Matching Daphne’s grit

“Joseph Muscat should have resigned immediately, because it is clear that he is unable to manage a democracy. ”

The recent revelations concerning the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia are disturbing. The Nationalist Party Leader is right to underline that this kind of information should be given by the Police, not journalists.

But the entire Caruana Galizia story is a stark testimony to the state of the country. When still in Opposition, Joseph Muscat had promised an earthquake. He has delivered one, but surely those who voted for him were not expecting that Malta would become a disaster area.

Few among Dr Muscat’s diehard supporters will admit it, but Caruana Galizia’s assassination has truly had reverberations the world over. Just Google “Caruana Galizia assassination” and you will find shock being expressed literally everywhere, from the US to Australia, from the Financial Times to The South China Morning Post. It can’t be nothing if the entire world is shocked.

The most intriguing item I have found online is an article published by The Atlantic, called “The Myth of ‘European Values’: The killing of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia illustrates the limits, and the flaws, of the notion”. This is the real extent of the aftermath of Caruana Galizia’s assassination. It has shaken the very notion of European values.

There are many details to this sad saga, but I will not deal with them. Probably the book cowritten by Manuel Delia will cover many of them and help to focus on the more salient points. However, three things are irking me at the moment and I will zero in on them.

One. The parochial process whereby the assassination of a journalist has been overshadowed by the identity of the journalist. This obviously accrues benefit to the Prime Minister, even though many things are being left unsaid. But it is selfevident that the identity of the victim is obfuscating a proper understanding of the seriousness and enormity of what happened on October 16, 2017. The point is not that Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated (even though she had an extraordinary, unmatched, and probably unmatchable, following). The point is that somebody who expressed their views in public was assassinated because of the public expression of those views. This is unacceptable. Whatever their views, nobody in a democracy should be assassinated (morally or, worse still, physically) because of their views. It is clear that Caruana Galizia was killed because of what she had written or was about to write. This should never happen. We can disagree, even strongly, but we cannot be eliminated because of our views. This happens only in autocracies, where there is no democracy.

The foreign media are not idolising Caruana Galizia. They are trying to understand the possibly unique Caruana Galizia phenomenon and explain it to their audiences and readers. In Malta, everybody knows who Caruana Galizia was and what she managed to achieve with her blog. Abroad, people had to be given the background. Because then the background explains the immensity of what happened – that a blogger, a journalist, a public thinker, was shut up. Forever. Physically eliminated for publicly expressing views.

The local media have tried to explain to a certain segment of the Maltese public what is selfevident to most foreigners. Despite the cynicism (which is at times justified), a democracy is healthy only if views can be publicly expressed. Once dissenters are eliminated, the fountain of democracy starts to dry up, till one day there’s no more democracy. Democracy is not a perfect system of government, granted, but it is probably the best available.

Two. Because Caruana Galizia’s assassination is such a grave threat to democracy, somebody should have assumed political responsibility. Again I find myself in total agreement with the PN Leader, who just a few days ago expressed exactly the same sentiment. It is unacceptable that in a democracy, a journalist – somebody who expresses their views publicly – is assassinated for expressing those views, and no politician assumes responsibility. Joseph Muscat should have resigned immediately, because it is clear that he is unable to manage a democracy. When in 1978, Aldo Moro was assassinated, Francesco Cossiga, then Interior Minister, resigned two days after the body was found. (Later in his career, Cossiga became Prime Minister of Italy and even President of the Republic.) Cossiga resigned because that is what is expected of serious politicians in the wake of a shattering national experience such as the assassination of a public person.

Three, the slow pace with which things seem to be moving. Joseph Muscat has said that he prefers to wait for the investigators to finish their work before commenting. One can see his point. But then one gets that nauseating feeling that we are (again) being taken for a ride. Why are things taking so long? Is there political (or some other) interference?

In the meantime, society is still living the trauma of the assassination. The public activities being organised to commemorate this traumatising event are important to help alleviate the symptoms of the tragedy. Ultimately, even those who did not like Caruana Galizia’s blog feel that her elimination is a threat to one and all. In this country, you do not enjoy real freedom of expression, a freedom that should be protected by the State. In this country, if you express your views publicly, you risk paying with your life. This is traumatic to society as it has caused a psychological amputation. One of our organs – the organ used for free expression of views – has been chopped off.

Among the public activities being organised these days, there is the PN Sliema Committee’s initiative: a mass for Caruana Galizia will be followed by Louis Galea’s keynote speech. It takes guts to do something like this these days. Like a few others, Dr Galea and the Sliema Nationalists are showing that they can match Caruana Galizia’s grit.

I think I’d be interpreting the organisers’ intentions correctly if I say that the event is meant for Slimiżi but also for all Maltese from all walks of life who want to pray for the victim’s soul and manifest for the country’s body politic.