Beyond Pravda, Malta is at war

As much as the government attempts to carry on with its daily routine, one cannot help but get the impression that this façade of normalcy would do any dystopia proud.

To think that it is business as usual, and have government sympathisers act and report the news that way, is truly homage to the Soviet Union’s Pravda newspaper, ridiculed by its own people for its blatant propaganda by the end of that regime. Yet, despite everything, many insiders gobble up the illusion hungrily, still enjoying the fat, milk and honey of these short-lived years of plenty for some, earned through the sacrifice of our old way of life and much of its quality.

Malta has always been a divided country, more so than most, and I have always done my best to look beyond tribal and partisan differences, searching for common ground. Yet this week, there is little room for ambiguity after the Prime Minister continued to defend Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi in the wake of revelations about Yorgen Fenech.

My eternal desire to seek balance and hear both sides of the story has its limits, because there is nothing black or white about the current situation. If one seeks out the middle ground, sometimes extremes push one to find that the balance now lies far from where the centre originally stood. What was terribly wrong years ago – the failure to sack and prosecute those linked to the Panama Papers – has today become truly vile. A journalist died exposing these men, and impunity continues to reign in spite of her death and the recent revelations. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Prime Minister must be compromised in some way not to take honest action against those implicated in corruption. Surely, they must be in a position to take him down with them.

The Speaker of the House reacted to protestors outside Parliament with threats that those who go too far must be reined in. How can one be so tone-deaf to the justifiable anger of those who have been denied the truth for years? How can one speak of violence in the wake of the brutal murder of a journalist in a car bomb and the repeated desecration of her memorial by public authorities?

The absolute lack of empathy from the government benches and government supporters is beyond belief. One does not have to wait long to find trolls in comments accusing Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son of the murder, asking why her car was left outside. Is this the level of ignorance we need to navigate in order to obtain justice? It truly goes to show that Malta is divided beyond mere opinion – that dehumanisation is taking place, and that people are living in parallel realities.

While many people pretend to care about independent institutions, the harsh reality is that they only care about winning at any cost. It goes a long way to explaining why one side oppresses the other having once gained power. For the victors, anything goes and anything is justifiable, as long as they are the ones doing it.

As always, the Opposition leaves much to be desired in its failure to immediately sack Hermann Schiavone and Kristy Debono, who should have been shown the door when it was first revealed that they went to Yorgen Fenech for favours. The Nationalist Party has not adopted the radical vision needed to liberate its country from its broken system – which would finally ensure a level playing field for people, regardless of their political opinions, and slowly diffuse the hatred on both sides.

Had it sacked the aforementioned politicians, it would have shown a true intention to work towards good governance and higher standards. Unfortunately, the Nationalist Party still depends on private businessmen in order to stay afloat, and the dishing out of favours to repay loyalty to the party. It justifies this by posing as the lesser of two evils, rather than the moral high ground.

What is desperately needed, therefore, is for Labour and Nationalist Party insiders who are loyal to the roots and ideology of their parties to take a stand against the direction their parties are taking. People have often tried to convince me that it would be better to work from within political parties and to improve them from the inside, rather than try to fight them from the outside.

However, I see very few positive examples to inspire myself or others to follow such a path. In the face of such horrifying scandal, most remain blindly loyal to their parties and permit terrible things to continue. I have been positively impressed by recent discussion inside the Labour Party against over-development, but now is the time for those with misgivings to stand up and be counted.

The Labour Party is large enough to afford dissent and surely there are those who can inspire an alternative vision and direction for the country. I admire those who have left or challenged the current Nationalist Party to remain true to their conscience, just as I feel the same for those who have walked away from Labour. Therefore, those who wish to make a case for reform need to stand up and fight for it. This partisan war, where all criminality is permissible, must come to an end. Until such time as those with moral courage take the reins, the only answer to this broken system remains public outrage leading to the consolidation of third party politics and an ever-strengthening civil society.