The end of a year is a moment to take stock, to reflect on where and who we are. Yet for many people this year, soul-searching began early. Beyond personal reflections, a series of events in 2017 have provoked debates about, no less, what it means to be Maltese and what defines us as a European nation.
Is this Mafialand, a Catholic stronghold, a decadent materialistic society, a sunny happy island, a money-laundering hub, or an aspiring Dubai?
The June election triggered one wave of self-questioning. For many, the election result was hard to understand. Repeated allegations of corruption and cronyism did not unseat the government. On the losing side, postmortems of the result weighed up whether the Maltese care more about lining their pockets and self-interest than about ethical standards in public life. Can that be true, and don’t many Maltese have a civic conscience, promoting the interests of collective society and helping their neighbours?
Next came the election of a new leader of the Nationalist Party, and yet more scandals. Anxieties about the ethical standards of Maltese politicians and public servants became even more pressing. What limits of behaviour are the Maltese ready to accept from their leaders and the political class?
The brutal murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia on October 16, understood within a political context, took the soul-searching to a deeper level. Questions already being asked openly about Malta in international fora now took centre stage. And there is nothing which prods outrage and defensiveness more than the unforgiving opinions of outsiders.
We are used to washing our dirty linen at home, with local debates in the media and Parliament held in Maltese, which nobody else can or bothers to understand. This keeps ordinary discussions, as well as mud-slinging, out of a wide earshot and ‘semi-private’.
Yet Daphne wrote in English and the influence of her investigative journalism was recognised by Politico. Her son Matthew’s journalistic work has won a Pulitzer prize. Her name was known beyond these shores, and the international media community rose up in solidarity, anger and grief at her murder. The flood of global interest in her assassination took our startled political class by storm, and has shaken the nation.
It is important to restore faith in politics, and also to find new and inspiring ways of doing politics
Many of the news reports kept mainly to the murder story. But some foreign journalists and politicians have persisted with questions about Maltese culture in general, and national soul-searching stepped up a gear. This has churned up some intriguing reactions. Oddly, it even emerged that language can still be a sore point in Malta. Several columnists were irritated by a BBC radio show which supposedly echoed Daphne’s vision of a divided ‘Two Maltas’.
The show suggested that “the first Malta is primarily the English-speaking middle-class” with the second Malta speaking broken English, and little in between. A simplistic generalisation, of course, and not an academic study. The reality is nuanced and complex, however just a week earlier another Maltese newspaper column was also based on a ‘two Maltas viewpoint, dividing the island into “those who have an anglicised upbringing” and the “rest of us”.
Anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain had partly laid the ground for this ready self-identification with a polarised dualism in Maltese culture, with two political parties, two village saints, two rival band clubs, and so on. And we have two languages. With globalisation and the government’s professed aim to fuel the economy by practically doubling Malta’s population with an influx of foreigners, English remains essential and is likely to become even more widely spoken here.
Being under scrutiny prompts self-assessment. The sale of passports, the Panama Papers, the Pilatus Bank episode, and allegations of money-laundering have raised Malta’s profile, regrettably not in a good way.
Some people went into denial that anything could possibly be wrong, protesting that this is all unfair and biased reporting about Malta, based on hearsay. Others threw accusations of disloyalty at ‘traitor’ MEPs who dared to raise these issues in the European Parliament, thereby ‘harming the nation’. While others viewed them as ‘patriots’ defending Malta from being hijacked by greedy and dishonest cliques.
When used well, power is a force for good. But if unrestrained, power has a strong tendency to be corrupted. A democratic society thrives on checks and balances, supported by solid institutions entrusted to scrutinise and hold power to account. The public should always be engaged and vigilant against abuse, whoever holds the reins.
Too many people are disillusioned and tired of it all. But being disengaged and cynical will only lead to failure, not just for us today but for our children and their future. It is important to restore faith in politics, and also to find new and inspiring ways of doing politics. Besides traditional structures, the role and voices of civil society groups can be widened and strengthened.
This year has been a turning point for the country in many ways, and its far-reaching consequences have yet to unfold and be understood. The end of 2017 is a time of reflection on the achievements, losses or experiences of the year, but it is also a point of renewal and for thinking about the way forward.
petracdingli@gmail.com