Daphne, a year later - Michael Briguglio

Times of Malta, 15 October 2018

On October 16, 2017, I was giving a lecture in environmental sociology at the University of Malta. As is the case with my two-hour lectures, I gave my students a 15-minute break halfway through it.

I duly scrolled though my smartphone during the break, and I read the news headline. Daphne Caruana Galizia had been killed in a car explosion. I froze. Contacted loved ones. Had to go back to give my lecture. Told my students.

A surreal hour followed. Some students had to leave the classroom out of shock. I had to go on giving my lecture, but was obviously not concentrating. Then I walked through the University campus. It had become a ghost town. A solitary student came up to me, exclaiming that we must do something.

That same evening I joined hundreds in a vigil along the Sliema promenade, and was overwhelmed to see that very week Malta’s biggest ever civil society protest, a 15,000-strong demonstration in Valletta, urgently organised by the civil society network. As a network we were all shaken but at the same time violently moved into action to gather fellow shocked citizens in a series of mass demonstrations, sit-ins and vigils. The demonstrations led to the formation of other activist groups such as Occupy Justice, Kenniesa and Awturi.

Like many others, I remained in a state of shock for many weeks. How could it be that Daphne, Malta’s most widely read journalist and blogger, had been blown up?

This was not the time to nitpick on what Daphne had been all about. This was about the brutal murder of a mother, a journalist, a human being. We had to demand justice. We organised sit-ins, appealed for the protection of whistleblowers and spoke to journalists and politicians from around the world.

A year later, we still do not know who ordered Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. The government seems to be doing its best to bury her memory and to make us forget that the investigation is stalling.

What is there left for us to do in the dark shadow of this unsolved murder, when everything seems to have failed? I endorse the call for an independent judicial public inquiry, led by both Maltese and international judges. This can be carried out within the remit of the European Convention on Human Rights. The legal framework for such an inquiry is already there – the Inquiries Act.

Such an inquiry can help exclude that the State could have avoided Daphne’s death but failed to do so. It can help exclude the State’s complicity and help avoid a similar assassination in the future. The Attorney General showed consideration of the possibility of a public inquiry in his letter of October 5, which is a departure from the Prime Minister’s position on BBC’s Today programme.

As 24 international free-speech and media organisations have insisted, the government has nothing to fear from such an inquiry but the truth.

We cannot permit that journalists act in fear of retribution for their investigations. Let us remember that Daphne was systematically dehumanised, insulted and threatened over many years, even by people in power, even after her death.

Let us not allow this to happen again. Neither to her family, nor to journalists who are doing their job. And let us remember that last week we heard of another assassination of a journalist in the EU: Viktoria Marinova.

In the face of a political climate that has become increasingly hateful, in the midst of a democracy that has been shaken, our voice needs to stay decent and steadfast so that justice is done, and so that no journalist is murdered like this ever again.

Jason Micallef's Valletta - Michael Briguglio

Times of Malta, 12 February 2018

Valletta: the city that won European cultural capital status. The city that was made increasingly accessible through pedestrianisation and other projects. And the same city where people gather to voice their concerns on so many issues.

Judging by the public messages of V18 chairman Jason Micallef, one is led to think that he considers the city to be his personal fiefdom. Indeed, even though Micallef is meant to represent the general public, he is acting in a very divisive and sectarian way, lashing out at all those who he considers to be traitors to his cause.

Needless to say, a chorus of government-sponsored media and keyboard warriors repeat his rants. How many of them have been given positions of trust in the public service?

A recent example of this relates to the proposal of two Labour local councillors to remove the shrine for Daphne Caruana Galizia at Great Siege Square.

In response, the Civil Society Network announced that it will be applying for a permanent memorial to Caruana Galizia. The Labour propaganda machine tried to imply that the proposed memorial would replace the monument where the current shrine is in place, but nothing can be further from the truth.

Such tricks are so cheap: Glenn Bedingfield did something similar a day later when he posted fake news on the doctors’ strike against the Vitals scandal.

Let’s go back to Micallef. When the Daphne memorial proposal was announced, he immediately said that he would oppose this with every means possible, “as V18 chairman and on a personal basis”. He was immediately taken to task by Caruana Galizia’s sister Corinne Vella, who accused him of wasting taxpayers’ money on “vanity projects cluttering up a public square”, but objects to flowers laid in memory of a woman who “held him and his corrupt patrons to account”.

One of these projects must be the Hekk Jgħid il-Malti display. Its creator Joel Saliba said he hoped to provoke the public through the installations. Well, I for one, do not like the installations, but yes, some of them did set me thinking.

The pig, for example, reminded me of Napoleon in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The three cows reminded me of the Panama Gang where everything is for sale. And the crass depiction of a figure bent over with his head caught in an onion reminded me of Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra, where we are sucked into a black hole of endless simulations. One of them could be V18 and Labour’s soulless politics of spectacle and seduction through corruption.

Unfortunately, a number of these installations were vandalised, and Micallef immediately related this to “sick minds who could not stand the progress currently being made in Valletta, from which the whole country would benefit”.

I do not recall Micallef being so angry when Daphne’s shrine was vandalised and when Auberge de Castille was vandalised through holes courtesy of light works.

Let us all hope that the persons behind the Hekk Jgħid il-Malti vandalism are caught by the police. Incidentally, this is one of the best policed areas on the island.

