Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1213458
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2020 OPINION THE old joke about omertá – the policy of silence strictly observed by the Sicilians with regards to the activities of the Mafia – revolves around a man dying in a deserted Sicilian street after he was shot by an assassin. For once, the police arrive in time, before the victim is dead. But he soon dies, just after looking at the police and uttering his famous last words: "I have seen nothing. I know nothing." There are times when peo- ple face an unpleasant choice: either have the courage to say the truth, whatever the conse- quences; or otherwise stay com- fortably mum. This dilemma is faced by many everywhere and that is why a few years ago pro- tecting whistleblowers was all the rage. Whistleblowers became he- roes. Three of them become the 2002 'Persons of the Year' of Time Magazine. Others got feted in movies, such as Daniel Elsberg's leaking of the Penta- gon Papers, becoming the sub- ject of the Steven Spielberg film The Post. Several years and several mov- ies later, whistleblowers seem to have lost their attraction. Their protection seems to have been an idea that was surpassed by events and therefore failed the test of time. Apparently, we are now back to square one. In truth, it seems this idea was short-lived. In 2013, Edward Snowden, who disclosed infor- mation regarding the blanket surveillance of US and other citizens through a secretive da- ta-mining programme that col- lects phone records and e-mail exchanges, had to escape from the US and seek refuge in Rus- sia. Whistleblowing was no longer the honourable thing to do. The current US President, Donald Trump, has made re- peated indefensible, harassing and unlawful attacks against numerous whistleblowers. The officials who came forward with the information about Trump's proposing a 'quid pro quo' with the Ukrainian government are now being persecuted by the Trump administration. These are simply acts of retaliation. In China, whistleblowers who sounded the alarm in early Jan- uary about the coronavirus ep- idemic were hounded by the government. They were report- edly arrested for 'spreading ru- mours' and were asked to sign a confession stating that they will not spread false news. In Malta there is a relentless search for the whistleblow- er who uncovered the Traffic Police overtime scam – and the search is not intended to honour him for his courage, of course. Those who refuse to be whis- tleblowers – for whatever rea- son – invariably say they know nothing. Just look at the evi- dence being given in the public inquiry into the Daphne Carua- na Galizia assassination. Theoretically it is possible for one working in an office to be unaware of certain actions be- ing carried out by the occupier of the next desk. But, it is very difficult to believe that this was happening in Castille. Here we are talking of the Office of the Prime Minister where people were certainly not chosen on the basis of meritocracy – but simply because they were 'loyal' to the cause: Joseph Muscat's so-called movement. So keeping mum is the order of the day with everyone say- ing they do not know anything. Last week we had a list of peo- ple who actually adopted this stance when giving evidence in front of the inquiry. Frankly, I did not expect any different from the likes of Neville Gafà and Glenn Bedingfield. This is not helping the search for truth, of course. The truth cannot be estab- lished if people are afraid of saying it – or if they feel disloy- al when uncovering it. There is such a thing as 'honour among thieves', of course. Undoubtedly, the three re- spectable persons tasked with holding the independent pub- lic inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia will have a very difficult task to sift the evidence – and lack thereof – before them and reach a wise and valid conclusion. Surveys and surveys Compare the brouhaha in the PN as a result of the survey on Adrian Delia's popularity pub- lished in this newspaper two weeks ago, with the deafen- ing silence regarding the other survey about Delia's support among the PN card-carrying members (tesserati) published last week. One can hardly say one survey is reliable and the other is not. But the survey among the PN's members shows that the anti-Delia sentiment is concen- trated in a small area of Malta, notably in Sliema and contigu- ous localities. The survey proves that there are people who live in a bubble – people who believe that what they think is shared by other citizens all over Malta and build up a picture of a picture that does not really exist by project- ing the thoughts in their bubble as if they reflect what everybody else is thinking. In other words, the people who read The Times of Malta are not a reliable balanced cross-sec- tion of Malta's population. This does not mean that The Times is not a very valid contribution to Malta's independent press and the freedom of the media. It simply means that the majority does not follow its line blindly – a majority that includes also the majority of the PN's card-carry- ing members. The Nationalist Party is a wide church. The readership of The Times is not. The PN used to be quite aware of this conundrum and always sought a balance be- tween the different factions that were all considered as support- ing it. Somewhere, somehow the PN lost its bearings. Its contact with its grassroots became weaker and led to the establishment of the fallacious idea that the perceptions of a restricted number of citizens with a particular lifestyle rep- resent the perceptions of all PN voters. That this is not the case was obvious to me much before the publication of last week's survey in this newspaper. The survey confirmed that Delia became PN leader as a re- action to the 'forma mentis' of those in the know-it-all bubble – for want of describing it more accurately. At the risk of boring everyone by tedious repetition, Delia is not the problem. His appoint- ment was an attempt at solving the problem. Without going into the merits of why this at- tempt failed, it is obvious that removing him does not solve the problem. The survey confirmed that Delia became PN leader as a reaction to the 'forma mentis' of those in the know-it-all bubble – for want of describing it more accurately Michael Falzon No one knows anything micfal45@gmail.com