Daphne up, Daphne down, Daphne left and right… Everywhere and everyday we read something related to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s mythical image, commanding English language and excellent investigative journalistic talent. Daphne was indeed a renowned journalist, popular and had an extensive readership. She had in her own way a very distinct pen. She had the unique talent of pushing the right buttons at the wrong time.

I remember vividly how she wrote about Dom Mintoff on the day of his passing away. I still remember quite accurately the manner in which she referred to him. The uncanny words used in his regard, as he lay cold in his coffin. The extravagant language used, as she quite literally celebrated his death.

While the common people were mourning the loss of their long-standing leader, father and idol. The hero who had finally succumbed to the most humiliating defeat just like any other common mortal. The great old man who was indeed a saviour for many and a traitor for so many more was her prey of the day as she banged on his coffin, opened the champagne bottles in euphoria as Malta was finally “liberated” from the “tyrant”.

No, I am not a Labour supporter myself, and no, I am not even a Mintoffian. Truth to be told, I despised every hair on Mintoff’s body, but I did vote Labour in 2013.

On that fateful day I did however comment on her blog and asked her to moderate her language, if not out of respect to the old man himself, out of the respect to the thousands of revering followers he had. The thousands of dedicated supporters, all of whom were and are still our brothers and sisters. All of whom are as Maltese as I am. At such a sensitive time, there was no place for spewing of rage and anger.

In April 2017, the ‘atomic explosion’ on Egrant had just been heard. As the mushroom cloud gathered and started heading in our direction, I had approached someone in the PN and advised him/her to take cover. My simpleton advice was to stay away from the effects of radiation and dis-associate the party from the person behind the Egrant button.

I did tell him/her that it should be the journalist herself who had to substantiate her arguments and her claims on who was the mastermind behind Egrant. The person replied that she must have had evidence as otherwise she would not have come out so strong. I reaffirmed my position in that whatever she had, she needed to stand on her own feet and PN could not afford to adopt her story and make it its own.

She had in her own way a very distinct pen. She had the unique talent of pushing the right buttons at the wrong time

I had deduced that it would backfire and would cost PN a huge loss. I still have evidence of my messages on Whatsapp.

Just before the last PN leadership election, I also questioned her plot against Adrian Delia. I put forth a number of comments in the regard that her agenda had nothing to do with aiding PN in anyway and her strategy would not prove helpful to  the PN’s credibility.  I was not even working for Delia at that time.

As a matter of fact, I was very much on Chris Said’s side and I had advised  him personally that the best thing he could do was to detach himself from her patronage if he wanted to gain credibility as a true leader.

I always believed that if Daphne had indeed the PN at heart, she would have approached the administration with her findings on Delia and given the party enough time to consider retreating his candidature and avoid embarrassment.

But no, she disclosed everything on her blog and managed to light the fuse on the biggest division in history among the PN party weed roots (pun intended). She deliberately sought to destroy Delia and make sure that no stone was left unturned in the public arena.

She had her own agenda. She led her own political party, her own followership and her own readership. Some time ago, a comment I had proposed to her was actually reworded and my original prude words were transformed in an explicit radical opinion.

I was eventually blocked from her blog just as many others who in any way disagreed with her journalistic style.

A lady once wrote to me on social media and told me that she was afraid to comment against Daphne as she feared reprisal. She warned me to stay away from her and refrain from writing against her. I did not follow her advice but continued to express my opinion in the way I felt and though I did feel I was being watched, I was not victimised by Daphne’s pen.

Probably I was not a big enough fish for her or probably she thought too little of me. In any case it did suit me, albeit me feeling uneasy at times, especially when I posted my comments in political groups on social media, right in the heart of where her most acidic followers thrived on the meat feast. 

Where does this leave us?

Well, in short Daphne was a hero for many, but now it is time for us to care for our country as much as we care about what she represented.

There are many issues this country needs to address, and we simply cannot afford more time licking our wounds. We are just procrastinating issues and avoiding accepting the reality that Daphne is no longer here with us to uncover more filth or fiction.

The Opposition needs to start working on its target to become an alternative government and the shadow cabinet must start to do its job. Malta and Gozo simply cannot afford not to have a sensible, credible and potentially electable alternative government for much more.

It is in fact already very late in the day, and the time being used to mourn Daphne is time taken away from PN coming closer to start regaining its ground.

Steve Pace is a company director and ICT consultant.