Watch: We Chose Not To Rock The Boat, Leading Maltese Student Activist Admits In Powerful Speech
University students weighed their words carefully when speaking about political issues so as not to risk upsetting the powers-that-be, the president of the university’s student union (KSU) admitted.
Addressing a Valletta vigil for assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia last night, Alex Gaglione said that KSU lost its way in recent years.
“When we had a platform through which we could influence our friends, we hid behind statutes and positions that should have come off as politically neutral,” she recounted. “I myself used particular words that didn’t emphasise what I truly wanted to say.”
“When organisations, including KSU, spoke from the heart and criticised and challenged the political status quo, they were labelled or insulted, as though students shouldn’t have a different opinion to what society and the political class decided is normal.”
“However, activism means making our voices heard and taking action, even when inconvenient, as Daphne Caruana Galizia always did. Risk lies at the heart of activism because it is when we don’t need to think twice that we can say that activism is respected.” “This is the impact I can have as a student by addressing this vigil.”
Gaglione also took a dig at PN MP Joe Giglio after his recent comment downplaying the relevance of the NGO Repubblika to Malta’s political scene and insisting the PN is a much larger entity.
“Political parties shouldn’t assimilate with NGOs, because when Malta needed us most and cried out for us the loudest, it was NGOs like Repubblika who fought for justice and political responsibility, who mobilised us and gave us the courage to respond,” she argued, a nod to the 2019 street protests after Malta was plunged into a political crisis.
“No political party had the courage or the strength to do what they did.”
“This isn’t a political attack but I invite all those who doubt the importance of NGOs like Repubblika to obtain a copy of Sabar, published by Aditus, to see what the Maltese spirit truly is.”
Sabar is a photobook intended to document the 2019 protests, which Aditus described as a “significant moment in Malta’s socio-political history” and “a sudden awakening from a deep sleep, into a state of disbelief, shock and anger”.
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