Some weeks ago I attended the launch of ‘Bliet’, a splendid book of poetry written by our own Norbert Bugeja which will definitely open new paths in Maltese literature, not only for the choice of contemporaneous subjects, but more so because of the supreme capability the author has of utilising Maltese, as if he were a child playing with a piece of rubber.
During Norbert’s “big night”, I remembered my days with Norbert, with whom I attended literature classes at Junior College, and how we would bring together budding “poets” and “writers”, guided enthusiastically by one of the most social-conscious artists and academics in the island, Dr Adrian Grima.
Since then, our ways have parted. Norbert published his own poetry. Adrian is involved in Inizjamed and is a brilliant mind in the academic and cultural fields. I entered the political arena, with one of my areas of responsibilities being culture and the arts. It’s a complex area to follow and to be involved in, politically. You have to help create the conditions to help it flourish, without trying to contain them within rigid structures and spaces.
A true artist is a politician, a teacher, a father, a mother, a child, a priest, and a sinner, all rolled into one. So may God help that society which, in the name of the law, comes down like a ton of bricks on any true artist who tries to send a message, however shocking it may be.
That is why the progressive Labour movement, of which I am part of, believes so much in freedom of expression and the full liberty that should be enjoyed in art and by artists. Dr Joseph Muscat’s Labour party has been consistently in favour of liberty of expression of artists and against any form of artistic censorship, not only by words but also by concrete deeds and action. We believe that the regime of artistic censorship – when one a priori prohibits an artist from expressing his message – should be abrogated and replaced with a system of age-classification.
Last Sunday, this newspaper carried a front-page article entitled “Muscat gets cold feet over censorship abolition.” Allow me to state in plain and simple English that from day one, Dr Muscat did not only give me the green light to move ahead with any initiatives I may deem fit in order to raise awareness and eventually abrogate the regime of artistic censorship, but has spoken publicly, even in the middle of the election campaign for the European Parliament last year, against the idea of having a board which a priori decides for the public which shows to see and which shows not see.
On my part, my wish is simple and concrete: that censorship is abrogated once and for all by the unanimous consent of the House of Representatives. In the past months, the Opposition did its best, in Parliament, to push forward the need to abrogate censorship in the artistic field and the Culture Minister Dolores Cristina, after some initial trepidation, declared at one point that she is in favour of a revision of the laws of censorship, adding however that this field falls under the remit of the Interior Minister, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici whose ideas, I wish to add, are not exactly the most progressive in recent European history.
All this has been taking place in the middle of cordial negotiations between both parties in Parliament to discuss the possibility of forming a special forum made up of a number of MPs from both sides of the House of Representatives, with the aim of nurturing the idea of creating a niche of ‘Creative Industry’, whereby art and culture are not only appreciated for their sake, but may be used as a means to create innovation, talents and employment.
Of course, it would be easy for me to step up in Parliament when it reconvenes tomorrow and present a draft bill on the abrogation of censorship (which, yes, I have already prepared upon consultation with a limited number of experts in the field), which would be shot down by the government majority at the first opportunity.
The Opposition’s wish is to have censorship effectively removed and that is why we have patiently waited for the right moment to arrive so that the House of Representatives will be unanimous on this issue and, hopefully, also on putting forward a good road map for the birth of a Creative Industry based on the input of a select committee made up of both sides of the House.
This being said, however, should the government get cold feet over censorship abolition and not present a bill leading to the abolition of artistic censorship in a reasonable time, say not later than the end of next May and not come forward with concrete answers on the Creative Industry issue, we will have no other alternative but to take all remedies which we deem fit, including the presentation of private members’ bills.
The Opposition is committed to work for a fresh start in culture and the arts.
Owen Bonnici is shadow minister for youth and culture
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