I’ve seen remarks by some civil society advocates reminding the government of our neutrality obligations and insisting Malta refuses to take sides in the conflict in Eastern Europe. People who make these remarks studiously avoid identifying Russia as an aggressor. They falsely equate “the two sides” and urge Malta to remain equidistant from them. For these people Russia can do no wrong.
Well, I disagree. Our neutrality clauses, bless them for they are there, do not allow us to contemplate sending boots on the ground to repel the Russian invasion of Ukraine. No one is thinking of doing that anyway because we don’t have a model that tells us how to declare war on a nuclear power without starting a chain reaction that ends in a nuclear winter.
But we can, and we must, care enough to recognise what is happening in Ukraine for what it is: Russia, unprovoked, and with no justification that deserves to be called that, has committed the crime of invading another country in the process commencing a series of events that will result, at least, in the death of thousands and the suffering of millions. Maybe worse.
This country is compromised by more than the unwillingness of some within it who usually know better to recognise the import of what happens in our world. The passports we’ve issued to Russian oligarchs (and people from Azerbaijan, Belarus, and China, countries who are lining up to excuse or support this criminal outrage) sucks us deeper into this situation.
We can’t be neutral because we are pacifists and stay away from conflicts and then expect to continue to get rich profiting from schemes that include extending our very citizenship to people who enjoy influence in an aggressor country and its allies.
I was appalled to hear Prime Minister Robert Abela dodge questions about the implication of our passports scheme on the changing setting on the world stage. I always disagreed with the sale of passports. But coming up with the standard response (that we check thoroughly before issuing a passport) as the entire infrastructure of the system of world peace is crumbling around us, shows the prime minister to be entirely unaware of what matters beyond his hand-shaking march towards his re-election.
The least the prime minister should do immediately is freeze the passport selling scheme and review, openly and transparently, the passports that have been issued so far against the changing security scenario.
Let me be constructive (or sarcastic if you prefer): doing this is also consistent without our commitment to be neutral.