Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547166
Causation: A plethora of af- flictions The patient: Integrity Age: 13 December 1974 Nationality: Maltese Condition on arrival: Cata- tonic 1. The external examination A superficial examination might have missed it. Mal- ta had become adept at ap- pearing healthy while hosting various symptoms of a deeply ingrained moribundity and since the regression had been incremental, the organism had adapted. Corruption rare- ly announces itself as such. It arrives camouflaged as 'naqra ta' spinta' or a little push in the right direction. Precise- ly because everybody knows somebody, 'il-famużi ħbieb tal-ħbieb', the distinction be- tween public service and pri- vate favour becomes harder to maintain, in the absence of ro- bust legislation and stringent implementation. Our patient, Integrity, had not been murdered. Integrity had been accommodated to death. 2. The internal examination The first scrutinised organ was the political system which evidenced patronage. The pa- thology lay deeply rooted in the expectation that politics exist to deliver for one's indi- vidual benefit so that the poli- tician becomes less a custodi- an of the public interest than a broker between the citizen and the state. The citizen, in turn, becomes less a citizen and more of a client. This is how a republic quietly chang- es its moral identity—when ethical conduct is replaced by self-interest. The relationship becomes toxic; a morbidly co-dependent arrangement. The outcome is profound civic deterioration. 3. The heart The heart of democracy is trust. Malta's heart showed signs of severe atrophy. One may safely surmise that many of its citizens now believed that either all politicians are corrupt or that they have the potential to be so. Result- antly, when citizens assume that laws are negotiable, rules become suggestions so that those who obey them look naïve. The honest citizen be- comes the fool and the person who refuses the favour does not understand how things work. The person who insists on procedure is being difficult and the one who asks uncom- fortable questions is causing trouble, whilst yet another who exposes wrongdoing be- comes the villain. A complete inversion of values. When trust crumbles, the constitutional body may con- tinue to function mechanical- ly but something essential has stopped circulating. At this point, enter institutional de- cay. 4. The lungs The lungs showed signs of chronic institutional suffoca- tion. Independent institutions require oxygen: Transparency, accountability, enforcement and political distance. With- out these key elements insti- tutions become mere mon- uments; structurally intact but operationally inert. This outcome may be more insidi- ous than any individual act of corruption because once im- punity becomes predictable, corruption no longer requires daring. It requires only a sense of entitlement on the one side and the bystander effect on the other. 5. The liver Toxicology revealed pro- longed exposure to money, influence and proximity to power. Although the poison was not money itself. The poi- son was the belief that money and power could be separated from accountability. A wealthy society may be decent and conversely, a prosperous soci- ety may be corrupt. Economic growth does not disinfect po- litical culture. Indeed, pros- perity can effectively mask corruption because econom- ic growth creates an illusion of expert governance where clandestine activity hides be- hind increasing incomes and high-volume markets. 6. The immune system The nervous system dis- played another familiar symp- tom—selective outrage. We condemn corruption when the "other" does it and rational- ise it when our side indulges. This is how tribalism protects corruption. The tribal primal instinct murmurs: 'Yes, this is wrong, but I'll be damned if I will admit it.' 'Mhux me- ta l-gvern tagħna.' Not when there is an impending election. Not when the outcomes might hurt us. Eventually, principle becomes negotiable. The pa- tient loses its moral reflexes. A healthy republic should react to corruption irrespective of polit- ical affiliation. The immune sys- tem has become compromised, attacking the pathogen when it belongs to the other side and protecting it when it belongs to its own. The republic's integrity had begun attacking its own ca- pacity for moral judgment. 7. The brain The brain revealed yet anoth- er grave condition—jadedness. This is corruption's most use- ful enabler because the cynical citizen does not demand better. The cynical citizen shrugs it all off: They are all the same; On- ly in Malta; Nothing will ever change; Everyone has some- thing to hide; 'U jien x'nista nagħmel?'; 'Il-ħuta l-kbira qatt ma kielet il-ħuta ż-żgħira ta'; If you can't beat them, jump onto the bandwagon. And just like that, the cor- rupt system receives its great- est protection—cynical inertia. A population does not have to love corruption for it to flour- ish. It merely must stop believ- ing that resistance is worth- while. It merely has to scoff at and become comfortable with dismissing those who raise concerns, labelling them neg- ative, impractical, one dimen- 10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 OCTOBER 2026 OPINION Post mortem: The demise Sabina Scicluna Schulz Social worker and holder of an MSc in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour The normalisation of deviance has now set in and one of its most grave abnormalities concerns selective memory