TMID Editorial: Defending racism

It feels quite incredible to think that while the Labour Party grapples with a magisterial inquiry of unprecedented scope and which may well result in criminal action against three of the party’s most synonymous figures and in the further exposure of one of the most widespread defrauding of the country, the Nationalist Party still finds ways to get into the headlines for the wrong reasons.

But in a week where former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat – by his own admission – may well be charged in court, the PN’s education spokesperson Justin Schembri somehow managed to shift the limelight onto himself, and not for any good reason.

Schembri – who in the past has made his admiration for Italy’s far-right politician Matteo Salvini quite well-known – got himself into hot water by commenting on a ONE News article concerning public cleanliness and basically equivalising people from India with filth.

The PN MP wrote on social media that the government had turned the country into one which is "full of filth, shabbiness and Indians.”

“Whoever thinks otherwise, should take a good look around them," Schembri wrote.  People were quick to note how Schembri had drawn a direct correlation between “filth” and “shabbiness” and “Indians”, and were even quicker to point out the very clear racist connotations that his statement held.

Labour exponents were naturally at the forefront of the critique, but so were other NGOs, such as Aditus foundation which said that the comments were “racist populism” which “is not only repugnant but also detrimental to the fabric of our society.”

“Kindly exit the stage and spare us your toxic presence," Neil Falzon, the NGO’s director said.

Even the NGO Repubblika – an organisation not oft known for criticising the PN – spoke out against the comments: “Justin Schembri’s comments are an explicit, discriminatory and racist threat,” it said.

“Racism and those who embrace it have no legitimate place in politics in a democracy. We condemn this behaviour without reservation,” the NGO said.

The matter could have been easily resolved had PN leader Bernard Grech taken concrete action on it.  After all, he has demanded that government officials or ministers resign for comparatively less than an overtly racist remark.

Grech instead repeatedly refused to say whether Schembri would face any consequences from the party, but said that he did not agree with them and the MP had “clarified his position.”

But that ‘clarification’ was nothing more than a justification: “If these Labourites are not seeing a dirty, abandoned, and over-populated country, then I don’t know what they are seeing!  I will keep talking because I am not afraid of saying the truth,” he wrote on Facebook.

Schembri had already tried to justify his initial comment as being a “generic” one.  How exactly a comment singling out one particular nationality can be ‘generic’ is a mystery, unless Schembri is obtuse enough to think that anyone with brown skin happens to be Indian.

That this MP is the party’s education spokesperson adds insult to already considerable injury.  What type of inclusive education system would the country have if it were to have an Education Minister who equivalises a community of foreigners with filth?

It also raises questions on the true nature of the PN’s policy when it comes to foreign workers.  For months the party has blamed almost every problem under the sun on over-population, and said that it would implement an ‘economy of quality’ and not quantity if it were to come to power.

But exactly how it would implement that has kept people guessing.  Will the PN just do the populist thing and pick out a few thousand foreigners and kick them out of the country to reduce the population?

It’s a question quite a few have asked, but have not gotten any concrete answer on.  The PN’s failure to take any concrete action against one of their own MPs for anti-foreigner discourse won’t inspire all that much confidence in how just the answer to this question would be.