Tag: civil society

Categories
Rule of Law

The Long Haul

“The murder of blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia triggered off a difficult moment for Malta, but it should not be allowed to derail the country’s long-term plans, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today.”

Muscat was speaking in a pre-recorded message to the audience of the EY annual conference in Malta. It had to be a video tape because Muscat was busily back to business-as-usual peddling passports in Dubai (he actually stopped for a meeting with an Oil Magnate from the Emirates before that, he’s not one to miss this kind of beat). There would be more Newspeak from Muscat in Dubai where the Henley & Partners contracted speaker would tell an audience of potential buyers that the cash-for-passports scheme was not there simply for Malta to make money. He went further… “Malta’s cash-for-passports scheme was not about making a quick buck and the country’s economy is not dependent on it”. A surplus of newspeak for the day.

Back to his earlier taped speech though. We “should not be allowed” to derail the country’s long term plans. He told the audience. Look into his eyes, look into his eyes – you are hurt but don’t let this stick for too long. Get back on the script. Everything is fine and dandy. The economy is booming. It is not thanks to Malta’s increasing dependence on shady deals. You’ve got it good. Do you want to ruin it all? Rule of law? Of course we have institutions. We have a police commissioner and an attorney general too. Joseph Muscat trusts them and while he hears your complaints he begs to differ. (Sorry, I said begs, I mean haughtily dismisses).

It is all too easy to speak of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. It is crucial though that we get to focus. This is the defining moment of civil society. It cannot rely on either of the traditional parties. It must build its own momentum and take the battle to the front on its own steam. The most important element is constant education, constant information, and constant refreshing of memory. The machines are in motion to convince you that this is business as usual. The hideous strategy of targeting critics as being non-patriots cannot be allowed to work.

Civil society must learn to look in the mirror and recognise itself free from all the shackles of partisan interpretation. The key for identification is simple. Civil society criticises and advocates for change for the good of the country. Anyone working for the good of anything else – particularly for the revival or strengthening of one or other of the PLPN hegemony is not part of this new battle.

Here is a message to Joseph Muscat. Civil society is not out to derail the country’s long term plans. Civil society is here to set the country back on track in spite of the existence of both parties. The movement will grow. It is inevitable. Constitutional reform must and will come from the ultimate sovereign: the people. We will not let you fake that one too.

We’re here to stay. We’re here for the long haul.

Categories
Citizenship Constitutional Development

James Debono at the Civil Society Demo

Reproduced with the kind permission of the author.

Nhar it-Tnejn Daphne inghatat il-piena kapitali minn xi hadd li tant hassu omnipotenti li ddecieda li jhassar mid-dinja gurnalista li bil-pinna taghha kienet saret tehdida…

Meta smajt l-ahbar hassejt vojt…il-vojt li thoss meta thoss li pajjizek tilef bicca minn ruhu. Ghalhekk wara giet ir-rabja.

Xoghol il-gurnalist mhux li jinghogob mil-poter imma li jzomm distanza minnu biex ikun jista jwassal il-verita. Speak truth to power ghandu jkun l-motto taghna lkoll.

Inhossni mcekken quddiem il-karba tal-qraba u t-tfal ta’ Daphne, karba ghal gustizzja mhux ghal ommhom biss imma ghal Malta taghna li tant inhobbu.

Tajjeb li l-gvern qed jibghat messagg qawwi li se jaghmel min kollox biex jaqbad lil kriminali.

Imma fuq kollox Pajjizna irid fejqan.

Ghax pajjizna ma jixraqlux hekk. Pajjizna ghandu ruh.

We do not want to live in a mafia state. Ma nridux inkunu washing machine tal-flus mahmugin tal-kriminali u d-dittatturi. Il-flus ma jixtrux kollox, wisq l-inqas il-gustizzja.

Fuq kollox quddiem tehdida daqshekk kattiva mill- kriminalita organizzata, hemm bzonn twegiba politika ghal kwistjoni morali li qed tifni lil Malta taghna.

Hadd m’ghandu jipponta subghajh lejn hadd ghax lkoll ghanda parti mit-tort kull meta harisna n-naha l-ohra biex naghmlu lira zejda. Imma din mhix skuza biex inhallu kollox ghaddej.

Biex ninghaqdu u nuru li ahna ahwa Maltin u nibghatu l-aqwa messagg lill- kriminali li qatlu l-Daphne inridu nuruhom li Malta ghanda istituzzjonijiet li ghandhom is-snien u jgawdu l-fiducja taghna lkoll.

Fl-ahhar ftit snin ma rajnix rieda tajba. L-istituzzjonijiet fallewna bl-ikrah f’bosta kazijiet bhal Panamagate li gew midfuna taht it-tapit tal-konvenjenza. Kellna paralizi istituzzjonali fejn l-istat u l-pulizija ma resqu lil hadd quddiem il-qrati biex jigi gudikati.

