Governments are not moved by shame
The Labour Government of Joseph Muscat has now been in office for nearly 5 years and still we continue hearing the calls for resignations from not just the Opposition parties but also from the delegation sent by the European Union to investigate the rule
The resignations called for are not only those of Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, but also for the Commissioner of Police, the Attorney General, Minister Evarist Bartolo and others who are expected to evaluate the reasons for making their removal necessary and in the national interest.
These calls have fallen on deaf ears whilst the public are swimming in the backlash of accusations and arguments or a deafening silence.
Unfortunately, and more, Governments are not moved by shame. And neither it seems, are individuals within the government and other beneficiaries. Others feel themselves securely protected and enjoying the favour of the powerful. No matter the gravity of accusations made against them, the unethical and immoral conduct, the exception taken by honest persons to allegations of corruption, they all continue in their job or industry undisturbed.
The public and the Opposition parties are in the meantime the subjects of what is called “eyewash”. The Washington Post says Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former US officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”
“It’s just another form of compartmentation,” said a former senior US intelligence official, referring to the restriction of sensitive information to select recipients.
In local quarters, the practice is adapted to a more modest, but not less effective method of pointing attention in the other direction, sending out misleading information or withholding information – as for example when important news is not broadcast on national Television – or when contracts are not transparent or greatly redacted. The most audacious case in point being the VGH saga which was a total eye-wash as we knew but as we are now shown.
Journalists or members of Parliament in Malta and MEPs have felt impotent when it came to counter this vicious and resistant, systematic attack on their jobs. The outcome can be one of self-destruction as the organisation is sent into disarray and unity is lost within the multiple strands arising. It may be self-interest, it may be public interest or passion for truth and national interest. Consider how it was implied and accepted that Daphne controlled the opposition political agenda when this was not the case at all.
As we have come to see, with savage and brutal consequences, exposing wrongs is not the same as righting them. Indeed, it is not one and the same job. A journalist may feel it his or her duty to expose truths whilst a politician would be concerned to right a wrong.
In reality, we are a collective. Not journalist or MEP or MP or judge or Police only. We, the public, every man, woman, child is complicit in wrong-doing or in righting. It is up to each and every one to actually change with their own hands what they can and that is the hard part.
If the Commissioner of Police or perhaps a policeman who works in financial crimes unit who has the competency to do so, would take up the investigations as required to do, then we wouldn’t need to go around exposing this and that report and calling on the courts and magistrates to open inquiries. Other persons, employed in sensitive jobs where allegations of corruption having taken place are rife, could make a change and not follow orders blindly. If they know and see wrong being done, in their own part, they can put a stop to it by saying no. Making right decisions is essential to removing the eye-wash and seeing clearly again. Similarly, rejecting false or mis-leading arguments and statements and not even allowing them to stand unchallenged is something we all can do.
Those journalists at national broadcasting who are complicit in mis-informing or not informing the viewers of actual events, policies, opinions and statements that contradict the mainstream propaganda are making a decision to do so. It falls then, on someone else to cover that gap in information, someone who really could be utilising their time more productively but are forced to employ themselves on matters that are normally the function of other employees.
Unity is lost, purpose is confused and voices are silenced.
The current situation that the PN finds itself in right now is a natural consequence of the eyewash thrown at them by the government. It’s not to say that there were not other reasons why they were returned to the opposition in the last two elections, but the split in opinion and support has its origin in the individual reactions to the exposing of wrong and the fact that the government has no shame, which today has been indoctrinated into the general Maltese psyche.
One part would have us avoid the shame as does the government and try to make allies of those who are complicit in avoiding the truth. Another soldiers-on facing threats, loss of reputation, losing their job and worse.
Occupy Justice tried to instil some sense of shame in the Prime Minister or the Commissioner of Police and the Attorney General. But that shame should be on each and every one of us who remains complicit in allowing decisions to be taken that will affect not just our generation but generations to come.
Our health, our environment, our integrity as a nation and a member of the EU, matters of life and death and our quality of life and future prospects are all suffering as we keep the system afloat.
This is not just about reading with interest or pique about what a Minister did with public funds or how he or she leads their private life. If such stories are exposed it is because they are of public interest and the subjects should feel shame but don’t and encourage others to do the same.
In time, people will forget completely that the system did not exist without them and they now are part of the system.
What is termed the silent majority is in fact the complicit majority.
If we had to salvage some optimism it would be that the collective minority of individuals who stand up for truth and freedom, could one day get together and from that will emerge a truly strong, united and visionary opposition capable of righting the wrong and freeing the minds of years of demoralisation.