Surreal, that’s how it felt. The monitor screens across the chamber read: ‘Rule of Law in Malta.’ For more than an hour, MEPs from all political groups, including the Socialists, lambasted the citizenship scheme in Malta; others the lack of investigations by the Malta police force following the release of the Panama Papers, and the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder.
It wasn’t a pretty sight. Some went overboard, depicting our country as a tax haven. A far-right MEP compared Malta to the Netflix series, Narcos.
A few seats from where I stood, Daphne’s husband, Peter, and their three sons Matthew, Paul and Andrew, watched in silence, occasionally clapping.
The debate over, it was time to inaugurate the press room named ‘Daphne Caruana Galizia’. Emotions ran high. A middle-aged woman, whom I was later told was Daphne’s childhood friend, wept throughout the entire ceremony.
Peter spoke of his wife as a journalist who “mattered”, and because she mattered, she was brutally murdered, a few metres away from their home. You could hear a pin drop. Here was a man who lost his wife for saying the right things. Somewhere in Malta or in the larger world, her killers, a month later still unidentified, watching the events unfold.
Following the ceremony, EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani took questions from the press. I asked for his reaction about claims, in Malta, by the government and its apologists, that the rule of law debate in his Parliament was a ploy by the EPP, of which the Nationalist Party is a member, to undermine Malta’s reputation.
“A journalist has been killed, this is unacceptable – we need to find who the parents of this murder are,” he told me. I couldn’t agree more. This man has taken Daphne’s murder seriously, as should any political leader worth his salt. Tajani, it must be said, showed leadership and stood with Malta in one of its darkest hours.
Five minutes later a press conference was to be held, the first press conference in the newly inaugurated Daphne Caruana Galizia press room. Its occupants were to be Alfred Sant, Miriam Dalli and Marlene Mizzi.
Five minutes before that, they were nowhere to be seen. Daphne was not for turning, but she must have been turning in her grave at the sight of the three Labour MEPs, trying hard but failing to convince the press that the events which followed her execution – the mass gatherings and the debates within the EU Parliament were blown out of proportion.
Sant, who heads the Labour delegation within the EU Parliament, described the EP debate as “manoeuvring” by the PN and the EPP, to put Malta in a bad light. Dalli and Mizzi nodded silently. I have a nagging feeling that, at times, Dalli especially was uncomfortable by Sant’s surreal behaviour. But then, I might be wrong.
When I asked Sant whether Tajani was complicit in this “manoeuvring”, the reply was vintage Sant: “Tajani hails from the EPP, he must take responsibility for his actions.” Pressed further to explain what he meant by “take responsibility”, the former prime minister wasn’t forthcoming.
Complacency, is not an option – not anymore
Blogger Manuel Delia, ever the incisive journalist, asked Sant no less than eight hard-hitting questions, the answers to which left Delia none the wiser.
The State television was represented by a journalist whose leading questions were so blatantly partisan that she put the Labour Party journalist sitting next to her to shame.
I just stopped myself from telling the foreign press that if proof were needed about the sorry state Malta is in, the State journalist’s behaviour was a clear attestation to that. She was, I presume, acting to orders from above.
Employees from Dar Malta, mingled with the foreign press after the press conference doing their best, unsuccessfully of course, to avoid embarrassing reports in the press the day after. The next morning, an overwhelming majority of MEPs voted in favour of the resolution which called upon the EU Commission to monitor closely the rule of law situation in Malta.
Now, we have the European Parliament, the European Commission and the foreign press putting Malta in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. This is the sorry state we’re in. No media spin by the government, the State broadcaster and the Dar Malta employees will alter the fact that the situation in Malta is indeed desperate and anything but normal.
Joseph Muscat thinks that the June general election result was his licence to ride roughshod over people’s rights. For even if we’re talking, which we probably are, about a minority of Malta’s population concerned about the situation the country is in, that minority matters for its concerns are about the values that make or break a democracy.
Today, the majority might not be concerned about the sorry state of things, foolishly happy that the ‘economy is doing well’, and that’s all that matters. But, in the not so distant future they might, unfortunately for us all, find out that the minority was right. That would be tragic, were it to happen.
The question now is what’s next. It would be a grave mistake were we to think that now, with Malta in the spotlight of the EU and its institutions, we can safely assume that the government will have a change of heart and act according to the rules that govern a democracy. The government, notwithstanding the monitoring by the EU and the foreign press, will continue to ride roughshod over our rights. Which explains why complacency is not an option – not anymore.
We must resort through all legitimate, lawful and civil means to keep the government in check and expose its shady unlawful dealings. Civil society must be supported, as now, more than ever, its role is crucial and indispensable.
The local independent press must keep government in the spotlight and never surrender its right to demand answers from the government and State institutions.
The Opposition must insist upon its calls for a constitutional reform, which is crucial if we want our State institutions to function. Calling for the resignation of the Police Commissioner is not enough, though reasonable. It must come up with proposals to pave the way for pressing reforms which lessen the intrusion of the executive in the running of the State.
The Muscat administration wants to increase, exponentially, the intrusion of government in our lives – the appointment of representatives by the Prime Minister in the running of the University of Malta is a case in point.
Labour wants ‘big’ government or what could better be described as ‘big-brother government’. We cannot allow this to happen. And the Opposition should be at the forefront in putting a stop to a government which is trampling over our rights at high speed.
The PN has wasted too much time in petty internal squabble; while the country burns. We’ve had enough of that, it’s time for it to take off the gloves and give Malta a strong, no-nonsense opposition party.
When the Labour press conference at the Daphne Caruana Galizia press room was over, I was the last to leave the room. Suddenly, the Labour Party TV journalist turned up at the door and, under the newly inaugurated ‘Salle Daphne Caruana Galizia’, took a photo of me and left. Child’s play, for want of a better word, but her actions, probably acting on orders from high above, were meant to ‘intimidate’ me in my journalistic work.
For intimidation is a tool employed by regimes in the making. If we surrender, it’s the end of us. This is how democrats die. We cannot allow that to happen.
Frank Psaila is a lawyer and anchors Iswed fuq l-Abjad on NET TV.