Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1358359
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 APRIL 2021 INTERVIEW Inequality is the biggest obstacle IN a recent speech at the Pres- ident's conference on national unity, you argued that there are different narratives about what it means to be 'Maltese'… and that no one narrative can be imposed on all the others. First of all, is that a correct interpre- tation of your argument? And if so: how much of an obstacle is inequality, to the quest for na- tional unity? Let me start off by saying that… yes, I think that inequal- ity is the basis of everything; it is, in fact, the biggest obstacle to national unity. Like it or not, we live in a society in which there is a multiplicity of dif- ferent narratives; and the more dominant of these narratives do, very often, exclude other narratives. For instance: there are Mal- tese people, who are 'Maltese' because they were born in Mal- ta; and there are others who were not born in Malta; but they are here, and they want to be Maltese. But they are excluded. And there are other categories that tend to be left out of the discussion, too. So whichever combination you choose: the fact that there is a dominant discourse – or discourses; because there is more than one – means that the point of departure, in a dis- cussion about 'national unity', is already distorted. For some, Malta means 'a land of milk of honey'. But for others… it is a disaster. It is 'arid land'. I cannot accept that. As a point of departure, the first thing we have to tackle is precisely this uneven platform. That was the first point I wanted to make [in that speech]. One thing I didn't want, however, is that we em- bark on a discussion about 'na- tional unity'… pretending that 'we are all equal'. We are not 'all equal'. We are not even all equal even as citi- zens… let alone as human be- ings. If we were to look around ourselves with open eyes, it would be very clear that there are people out there who are neglected… voiceless… who live in deprivation. And that is something I wanted to bring to the table. Having said this: I am not a 'nationalist' – in the broad- er (non-partisan) sense of the word. I don't consider myself to be particularly 'patriotic', ei- ther. But I do believe in social justice. That, to me, should be the underlying principle, in any discussion about national unity. You also argued that 'culture', in its widest sense, is a means of bridging that gap between conflicting narratives. The example you gave was of Si- belius: the national composer of Finland, whose music was instrumental (if you'll excuse the pun) in the forging of that country's national identity. Am I correct in interpreting that – in your view – the same cultur- al process has yet to seriously take place in Malta? I would say that it has yet to even begin. If you look at our historical development, start- ing from the Colonialist period: you will see that our national identity was always moulded, not by ourselves, but by the col- onizer. But this is an inevitable consequence of colonialism; and Malta is not the only coun- try to have been affected by it. The problem, however, is that when Malta became an inde- pendent nation, there was nev- er really any concerted effort to try to understand 'who we are'. So if I mentioned Sibelius, it was because – despite the fact that Malta and Finland are, in many ways, geographically the opposite of one another – there are nonetheless many, many parallelisms. Both countries were governed by colonial powers for long pe- riods; both had to struggle to forge an identity of their own; and both countries are bilin- gual. The difference, however, is that Finland also did some soul-searching. We, on the other hand, haven't even start- ed the soul-searching process yet. But there is another reason I mentioned culture. Culture does not do away with the dif- ferent narratives that exist; what it does is bring all these narratives onto a civilized platform. It creates something new out of the chaos of pow- er-struggles between different narratives; it creates an iden- tity. And 'identity' does not con- sist of 'pastizzi', or 'fenkati', or the 'festa', or 'il-banda'. Those things are not, in themselves, an 'identity'; and some of them Author and journalist ALEKS FARRUGIA argues that true 'national unity' cannot be achieved at the expense of minority voices in the country; and that if we are to find common ground as a nation, we have to first tackle the issue of inequality PHOTO: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTATODAY Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt