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| EDITORIAL | Sunday, 20 July 2008 Credit – and criticism – where it is due
Now that the dust has settled on the week’s unsightly incidents, it seems that all the previously absent government ministers are one by one coming forward to take credit for the equitable outcome.
Among these is the Prime Minister himself, who would probably have been wiser to make his first public appearance a little earlier, rather than emerge when the crisis was already over. Similarly, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici on Thursday issued a statement to congratulate Police Commissioner John Rizzo “for maintaining law and order in an exceptionally difficult environment during the past four days”. Strange, that he would issue no such statement on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, when the police struggled to impose their authority on a situation that came dangerously close to spiralling out of control. But at face value, the congratulations themselves are thoroughly merited, as the Police Force did indeed handle a very delicate situation with warranted restraint. Rather than concentrating only on the successes of the Corps, however, the Home Affairs Minister may wish to also take stock of what this week’s events have revealed about their limited resources, as well as our country’s evident vulnerability in the event of a nationwide catastrophe. This week, we saw how an emergency transport service, provided by the Armed Forces of Malta, could be derailed and overpowered with impunity by a coterie of bus drivers in shirtsleeves. We watched while the Malta International Airport was virtually blockaded at the height of the tourism season. We saw how private transport companies, uninvolved in the dispute, were reluctantly forced to suspend their operations because of the lack of security on the island. We heard the president of the language school federation make a public appeal for the restoration of law and order – the same law and order the Justice Minister claims was “maintained throughout” – and we heard the Police Commissioner himself admitting that the Corps lacks the necessary equipment to tow even a single bus. From this angle, this newspaper respectfully disagrees with this part of the Justice Minister’s statement. Law and order were noticeably absent from Malta’s roads on Monday, and more so on Tuesday; and while this may not be directly the fault of the Police Commissioner, it nonetheless remains a serious issue which must be addressed as soon as possible. As for the Justice Minister’s subsequent statement – that the police “controlled the potentially volatile situation... without escalating it and without any serious repercussion” – there can be little doubt that the police showed commendable maturity by not responding to provocation. In fact, they were even criticised by some, who reasoned that their restraint during this strike, when compared with recent allegations of brutality upon defenceless suspects, constituted a case of “strong with the weak and weak with the strong.” Comparisons such as these may be tempting, but one must also be realistic and concede that national security is not always a straightforward affair. On this occasion in particular there was also a historical justification for the police’s apparent reluctance to flex any serious muscle. They were clearly hampered by the shadow of their own violent past; in particular, the memories of their heavy-handed suppression of a similar (albeit much longer) public transport strike in the 1970s. Times have certainly changed since then, and among the differences is the fact that the media has since assumed an altogether more questioning role. It is therefore understandable that, under the glare of the media spotlight, the police would be mindful of the dangers of how their actions would be reported. For this, the police and AFM alike deserve public commendation for dancing a fine line between two opposing forces: on the one hand, the urgent need to guarantee law and order in an unstable environment; and on the other, the equally pressing concern with projecting the image of a nation which respects human rights. However, it would be unwise to turn a blind eye to the realities exposed by this week’s strike: namely, that the police and armed forces are also under-staffed, under-resourced and ill-equipped to handle large-scale national emergencies. Any comments? |
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Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email
Managing editor Saviour Balzan | Tel. ++356 21382741 | Fax: ++356 21385075 | Email