Din bhal tas-swaba. Juppuntaw wiehed lejk filwaqt li erba jkunu jippuntaw lejhom.

Ma ndunax li Busuttil kien wara l-hgieg imma fl-akkwarju kien hemm hu. Ghal meta jikber ftit lestejnilu dak ta’ Bugibba.

A country where the Commissioner of Police did the government’s bidding and even murdered an interrogee in his office.

Thirty years down the line and nothing much seems to have changed, a veritable case of ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’.

We still have black outs. We still have corrupt politicans. We still see blatant attempts to muzzle the press. It’s just done differently.

Yet I seem to vaguely remember a time of stability and growth when things indeed looked better, where one knew where one stood, where things were done for the betterment of the country rather than the lining of one’s pockets. But perhaps my memory is starting to fail me.

It just cannot be that we are back to where we were 30 years ago.