not impress. Maybe Dr Busuttil was not convincing enough or perhaps the party’s structures failed him.

However, the more probable reason for the Nationalist Party defeat was the electorate’s indifference to the issues of good governance and corruption. So long as the going is good, they could not be bothered. Labour wanted it that way.

That sad scenario explains why the Prime Minister found it appropriate to fly off to Dubai to sell Maltese passports just a few days after the Bidnija murder. Once again, he had his hand on the public pulse. The murder may have dominated the national agenda but, evidently, it was not what people talked out.

Dr Muscat knows that, for many, it is money in the pocket that counts – opium – and not his governance.

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