Pontius Pilate syndrome

In the light of the Jean Paul Sofia public inquiry ministers must assume responsibility and resign. Robert Abela is prime minister and the buck stops with him.

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Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor who presided over the trial and, eventually, the crucifixion of Jesus. To avoid taking responsibility for the ill-fated decision, he washed his hands as a sign of his disengagement.

Throughout the centuries, Pilate’s washing of hands came to symbolise cowardice and lack of moral stature.

The public inquiry into the tragic death of Jean Paul Sofia recently published its findings and its conclusions were damning to the government.

From the dubious way in which public land was granted, which the report clearly concluded should never have taken place, to the lack of site inspections, the whole process was tainted with grave administrative failures.

“Somebody must assume responsibility for these big mistakes. This must be the State, which failed to keep a close eye,” the report said.

The conclusions are clear. The Maltese State, whose responsibility is that to uphold the well-being and safety of its citizens, failed and must be held accountable.

It is pertinent to highlight that this is the second time that the State was found responsible for the death of one of its citizens. Three years ago, the public inquiry into the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia also found the Maltese State responsible for her death.

If the State is responsible, the obvious question is who represents the Maltese State?

Robert Abela is prime minister and the buck stops with him.

Abela and his ministers ought to assume political responsibility not only for the State’s failure and dereliction of duty but, alas, also for their brazen attempt to prevent the whole truth from emerging. We must never forget how Abela and his parliamentary group had opposed the holding of a public inquiry and only made a U-turn after a public uproar.

Abela is suffering from Pilate’s syndrome.

He is acting like Pilate, washing his hands of any responsibility. He is pointing fingers and placing the blame on a number of public officers who, ironically, were appointed by his own ministers.

Although many agree that these public officials should resign, their ministers should also resign. Ministers are appointed to follow what public officers are doing, ensuring accountability at all levels.

It is becoming apparently clear that the ministers – Miriam Dalli, Silvio Schembri and Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi – failed in their ministerial responsibilities. The incompetence of the public officials exposed the incompetence of the ministers. Having staffed authorities with persons who may not have the required competence but are appointed solely for their political alliance has now come to haunt the government.

It is for this very reason that the Nationalist Party and others are requesting the resignation of three ministers. Our request is not a personal attack but rather based on a principle of accountability, a pledge that the Labour Party had solemnly promised.

Ironically, Godfrey Farrugia resigned because of a tent set up next to Mater Dei Hospital, Manuel Mallia took the fall for his driver and Anġlu Farrugia had to resign due to some comments he made.

Sofia’s tragic death is surely a much more serious matter than any of these cases.

The response of the Labour Party to our resignation call was that this was purely a “political gimmick”. However, they also had argued that our request for a public inquiry was futile, only to be proven very wrong.

Furthermore, on the presentation of our motion of no confidence in these ministers, Labour’s spokesperson retorted that Labour has full confidence in them. But, then again, the same Labour Party had full confidence in Konrad Mizzi and voted like sheep against our no confidence vote, only for them to expel him from the party some months later.

Although Malta will soon commemorate 20 years since joining the European Union, sadly, we still lack a European mindset.

If this tragedy and other similar tragedies had to happen in other European countries, not only would ministers have taken the honourable decision but people would have been out in full force demanding the resignation of the whole government.

Due to the everlasting list of scandals, some citizens sadly have become desensitised.

Some are also suffering from Pilate’s syndrome, washing their hands of their civic responsibility towards our nation.

Some argue that they can’t be bothered as long as the problem is not in their backyard, failing to realise that Malta is their backyard.

How many people like Caruana Galizia, Miriam Pace and Sofia must die before we realise that our country is calling us to stand up and be counted?

(This article was published on Times of Malta – 14 March, 2024)