A few days earlier, Micallef also ranted against the Kenniesa projections on Castille, with the words ‘House of impunity’ and ‘Who killed Daphne?’. He said that the group abused democracy and that their protest was a vile, systematic and illegal assault on public monuments by a few dozen people.

How the V18 man can relate freedom of expression to an abuse of democracy baffles me. Indeed, when a city is declared a cultural capital of Europe, one expects an outburst of creativity, critique and expression, and not State-orchestrated propaganda and attacks on freethinkers.

It is very worrying that V18 funds are being used in typical Labour style to seduce participants into silence. This is so similar to Labour’s governing style with regards to non-meritocratic jobs in the public service, quick-fix permits for construction, and all sorts of corruption and favours courtesy of taxpayers’ money.

Respect to those who refuse to be part of the circus.

Riforma Kostituzzjonali - Michael Briguglio

Il-Mument, 26 ta' Novembru 2017

Il-qtil brutali ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia u l-protesti sussegwenti organizzati min-Netwerk tas-Socjeta’ Civili, mill-Occupy Justice u mill-Kenniesa tal-Kabinett waslu biex jigi accelerat il-process tar-riforma kostituzzjonali f’Malta. L-oppozizzjoni Nazzjonalista kellha u ghandha rwol ewlieni f’dan il-process permezz tal-pozizzjonijiet parlamentari li qed tiehu.

Nittama li r-riforma kostituzzjonali ma tintuzax bhala paraventu mill-gvern biex jipprova jnessina minn kwistjonijiet urgenti bhall-kolass ta’ istituzzjonijiet bhall-Kummissarju tal-Pulizija u l-Avukat tal-Gvern.

Nittama wkoll li r-riforma kostituzzjonali tiffoka li jigu msahha ic-‘checks and balances’ bejn it-tliet organi ta’ l-istat: il-legislattiv, l-ezekuttiv u l-gudikatura.

L-ikbar sfida f’dan ir-rigward hi s-sistema politika fejn il-partit fil-gvern ghandu l-opportunita’ li jahtaf kollox taht idejh, u li awtoritajiet li suppost huma indipendenti jispiccaw immexxija minn nies servili ghall-Ministri.

Kull partit fil-gvern inqabad f’din in-nassa b’xi mod jew iehor, izda kien hemm gvernijiet fejn dan kollu sar b’mod ezagerat. Nistghu insemmu l-Gvernijiet Laburisti ta’ qabel l-1987, u l-Gvern Laburista prezenti bhala l-iktar ezempji cari. Il-Gvern prezenti ta’ Joseph Muscat sahansitra huwa ibbazat fuq stil ta tmexxija fejn dawk ta’ fuq igawdu impunita’ ghall-korruzzjoni u decizzjonijiet xejn trasparenti. Il-korruzzjoni m’ghadiex l-eccezzjoni: saret prerekwizit tal-Gvern.

Kif qal tajjeb Giovanni Bonello, fit-Times of Malta fis-7 ta’ Novembru li ghadda,

 “A country cannot claim to follow the rule of law when all the prosecuting authorities are controlled and muzzled, when the judiciary is packed with party inepts, when the police force employs convicted criminals, when impunity is guaranteed for anyone on the right side of the political fence, when court-certified felons are promoted, when prosecutions are sabotaged and when those who try to follow up political corruption are battered, when the voice of protest is silenced in a blast of Mafia.”

Ghalhekk nappella sabiex ir-riforma kostituzzjonali tkun verament genwina u li persuni ta’ rieda tajba fil-Gvern ta’ Muscat ma jippermettux li anke din tigi korrotta.

Ghandu jkun hemm enfasi fuq djalogu u sens civiku. Il-process ghandu jinvolvi lis-socjeta’ civili, il-partiti politici, akkademici u esperti kostituzzjonali, kif ukoll vucijiet ohra varji fis-socjeta’ Maltija.

Fuq kollox, dawk li jmexxu ir-riforma kostituzzjonali ghandhom ikunu nies ta’ integrita’, onesta u li jgawdu fiducja wiesgha fis-socjeta’ Maltija. Il-process ghandu jkun suggett ghal skrutinju demokratiku. Per ezempju, jista’ jkun approvat permezz ta’ maggoranza ta’ zewg terzi tal-parlament u referendum nazzjonali.

L-oppozizzjoni parlamentari u ekstra-parlamentari, is-socjeta’ civili u l-media ghandhom ikunu ghassa li l-Gvern ma juzax ir-riforma ghal skopijiet partiggjani. Nistennew u naraw. U jekk inkunu konvinti, nippartecipaw. 

Observations from post-Daphne #Malta

1. Civil Society Network - Malta, Occupy Justice Malta, Kenniesa Kabinett etc mobilized people despite the naysayers' advice to the contrary, the refusal of various opinionists to speak in events and the below-the-belt organized attacks. This helped raise the issue at EP level and Malta is now discussing constitutional reform (though I mistrust the process). But civil society and the media have their limits. 

2.  The unifying task of good governance activists is to ensure that good governance is on the political agenda. 

3. If others want other initiatives on good governance, they should just go ahead and do it.  

4. Not calling a spade a spade works in Government's hands, and this is not a normal government. Perky relativism may not get you adversaries, but it might also get you nowhere.