“Some have a backbone. Some retreat in complicit, criminal, and despicable silence to keep their privileges and end up bowing to fascism. May we all have half the backbone Francesca Albanese shows. Maybe we have half her integrity. May we have half the strength.

“To all those still silent, to all the complicit ones, to all the enabling ones, accountability will find you one day, if your conscience does not find you first.”

- Paola Salwan Daher, activist and Collective Action director, in tribute to the UN rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, Albanese, who has been vocal on the atrocities in Gaza.

COMMENT | Today’s column is not about fascism or what is happening in the Middle East. It is about having a backbone, the courage to speak up when something is wrong, instead of looking after their bread and butter.

It is about their elegant silence on contentious issues.

It is about standing up as an individual or a representative, even if it incurs the wrath of political masters or friends.

It’s about demanding to know the details, including financial transactions.

It is about the elegant silence maintained by a few in positions of power who refuse to say anything or make a stand.

Particularly, it is about elected representatives forgetting or ignoring their pledges made in the run-up to the general election.

“We will look after your interests,” they shouted at...