These last months and weeks have seen changes in democracies and pseudo democracies led by despots who believed that the power granted to them by their electorates allowed them to act above the law. These leaders have also used the law to rule by it to enrich themselves and their bażużli.
Yet, to the delight of believers in the Rule of Law rather than the Rule by Law, in many countries we are seeing the awakening of anti-corruption movements and the deposition of despots and misusers of electoral power.
The people of Zimbabwe got rid of Mugabe, the people of South Africa have just deposed Zuma, Netanyahu , like two or three of his predecessors is being indicted for corruption, the Icelandic Prime Minister had to resign following the Panama Papers disclosures, and the Dutch foreign minister resigned because he had lied about meeting Putin.
Two UK government ministers have had to resign because they attended orgies or harassed women or had child pornography on their official computers.
The list goes on and on. In the US many have had to resign because of personal crimes or personal enrichment.
Yet in the US, the party that is running the federal government institutions with majorities in the two Houses, the executive and soon the judiciary, is using all its force to protect its cabinet ministers and its President, who have used public money for their personal trips, or are accused of harassment and abuse of women and minors and racist statements.
But even there, the electorate will soon wake up to show that corruption, misogyny, racism and abuse of power will not be tolerated.
But there is one young democracy that soon will need to have its own people awake to emulate what has been done in Africa, Israel, Iceland, and others, and that is our own dear Malta.
There is no way in the short or medium term that the electorate will vote the present Opposition into power to clean up the corruption, abuse of power, use of the law to protect illegal acts of personal gain by our present government and its bażużli.
The tribal force that rules the mindset in Malta, a force that dictates from birth, more or less how you will vote, has a clear numerical advantage in favour of our present rulers. Moreover, the other strong force that influences the Maltese mindset, namely Mammon and the lure of money, caused the Shifters to favour the party of laissez-faire, of “make hay while the sun shines”, and of “pay me a baksheesh and I will give you an permit to build, break, cheat or ignore the rights of others in the name of development”. The pull of greed is stronger than the pull of decency and the Rule of Law.
The pull of greed is stronger than the pull of decency and the Rule of Law
It is from within the Labour movement and especially from the younger elements of that tribe that one hopes, expects, demands and urges the awakening of a democratic, truly socialist - in the good meaning of the term - group to come out of the shadows and topple its present leaders to renew and reinvent the Labour Party and to bring Malta to the new dawn that Cyril Ramaphosa promised South Africans in his fight against corruption and the renewal of the ANC.
What is needed is a firebrand, a young strong leader who believes in Christian, democratic principles of equality before the law, independence and separation of the three powers in a democratic state and the independence and freedom of expression and the press.
Malta needs to revert to the sharing of the wealth that is being generated, indictment of the corrupted, both in politics and in industry, collection of fair taxes and good use of government revenues, solidarity with other like-minded EU countries to build a fair Europe based on the Rule of Law.
Is there such a person in Malta? I am sure there is. If such a person is being stifled by his or her own party, family or fear of reprisals, I urge such a person to think of Daphne, who showed us all that, in spite of all risks, we should work to have a clean and decent country.
No apologias, whether in newspaper columns or on Facebook accounts, for continuation of the present Rule by Law in the name of lack of evidence or through criticism of the critical observers who look at our desperate situation from inside or outside Malta, will stop the democratic movements when they are honest and broadly felt.
All abuse of the Rule of Law throughout history, especially in the last 100 years of mass information, has only survived with the use of visible and physical force. Luckily we are not there yet, but with the Armed Forces, the police, the planning authorities and the FIAU clearly no longer independent, we are moving closer. We all remember that we have been there in the 1970s and early 1080s.
Do we want to go through that again? This time it’s not thugs and nationalisation of most of the economy that are the tools. This time it is oligarchic control by foreigners or foreigners acting for non-disclosed Maltese persons and by Maltese oligarchic developers of all our economy. They are taking away our birthright and damaging the face of our country for good. How long will this go on?
Wherever you are, dear young and energetic leader, somewhere in Malta, at Mcast or the University, please wake up. This is your chance to reform the present ruling party, bringing it back to its good socialist colours working for the interests of all Maltese and Gozitans workers and families and not in the interests of present political leaders, of foreign investors, of local politicians or of local oligarchs.
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” - Abraham Lincoln.
John Vassallo is former ambassador to the European Union.