The Great Siege monument in Valletta and the controversy surrounding it following the makeshift memorial that grew around it following Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination last year, is not the first controversy to hit this monument. At its unveiling in 1927, political tensions at the time were marked by speeches delivered in Maltese and Italian to the bemusement of the British Lieutenant-Governor of the time.

Contrary to the propaganda pushed by supporters of this government, this particular monument was not singled out by civil society in order to score tactical points, but arose spontaneously immediately after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia when we were in the throes of shock and disbelief.

Indeed, if memory serves, the first flowers and candles that were placed there in substantial numbers was the work of schoolchildren who were taken there by their teachers to instil in their charges a sense of civic awareness. Out of the mouths of babes, so to speak.

Simply put, the people did not choose the monument. The monument chose us. Any monument would have served its purpose but the fact that the Great Siege Monument embodies faith, fortitude and civilisation is a fortuitous coincidence. 

This monument was not appropriated as a substitution for a grave or to commemorate a historical figure. Daphne would have probably frowned at such an ostentatious display. We are not her supporters or fans, as some conveniently depict us for Daphne abhorred the cult of personality.

Therefore, our flowers and candles are the expression of our condemnation of the killing of a journalist and the attack on the institutions that should safeguard freedom of expression.

Even though we deeply mourn the loss of Daphne Caruana Galizia, it is but one element of our protest for it is driven by other forces: the demand for justice, the demand for journalists to work in freedom, the demand that institutions react without fear or favour when a journalist uncovers corruption.

These legitimate demands would be out of place in a cemetery or under a monument to a historical figure but make sense in the context of a public space.

Opponents of our ongoing civic action in this public space helpfully suggest that we should move our protest to Bidnija. In their warped thinking, we are only mourning the loss of a private person, and thus grieving is a private matter that should be conducted out of sight.

Our flowers, candles and the speeches we hold there at every vigil underscore the political tensions of today

This won’t do.

The location of Great Siege Square in central Valletta is not only relevant because it is visible. It is also relevant because of two other important reasons.

It is firstly a protest about fundamentals that are so crucial to civic and public society – justice, democracy, rule of law – and thus they deserve to be expressed openly in an agora: in the principal public square of the administrative capital of Malta.

Secondly, the monument is located opposite the law courts. This is where we congregated for the very first time on the morrow of Daphne’s assassination, a place that has since sustained and buttressed our protest.

This is because the law courts building is not only the physical place where justice is demanded and served but it is also the tangible symbol of justice: it is the secular cathedral where we take our legitimate demands for redress when our rights are being trampled upon by others.

In the context of the killing of a journalist who, quite alone, sought that people in power are held to account for their crimes, the protest site opposite the law courts is not a coincidence either. It is poetic justice.

Our flowers, candles and the speeches we hold there at every vigil underscore the political tensions of today. On one hand, the government is eager to sweep the only assassination of a journalist in our history by the relentless giddy propaganda of L-aqwa żmien. On the other, we will continue to protest until justice is served.

Joseph Muscat should take note that, by our count, he will soon overtake the Putin government’s record of the 192 times Boris Nemtsov’s memorial was destroyed. Since September 8, 2018, the number of times our protest site was destroyed by Muscat’s government stands at 168.

Does Muscat aspire to be the ‘Best in Europe’ in this too?

Alessandra Dee Crespo is a Civil Society activist.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece

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