In the Times of Malta of May 9, Martin Scicluna wrote that he is tired of the “whingsing and political stunts” of “a small unrepresentative body of activists”.
Dear, oh dear. How sad. Unfortunately it is time for Scicluna to realise that peaceful protests are part and parcel of democracy. The fact that he does not agree with the protesters is neither here nor there. Nobody begrudges him the liberty to write apologies for this government. That is also part of democracy. Even though one wonders who he is representative of.
Scicluna makes a big deal about corruption in the past and he asks where were today’s protesters before 2013. Well it just happens that corruption is always with us and, like the poor, will likely always remain with us. Corruption is a failure of human nature and since human nature does not change we will always have this problem.
The issue is what do governments do about it. Contrast the police response to the Enemalta oil scandal during the Gonzi administration to the police inaction following the release of the Panama Papers.
Contrast the police response to the bribing of judges during the Fenech Adami administration to police inaction in the Egrant case. Yes, Joseph Muscat eventually asked for a magisterial enquiry but only after Ali Sadr’s suitcase was out of the way.
One cannot protest against an administration if that administration takes action as soon as there is a claim of corruption.
Today’s protests are against inaction and the aura of impunity.Scicluna is worried that the three Opposition MEPs and these unrepresentative body of activists have ‘Europeanised’ the corruption problem. He claims that the Daphne Project is harming Malta’s reputation. Surely Scicluna is here mixing up country and government. What this government has done is harm its own reputation. Journalists report what they find; they are only the messenger.
The harm is done by whoever commits the corruption or allows it to happen with impunity.
Finally I am amused that Scicluna takes issue with the protesters’ education. He claims that these were “educated privately or at the best Church schools”. Is this an attempt at class wars? I thought that Marx is no longer fashionable.
In any case I hasten to reassure him that I was educated at the Lyceum and proud of it.