It is said that a week is a long time in politics, so that makes a month even longer, I suppose. On the 8th January 2015 at 10.41 a.m., our Prime Minister tweeted (or is it twat?) that Malta is Charlie. “#Malta est Charlie -JM #jesuischarlie #charliehebdo“.
Since then, the civilised and law-abiding world has united against the common evil enemy of terrorism, with one notable exception being Labour-misled Malta, of course! This non-position undoubtedly exposes the Prime Minister’s hypocrisy for the hollow posturing that it is. The excuse for this shameful decision is that we, having stopped being Charlie, are neutral and non-aligned. Our self-imposed constitutional restrictions are interpreted to mean that we stand for nothing, ever. It is well worth putting some historical perspective to this archaic neutrality clause so close to our Government’s heart. The clause was introduced into our Constitution as a string attached to the acceptance of the revolutionary (sic) principle of majority rule, way back in 1987. At the time, the cold war had not yet been symbolically buried at sea ironically enough here in Malta, and so talk of alignment with one of the two power blocs –namely NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries – still had relevance.
This global situation has long morphed and morphed again into an international scenario where our neutrality clause means absolutely nothing. Using it as an excuse not to form part of an international coalition against terrorism is like hiding behind a thin glass wall. Not only is it totally transparent, hence yiou’re not hiding at all, but it is extremely fragile and leaves you vulnerable and exposed.
Burning a human being alive, beheading people on film, are not in any way actions that one can stay neutral in the face of. I personally find it shocking, and outright humiliating that our Government can choose to go down this path. Using the neutrality clause as the flimsy excuse which it is, is something that whoever has decided it should be ashamed of. There is no legal basis at all. Were this argument to hold even one single drop of water, terrorism being a crime, our country should not even participate in the fight against organised crime either, and totally pull out of Interpol.
The least rotten of the excuses that can be made for this Government’s dastardly behaviour is that they are acting like the big chicken that the ostrich is, and believing that cowering with our heads buried in the sand will make it all go away. A more worrying possibility is that our Government is still contaminated with and influenced by the anti-West rhetoric that used to foam out of its mouth way back in the heyday of socialist hobnobbing with dictators. There could also be an underlying current of admiration for these criminals who are poking civilisation in the eye. This could be, to a certain extent, leading to the belief that as haters of all things West, we are immune from the onslaught that is affecting everybody else. The unprovoked attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli proves otherwise.
Have we really resorted to such a small perception of ourselves? Do we really believe that standing on the fence will get us anywhere, and protect us from anything? I am sure that the statement by MEP Roberta Metsola in this regard, and the stand taken by PN Leader Simon Busuttil at the EPP will provoke the usual hysteria aimed at frightening people by conjuring up images of Maltese young men sent to war, and dying for the ‘barrani’ etc etc…
What we should be looking at instead, is not just doing the right thing and standing for something, but also seeking the comfort of belonging to a coalition where unity is strength. Isolating ourselves will only make us just that much of an easier target. Otherwise, our salesman Prime Minister, who is well-known for his donning and doffing of positions and people as and when it suits him, should update his January tweet to read – Malta n’est pas plus Charlie – et je suis simplement Joseph.