Ghalhekk biex ikollna fiducja fl-istituzzjonijiet jehtieg bidla fl-istituzzonijiet.

Irid isir ezami serju ta’kuxjenza u kull min ghandu jwarrab ghandu jwarrab illum qabel ghada.

Rajna wkoll rigress kulturali fejn xi whud f’partiti differenti bdew iseksku li onestsa u l-indafa huma xi zvantagg fil-politika. Kwazi li tkun parti mid-dinja tat-tahwid bdejna narawa vantagg.

Rajna kultura tal-libelli li fija l-prova tal-innocenza tigi billi tfajjar xi libell.

Iva ghal ghexieren ta’snin gvernijiet minn partiti differenti ma ghamlux bizzejjed biex insahhu s-saltna tad-dritt. Hallejna hafna xquq min fejn setghu jghaddu d-delinkwenti politici ta zminijietna.

Imma flimkien nistghu naghmlu d-differenza… kurragg.

Intom ragg ta’ dawl f’din i-lejla mudlama tar-repubblika Maltija…Intom l-Malta t-tajba, dik il-Malta li ma tiskotx, dik il-Malta nadifa

Ghax inhobbu l-pajjizna inridu inkomplu dak li bdejna illum u ma nifqux qabel pajjizna jerga jikseb il-hakma tad-dritt f’kull qasam tal-governanza.

Grazzi li qomtu mir-raqda. Viva Malta nadifa. Viva l-Maltin li issa qed jghidu issa daqshekk.

Categories
Mediawatch

We are all politicians now

This is not another “je suis” moment. This is a reaction to the idea that is being bandied about that the demonstrations and manifestations following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia have to be sanitised in a bubble of non-political expression. It is probably a symptom of all that has happened in the country – of a nation that has grown up in a stultified environment and using a twisted code of expression where “politics’ became a taboo word.

The risk we are running here is that we misunderstand all that is going on and transform this into a symbolic shambles – a memorial for the sake of a memorial that is taken out of context. The constant exchange of diatribes between the two parties that have monopolised our official political scene has rendered the nation’s citizens immune to the understanding of real politics. The reaction to a tragedy is mechanical and predictable. Candle-light vigils, walks, demonstrations are meant to help the mourners to cope and get their closure. No lessons are learnt.

It is not just today. We can have an explosion in a fireworks factory, we can have a terrible traffic “black spot”, we can have multiple deaths on the workplace, we can have thousands drowning outside our shores, we can have hundreds of protected birds shot out of the air in the hunting season, we can have animals living in atrocious conditions in ramshackle zoos.

We are brilliant at mourning the dead, the victims. We kid ourselves that we will show some leftover christian empathy. However as a people we will continue to be blinded and ignore the reasons for the tragedy and the lessons to be learnt so that this will not happen again. Our political establishment has for a long time benefited from the fact that we have felt sufficiently consoled by the mere expressions of sympathy. Never again. At least not until tomorrow.

This cannot go on. The education of our citizen class needs to begin in earnest and there is no better moment than now. The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia happened in a context. The appeals to the population not to make it a “political issue” are misguided. What they should mean is that this is not a “partisan” issue. It is not a cause that should be taken up for the benefit of one party or another. Because politics does not exist to serve the parties.

In their effort to sanitise the manifestations of anger and empathy some people are shooting down all the messengers. This is dangerous. This is an attempt to make the new normal a permanent normal. The assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is political. I have no doubt that it is political. We do not know who the mandator and the murder are but we can only understand one thing: that Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed for something that she had written about or was planning to write about.

She was killed in a nation where the complete institutional breakdown aids and abets the functioning of criminal organisations. She was killed in a state where the absence of the rule of law means that the tentacles of the criminal organisations have spread deep into our society and where these can act with a feeling of impunity. She was killed in a country that has huge problems understanding the dangers and consequences of corruption. She was killed in Malta the super-economy that privileges easy money, fake jobs and no questions asked.

These are all the makings of a political murder because in order for this murder to take place the safeguards of a political society have to have broken down. That is what Daphne’s son meant when he mentioned the rule of law.

Civil society has had the ugliest of wake up calls. It has a choice before it now. Either to fall for the serenades of the old political establishment that are trying their damned hardest to abuse of the ignorance of the law, of the ignorance of the way a society should work, of the way people ignore why their commitment to changing this society is crucial. Either that or to commit to change. To understand that each and every one of us have the duty to be political, to become political and to be the agents of change in spite of the old political establishment.

We are all politicians. Every politician among us that wants to stand up and be counted should be at the demonstration at City Gate on Sunday at 4pm.