[WATCH] ‘I Am An Activist’, MaltaToday’s brand new series: this week, Repubblika

Repubblika President Robert Aquilina says that every Maltese citizen has a duty to act as a watchdog that can keep power in check.

Aquilina is the first protagonist of MaltaToday’s brand new series ‘I Am An Activist’ – a series of short interviews with campaigers and activists from all strata of Maltese society to discussing their mission and motivations.

“Every citizen has a duty to act as a watchdog and keep power in check, be it the police, government or the judiciary. Repubblika’s mission is to condemn all that is wrong,” Aquilina says.

He says that he and his friends established the NGO right after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. “Daphne had uncovered a system of criminal power, with its head in Castille and a tail inside the police corps. She was killed not for uncovering crimes, but for unearthing an entire criminal system.”

Aquilina said that thanks to Repubblika's efforts, the government had revamped the judicial appointments system, which now guaranteed “impartiality and independence”.

“Our biggest accomplishment – which will go down in history – were the protests of late 2019 and January 2020, that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and a number of prominent ministers.”

To his critics, Aquilina says: “We don’t expect that we are always right, but the duty to bring about change does not stop with us. Do something yourself as well – you too have a duty to promote what you believe in, to the best of your abilities.”