LOW RES MBR ISSUE 36

MALTA
BUSINESS REVIEW
EDITORIAL
Malta Business Review
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Martin Vella
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CONTRIBUTORS
J. P. Abela; Quentin Ariès; Antoine Bonello;
George Carol; Lina LIETZÉN; Hyun-Sung
KHANG; Joshn O’Cook; Harry Cooper; Jean
Paul Demajo; Jay Wolstnhalme
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
I make a conscious effort to keep things in
perspective when I get burned out. It is easy to
get stuck in the daily grind, but if you think
about all the distance you have covered, and
what lies ahead, it is much easier to feel
motivated and optimistic.
Alex Litoff, Event Farm
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Martin Vella
Editor-in-Chief
Even though they are completely unrelated, the abhorrent and evil
murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia immediately reminded about
Harper Lee’s epic Novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and of the protagonist
Atticus, the fearless lawyer who was on a relentless search for truth
and justice, as portrayed by Gregory Peck in the very touching film. Like
myself, Daphne was a journalist, possessed by her relentless fight for
freedom of speech and the prevalent corruption, which seems to be
embedded as part of the culture in Malta. Stepping on people's toes
has never been a good idea in Malta and car bombings seem to have
become a common means of silencing troublesome persons, almost
like in the rampant years of the mafia in Sicily. She was controversial;
she was irritating; she was also an uncompromising campaigner for
freedom and democracy, fighting for a better Malta.
The ghastly and grim manner she was blown up reminds me how the Italian anti-mafia judges Giovanni
Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were both taken out in similar fashion by mafia death squads, following a
contract killing and with some inside police information. The Falcone murder, or the Capaci massacre—
became a turning point for the way Italian society, politics and judiciary conceived of and dealt with
organized crime.
But this time, the mafia’s strategy backfired. For a long time it had been common to claim—as Mayor of
Trapani Erasmo Garuccio infamously did in April 1985—that “here the mafia does not exist” (despite the
fact that three days earlier a car bomb targeting a senior Trapani prosecutor had instead killed 30-year-old
Barbara Rizzo and her six-year-old twin sons). After the murders of Falcone and Borsellino, Italy could no
longer deny that it had a problem with the mafia. Daphne’s murder, like Falcone’s and Borsellino’s murders,
should signal a point of no return. There was a great awakening. A great conscious awakening. Following the
Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, all the French rallied behind one flag and acted in unison. Why do the
Maltese find it so hard to do the same, stand up and be counted. We can win the fight against corruption
and against tyranny. The battle is still very long, there are many people who are indifferent, and politics is too
slow and too weak. But we can fight for liberty, for freedom of expression and. Some good must come out
even from the most horrendous act these Islands have ever seen.
The ease with which the killers struck against Malta’s top journalist, and the impunity with which the
assassins escaped the scene of the crime suggest that it is the state that is impotent. The assassination is
not a challenge to the state. It is an indisputable victory over the state and its laws. It is a defeat for everyone
working for a moral and political renewal in Malta. The devastating consequences of this crime will be felt
for months and years to come.
The killing of Daphne in such a short time exposes the main structural weakness in fighting organised crime:
that is, the absence of a real institutional framework combating the Mafia-style criminal conspirators. Local
police have been hampered by lack of resources, laws that favour the corrupt, and an apparent absence of
political will in Malta to commit the manpower to investigate where there is need. The death of Daphne, like
Borsellino’s, will lead many to adopt the pessimistic stance of Il Gattopardo, a leading character in Giuseppe
Lampedusa's novel The Leopard, that Malta, like Sicily, cannot fundamentally change, yet all things must
change so that they can remain the same. Daphne, like Borsellino, did not share this view. A journalist once
asked Borsellino why he ran the daily risk in his thankless task of fighting the Mafia. His stern face cracked
into what passed into a smile. 'Because I'm not a gattopardista. I don't believe that things cannot change.
And for Maltese, like the Sicilians, there is a choice. Either they can leave the island, or they can stay behind
and try to improve the situation.
Daphne has been a symbol of the institutional struggle against corruption and a beacon in the dark. She was
an inspirational voice of freedom, champion of investigative journalism in Malta, and extremely undaunted
and courageous woman. Perhaps too perfectionist, she was fighting against all odds and against a prevalent
negative and misguided mentality. Her family, relatives and many Maltese, will once more express their
anger at a state which they feel has lost control over the rule of law and abandoned them. Daphne died in
a massive car-bomb attack. Daphne has always been a living target, 'a walking corpse' in the graphic Italian
expression, because of her extensive knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes of power, that she
knew too much, because of what she was about to reveal. No other practising journalist could understand
the Maltese mentality as well, or could penetrate the Maltese nature of their actions and responses as
Daphne could. Playing the freedom of expression card is incompetent, when one remembers so many tried
their hardest to shut Mrs Caruana Galizia up by attempting to bankrupt her, and fellow journalists idly and
hopelessly observing without taking any action of defending solidarity.
We can all be certain that Malta's Justice System and the Law will never solve this murder and it will always
remain a mystery, like the mystery of the Panama bank accounts and Pilatus Bank transactions!
Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go to the Caruana Galizia family.
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