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sional, pedantic, out of touch, 'pulċinelli'. The ones speaking about corruption are the dull- ards, the harbingers of bad news, the lame ducks. The normalisation of deviance has now set in and one of its most grave abnormalities concerns selective memory. Memory remembers only events which confirm one's tribe whilst for- getting that which implicates it. The perfect storm for cog- nitive dissonance. 8. The journalist The investigative journalist performs a dangerous function within such an organism. She performs an open procedure on the body, dissecting and bi- secting. She digs beneath the skin and follows blood ves- sels to identify connections invisible from the surface. She follows the trails and joins the dots. Daphne Caruana Galizia per- formed precisely this vital func- tion for which we should all feel indebted. Daphne repeatedly opened the political body and examined what lay beneath its seemingly respectable exterior and questioned the impunity. This is precisely why investi- gative journalism can become so threatening to systems built upon hidden relationships. When Daphne Caruana Gali- zia was assassinated, the imme- diate victims were a journalist and her family. The wider injury was inflicted upon the republic. "There are crooks everywhere, the situation is desperate", in- deed. 9. The assassination The assassination of Daph- ne Caruana Galizia constitutes one of the most profound civic traumas suffered by the Mal- tese Republic in modern times. It demonstrated that the hid- den machinery of power could carry consequences far beyond political embarrassment. She exposed hidden relationships and forced the republic to look at itself. Perhaps that is pre- cisely why some people derided her so much. She brought in- formation into the public do- main. Feigning ignorance was no longer an option, or was it? "Biċċa blogger, is-Saħħara tal-Bidnija, Traitor, Bitch" were all attempts to dehuman- ise and denigrate. Moral dis- engagement. It is horrifying to think of how prophetic the witch slur turned out to be. Intelligent, assertive women or "witches" were traditional- ly burnt at the stake. Daph- ne's stake was a modern-day one—the car bomb. Hers is the most blatant ex- ample of testimonial injustice. Her testimony was discounted because of her assigned status (witch), political affiliation (the perception that she was advocating for the PN) and lack of influence (biċċa blog- ger). The truth was marginal- ised even though the informa- tion was readily available. The public inquiry that fol- lowed subjected the state itself to a thorough examination. Its findings were devastating. Not only had the state failed to adequately recognise and address the risks confronting Daphne Caruana Galizia but rather the inquiry found that the state had ultimately creat- ed a climate in which the mur- der could occur. The wound was therefore not confined to the victim. It had entered the institutional body where it is still festering. 10. The verdict The shock from Yorgen Fenech's acquittal by a qua- si-unanimous 8–1 verdict on both charges relating to Daphne Caruana Galizia's as- sassination is still reverberat- ing. The legal result stands. An acquittal is, after all, an acquittal; Maltese law does not require that jurors are accountable to the state and victims by justifying their ver- dict, perhaps because collec- tively we don't do accounta- bility very well. Conversely, whilst the court determines criminal respon- sibility according to law and evidence, the citizen must still ask what the case has revealed about its institutions and their independence or lack thereof. We must still ask questions about political relationships, evidence, accountability, crit- ical thinking, juries and their composition. We must hold our courts to account in es- tablishing the entire truth promptly as opposed to a decade later and counting. All legitimate questions. Yet, tribalism is in full swing and agnotology is a study which is long overdue. John and Jane Q. Public are finally stirring. Meanwhile, the prosecution will be appealing... 11. Autopsy conclusion The disease survived because for years Malta tolerated what it ought to have rejected. We learned to live with moral in- jury, conflicts of interest, to laugh at absurdity, to have our intelligence insulted, to justify mediocrity, to shrug at scandal. We learned that blind loyalty could be more reward- ing than critical thinking. We learned that speaking up could cost more than remain- ing silent: Rajt ma rajtx u sma- jt ma smajtx; tgħidx mhux se nagħmilha jien tal-hero jew; jaraw huma hux... The tragedy is that a repub- lic cannot be governed by the formula of our people versus their people. Us versus them. The divide and rule concept which the Brits knew how to wield so well to keep those who came before us in check and busy squealing on each other. It is time to shrug off and do away with this dual- ism in our collective DNA. We are no longer a colony, but we are still enslaved. A republic exists precisely because there must be some- thing larger than the network, the party, the individual. That something is called public in- terest as opposed to a partisan one. Whilst outwardly a democ- racy, the Maltese State is crippled by dysfunction on so many levels. Many of us have scandal fatigue and are moral- ly exhausted. The rest appear to be either in denial and quite possibly, oblivion. If we wish to rebuild our integrity which is vital for a healthy society to thrive, we must stop pretending that corruption is someone else's problem. We must look inwards and ask what part have I played in all of this. What have I en- abled, reinforced, advocated for, represented, defended, mocked and endorsed? There is always a choice to be made. We can decide to close the morgue, re-enact a Pontius Pilate, return to our tribes and pass the buck. Oth- erwise, we can admit that this is not the Malta we aspire for. Yes, there is always a choice to make, and we need to make one presto because the final finding of this post mortem is perhaps the most wretched one of all. Our integrity perished be- cause too many of us found ways to live with the disease that had afflicted it for dec- ades. Our integrity perished because too many of us found ways to live with the disease that had afflicted it for decades 11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 OCTOBER 2026 OPINION demise of Integrity