J'accuse : CTRL + ALT + DEL

The combination of letters in the title is a common occurrence in computing jargon – mostly favoured by the illiterati and semi-literati of the world of the microprocessor whenever their computing machine seems to have gone A.W.O.L and is failing to obey the most basic of orders. Pressing a combination of keys that are abbreviations for “Control”, “Alternating Function” and “Delete” allows one to accede to a wondrous screen that (hopefully) puts the user in control of the system once again. We have all experienced the tremendous joy of ordering the computer to RESTART or to STOP RUNNING programmes that seem to have gone off at a tangent and taken up most of the thinking space of our units.

The “rebooting” of the system allows all the programs and thingummies that are usually whirring silently in the background to resume operation in a preordained order – one that is receptive to the user as originally intended. At best, upon restarting his unit, the user might find the note that several “system upgrades” are available and “would he like to download them before rebooting the system once again?” (my paraphrasing of course). So you see – the main programs of the OS (operating system) get rusty every now and again – there is a little pause, a decision to take and before you can say “Why didn’t I buy a Macintosh?” your system has rebooted to a much better version at the click of a button. You’ve been upgraded.

Crisis
We get the word crisis from the Greeks (krisis) and normally associate it with moments of great uncertainty. Crisis is also used in a philosophical sense whenever there is a “process of transformation where the older system can no longer be maintained”. We are currently passing through what seems to be a moment of crisis for Maltese society. Borrowing from computer jargon, our current operating system has ground to a temporary halt and somebody, somewhere has pressed the three magic buttons “CTRL + ALT +DEL” – next on the agenda the maintenance or otherwise of the old system.

If you are reading this article after 10am you will probably already know the result of the consultative referendum. Whether there are carcades of liberals or novenas of thank yous spilling through the streets and halls of the nation the truth is that the answer to Bertoon’s question today is no. We are nowhere near a final point of this crisis that was officially brought out from under the carpet with Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s presentation of the bill for the introduction of divorce. What we can do is begin to draw a list of the operating system essentials that might be in serious need of upgrade after this crisis moment.

It’s Constitutional
The underlying fabric of our society is a woven mix of historic tradition, social mores and the law. The interaction between influential centres of power and representation and the individuals that make up this demo is a multi-tiered, interest-driven approach that culminates in a collective set of rules, traditions and customs that make up our operating system set-up. We have come to recognise – thanks to this crisis – that what was on the surface a system that worked and was apparently accepted by (and acceptable to) all actually had developed more than a few glitches and was evidently slowing down the whole works.

JPO’s bill has been the national CTRL + ALT + DEL. Suddenly the programme that had thrived on “if we want everything to change then everything must remain the same” worked no more. Or at least many questions were being asked of its compatibility with the 21st century. Through this debate we discovered a number of uncomfortable truths. First of all there was the awareness that even when you took the main actors of our power struggle out of the equation the behaviour of the various parts within the system tended to settle around the same old bugs – because we did not know otherwise.

Witness the electoral system written and produced by the main actors themselves. Once PLPN no longer figured we still formed two distinctive masses who soon discovered that the rules could not be changed and that they were absurdly written for a black and white reality that was being challenged. Not only that by they tried to milk the rules to their advantage (just look at the fun and games with the broadcasting authority or the electoral commissioner).

When we say that this crisis is not about divorce but about much more we do not immediately realise that we are challenging the foundations of the DNA of our society. When alternative politicians suddenly discover that “it’s the constitution stupid” we try hard to not sigh with exasperation at the length of time it has taken to discover this and clap our hands in encouragement.

It’s Moral
The main actors had danced, tangoed and fandangoed for long on our constitutional plane. Every actor – the main parties, the church, the opiated media – had played his role to a tee until the latest crisis question proved too hot to handle. The nationalist party slipped into a conservative coma, the labour party went into opportunist overdrive and the catholic church discovered that it was in charge of a weak, weak flock (coupled with quite a few errant shepherds) who had completely misunderstood the importance of free will in the defining of a good christian.

So here we are – as I wrote last week – on the brink of a huge decision between emancipation and submission. There may be carcades today as one side or the other triumphs victoriously in the battle of collective opinions. A resounding NO or a resounding YES may be treasured as a hard-won victory in a battle of attrition that seemed destined towards Mutual Assured Destruction. It does little to close the crisis though. Each side will lick its wounds and carry its laurels but the most important part is still to come. The defining moment of a democracy like ours will be the reaction of our representatives in parliament.

The J’accuse indictment had been clear from the start. We have been diverted onto a roller-coaster emotional ride that had little to do with constitutional resetting and much, much more to do with a psychological heart-opening session – very useful for the diagnosis but very poor insofar as practical solutions are concerned. The referendum allowed for the abdication of our representatives but has created a new sense of awareness – little pockets of resistance to the current faulty program. As we put it poetically… in un paese pieno di coglioni, ci mancano le palle.

The Final Answer
There is no final answer. Every set of rules for society is built on compromise based on the ultimate need of thousands of homo sapiens sapiens living together. We are at the very start of a crucial learning curve for our nation. I personally do not have faith in the 69 politicians in parliament who should be picking up the ball from here. Our goals should be set much higher than the mere introduction of a basic civil right in the 21st century. We should be looking at the gaping hole in civic education, the vacuum in the basic understanding of citizen rights and obligations, at the chaotic state of the fourth (and fifth) estates and more. We should be rebuilding what has been undone over the past 30 years Ad Maiorem Politici Comoditatem (for the greater comfort of polticians).

Above all we might have come to a point when we understand that Malta is in dire need of new leadership – one that is a complete and utter upgrade from the menu that is on offer until now. It is important that we do not lose many of the lessons learnt from this crisis starter – emancipation is not achieved easily… and there may still be many a reboot on the horizon.

www.re-vu.org
Before I thank every single taxpayer individually for having kept the PLPN in tow for so long and thus for having contributed to the latest flight of fancy to Malta I have a new little project to present. Mark Vella, an ex-blogger and publisher, and I are about to launch a new (open-source & non-profit) online review magazine. REVU – b’accent fuq kollox,(www.re-vu.org) will hopefully offer a different and calmer perspective to the many angles of the debates that will be an offshoot of this crisis. We launch quietly this week with a special edition in which a number of contributors analyse the impact of the divorce debate on Maltese society. A bien tôt.

www.akkuza.com “Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard-disk?” had a great pause in Malta. Yes we tanned. Yes we voted. Yes we enjoyed the chance of a quick break with the family. Crisis or no crisis there is no place like home.