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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 SEPTEMBER 2022 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Malta: politically enslaved people IN these days Malta is celebrating its 58th anniversary of political independ- ence. Which means that today we can no longer blame our faults, defects and servitude on foreign political masters. Since independence, the Maltese political class has continuously strived to cultivate a servile lackey mentality in the people, trying to reduce the Mal- tese to be the serfs of more powerful Maltese, who milk the country and the population for their own benefit. Celebrating 58 years of political in- dependence from the foreigner is all well and good. But illuding ourselves that Maltese politicians have empow- ered the citizens to be a liberated and free thinking people is a big joke. The Maltese people have never been subjected to humiliating and demean- ing treatment as today. And all this at the hands of other Maltese, not foreign dominators. If today we are exercising our right to freedom of action and thought this is certainly not due not to our politi- cians but to hardworking NGOs and other individuals who, through their selfless voluntary work, are contrib- uting to instill in our population the precepts of justice, social equity, envi- ronmental protection, accountability and transparency. These NGOs have to combat those ignorant, uncultured and greedy poli- ticians, nouveaux riches businessmen, lackey persons of trust and various "prosit ministru" hanger-ons, who have deprived our country of its natu- ral beauty, God-given riches and even its soul. These NGOs must be given our full support and encouragement. True independence will only be achieved when all Maltese will have emancipated into free thinking persons who can freely distinguish between what is right or wrong for the common good. Arnold Cassola Independent candidate Catholicism: no compromise J. Guillaumer is particularly elated and engages in debunking musings in the press whenever a priest commits a crime always to run the Church and priesthood down. However the short- comings of a solitary priest should not provoke such a scathing lop-sided condemnation of the priesthood. We are heartsick about the times when we, as Christians hear about such scandalous behaviour which hereby creates barriers to the faith and the Church's credibility; but we are just as grateful for the nameless religious men and women who have humbly and courageously upheld the faith through the centuries, who have served in obscurity, who have given their lives to help others, who have left the world a much better place and who have struggled to do the right thing despite incredible pressure to do otherwise. With this scenario being carried out even up to our present times, Guil- laumier keeps sepulchral silence with never a word of gratitude, understand- ing and appreciation of the charismatic religious and humane work carried out by a priest. The survival of Catholicism in the universe is the triumph of more than simple faith. It is the victory of moral and spiritual unbending certainty. Catholicism survives because it does not compromise. It is the characteristic that excites admiration in even a hard- ened agnostic. John Azzopardi Zabbar