Scratch your head and the memory flickers into life. Malta was once a safe country. How things change. A journalist has been murdered for exposing Malta’s darkest secrets. Scratch your head again and remember how Malta was, for years, a footnote in the international press. How things change. Our country is all over the press now, for the wrong reasons.
A few days ago, Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament, told Pope Francis, at a Vatican-organised conference, that the EU’s three pressing problems were: Myanmar, Turkey and Malta.
By now, you’ve got a clear idea that, what follows, makes for grim reading. If you’re comfortable in your fool’s-paradise shell, don’t bother to read on. If you do, it won’t take more than 10 minutes of your precious time. Then decide, whether to plod on, or redeem, before it’s too late. If you’re worried with the dire situation we’re in, despair, for you happen to form party of an ever diminishing minority.
Within minutes of Daphne’s murder, Facebook was littered with fascist comments telling us that ‘Daphne deserved to die’, and that ‘she brought it upon herself’. On the day of her burial, a low-life, with the mentality of a retarded caveman, posted a photo of Daphne’s casket, with the chilling words: ‘DHL parts delivered at the Rotunda church.’ Daphne, for those who just landed on planet earth, was killed in a car bomb, her body torn to shreds.
Thousands of others, were, and remain indifferent. These are the ones living in a fool’s paradise. They couldn’t care less that Malta’s foremost, investigative journalist was murdered. ‘Nobody deserves to die,’ they said, and continued with their daily lives, oblivious to the catastrophic implications of Daphne’s murder on Malta’s reputation.
Indifference, that’s the word. For how, then, would you describe the not-so-encouraging attendance at the two ‘mass’ demonstrations organised by the brave men, and women of the Network for Civil Society? For a crowd of 10 to 15 thousand demonstrators does not give one much hope that the people are resolute in their demands for a clean sweep within Malta’s highest institutions, which failed Daphne and led to her death.
For how would you describe the poor attendance of priests at Daphne’s funeral Mass? I counted them; there were 22-odd priests at the Mass. That’s a shame, really.
This is the sorry state we’re in. And it’s been a long time coming. The State, the Church, political parties, and the media failed Daphne.
The State, because the intrusion, by politicians, in the running of our Police Force paralysed the force and transformed it into a government-of-the-day lackey. The Police Commissioner’s refusal to investigate the finds of an FIAU report, which found enough grounds to investigate Malta’s top politicians, and civil servants, is just plain scandalous.
The State failed Daphne, and the tragedy is that the government refuses to do anything about it; safe in the knowledge that the majority don’t care – as long as ‘the economy is doing well’.
The Church failed Daphne too, although here I must make one notable exception: Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who, following Daphne’s murder showed the rest of Malta’s leaders, especially political leaders, how to lead the nation in a time of crisis.
But what is happening within our parishes is a different, sad story. Undue importance is given to the village feast, and a new statue, commissioned by the parish priest, after lengthy negotiations with the Archbishop’s Curia. And of course, the same-rehashed-boring-irrelevant Sunday sermons which, for fear of stirring a hornets’ nest, steer clear of addressing Malta’s most pressing challenges: corruption and rule of law.
The alarm bells have long gone off
Politicians failed Daphne. People, the world over, are getting carried away by populist politicians who sweet-talk them into voting them into power. For how would you describe Labour’s general election landslide victory, notwithstanding grave allegations of money laundering, and secret, offshore accounts?
‘As long as the economy is doing well, people can’t be bothered,’ many told me, shortly after the election. ‘People don’t care about corruption’, and ‘the Nationalist Party lost because it made corruption its key electoral message’. A frightening, couldn’t-care-less attitude, which a few weeks ago killed Daphne.
The media failed Daphne. ‘Journalists’ are now ‘crying’ their eyes out, and posting #IAMDAPHNE on Facebook. The same ‘journalists’ who, a few hours before her death, were busy demonising her, and posting #galiziabarra. The same journalists who, when Daphne was taking the crooks head on, left her alone to do the fighting. And the state broadcaster, paid for by our taxes, regales us with prime-time trash TV.
My rough estimate would be that only a meagre 20 per cent of Malta’s population are truly shocked by Daphne’s murder, and understand the desperate situation we are in. And that is truly shocking, for it gives little, if any hope that things will change for the better.
So what is to be done? Are we still in time to save Malta from a total wipeout of the values that make it, or used to make it, a normal country? The optimist in me, would like to think that we are, although it’s going to be a tough battle, now more than ever.
For a start, our educational system needs a complete overhaul. It failed us, completely. People, and yes I’m generalising, but that’s how it looks, and feels, do not understand the importance of safeguarding the basic values that are crucial for a country to function in a normal, democratic manner. I blame our educational system for that.
Now is the time for civil society organisations to show their mettle. The government cannot be allowed to continue riding roughshod over the basic rights of a democracy.
The Archbishop has what it takes to lead believers, and the unbelievers who know a smart, righteous leader when they see one. But Mgr Scicluna must take stock of the situation within his Church, and make the necessary changes where needed.
The Church in Malta has an important role to play in curbing the devastating ‘anything-goes’ culture which has set in.
The state broadcaster needs a complete overhaul. Mediocre prime-time television is excellent fodder for the crass ignorance which, truth be told, is on the rise.
Political parties cannot act as if it is business as usual, for the situation is anything but normal. In times of upheaval, political leaders need to rise up to the occasion and show leadership.
The alarm bells have long gone off. The current turmoil we’re in will have devastating effects on our economy – for that is what gets people to listen, it seems, if it goes unchecked. Massive reforms – constitutional, political, educational, and religious are needed today. Living in a fool’s paradise killed Daphne, loudly, and is killing the rest of us, softly.
Frank Psaila is a lawyer and anchors Iswed fuq l-Abjad on NET TV.