Today is the 25th anniversary since that dark day in 1986. I consider it as Malta's darkest day in history because it was the day in which our country witnessed Maltese arising against Maltese. While the riots against Monroy, the Great Siege, the uprising against the French, the Sette Giugno, the General Strikes of 1958, were all parts of a nation's struggle against oppressors, foreign rulers, and invaders, this was a fight between Maltese and Maltese, between a "tribe" and a "tribe". It was the day the police sided with criminals to try to stop a rightful mass meeting. Our country was on the brink of a civil war.
We have progressed much since then. A lesson was learned. Thankfully, we have seen an end to the hate-incitement which prominent Cabinet members of the time used to spice up their speeches with, the continuous references to "us and them", and the "they-hate-you" brainwashing. Fundamental human rights, freedom of speech and association, the right to protest, strike, and hold mass meetings, are today respected.
We still need to remember that we are not two tribes. We are born neither red nor blue. Political parties do not own us. It is them who owe us policies, visions and ideas, and it is our right to disagree, to question, to discuss. Political rivalry is not there to breed hate, but it is there to exchange arguments, to question policies, to debate solutions. As Evelyn Hall wrote in her summing up of Voltaire's biography: "Even if I disapprove of what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it".
On that day in 1986, a prominent Minister was recorded on radio questioning the police squad whether an injured person was "red or blue". The answer we can give him today, were he still alive, is that it doesn't matter. It is the same human blood which flows in the veins of every one of us.
We have progressed much since then. A lesson was learned. Thankfully, we have seen an end to the hate-incitement which prominent Cabinet members of the time used to spice up their speeches with, the continuous references to "us and them", and the "they-hate-you" brainwashing. Fundamental human rights, freedom of speech and association, the right to protest, strike, and hold mass meetings, are today respected.
We still need to remember that we are not two tribes. We are born neither red nor blue. Political parties do not own us. It is them who owe us policies, visions and ideas, and it is our right to disagree, to question, to discuss. Political rivalry is not there to breed hate, but it is there to exchange arguments, to question policies, to debate solutions. As Evelyn Hall wrote in her summing up of Voltaire's biography: "Even if I disapprove of what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it".
On that day in 1986, a prominent Minister was recorded on radio questioning the police squad whether an injured person was "red or blue". The answer we can give him today, were he still alive, is that it doesn't matter. It is the same human blood which flows in the veins of every one of us.
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