As others pass it, here we are every day failing the test of democracy.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign as Prime Minister of Slovakia in the aftermath of the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak is the control sample in the experiment happening here in Malta testing the hypothesis that democracy here has failed.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign shows Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia’s demand hours after their mother’s killing for justice with political change was not borne out of some political or partisan prejudice but out of an intuitive understanding of what should happen in a democracy.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign shows that the continued insistence of civil society organisations for justice, including political resignations, is not the product of some undemocratic failure to accept the Labour Party’s right to rule but the product of civic duty in a democracy.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign shows that the justification of one’s continued incumbency in authority when a journalist is killed under their watch on the basis of electoral support in a preceding election is rotten and deceitful.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign shows that the callous reaction of Joseph Muscat, who flew to Dubai to sell passports 4 days after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed and who presided over a government that just this week ruled out getting the people who executed the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia to turn state’s evidence against those who hired them.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign shows that it is not enough to scapegoat minions to politically survive the failure to protect freedom of speech in a democracy but the matter is grave enough to justify the removal of the government from its highest ranks.
Robert Fico’s offer to resign proves his democracy is functioning and ours is not.