How to bore the public
Talk about being divorced from reality. If there are two issues that really don’t galvanise the public, they’re neutrality and Partnership for Peace. Neutrality has been reduced over the years to one of those Old Labour buzz-words that can’t even be defined by the people who mouth them in party clubs and bars. And Partnership for Peace only got people a little over-exercised way back in 1996 when Alfred Sant – who it turns out hasn’t really resigned at all but will be back as leader of the opposition on 10 May when parliament reconvenes – spent the better part of an electoral campaign banging on about it. His electors didn’t look at the details or even the general gist. They just heard our friend Sant rabble-rouse about how the Sons of Malta would be sent to do battle in foreign lands far away from their mothers’ minestra and washing-machine, only to be returned in black body-bags, and that was it.
Does anyone give a flying wotsit about Partnership for Peace now? Not at all – the only people I can see getting agitated about it are Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (yes, he’s still around like Darth Vader Mark I) and the Graffiti Movement. Even the Labour Party’s acting leader Charles Mangion, who is about to find himself in an ambiguous position when the Irrevocably Resigned leader comes out of his burrow to lead the Opposition, was quite measured in his words about neutrality.
That didn’t go down well with the worst prime minister in the entire history of Malta, who said that politicians who say the Constitution should be changed, in respect of neutrality, should specify their reasons and say the truth. I don’t know what he’s worried about, quite frankly, given that the Constitution can be changed only with a two-thirds vote in parliament. It looks like KMB’s a great respecter of the rules when he wants to be.
Instead of getting yet another buzz-cut, why doesn’t he buzz off for good and leave us alone? We’re a little tired of having him return to haunt us at regular intervals when we thought we’d buried him politically 21 years ago. All these people clinging to the cliff-face of public life decades after they have been discredited….it’s unbelievable. I filched a book off one of my sons yesterday, about the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy in southern Europe, and how people continue to accept politicians like this in the transitional stage. Given that we’re pretty new to democracy, maybe that’s what the problem is. I can’t see people like Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Anglu Farrugia being given air-time for the serious discussion of their views in England, except in a George Galloway role.
The reason that the Labour Party can’t continue flogging this dead-for-a-decade horse (like that other dead horse called Mistra) is not because the party is in tatters with a leader who says he resigned but is coming back to spook us on 10 May. It’s because people don’t care, full stop. It may come as a surprise to political parties on either side of the political fence, but they are not the ones who set the agenda.
People don’t suddenly start caring about something because it is important to the political parties. Some weeks ago, a business-cum-lawyer friend who spends his days and evenings circulating among the same tight crowd of movers and shakers and ‘important people’ was all upset because, he said, ‘everyone is scandalised about the Mistra case and thinks that Pullicino Orlando should resign, so why are you saying that he shouldn’t?’ I told him not to make the mistake of thinking that the Valletta crowd is ‘everyone’, and that in the much wider and very different circles I move in, nobody even mentions the subject, except rarely, and then only in passing and to crack a joke. I tend to guard carefully my ability to pick up general opinion, and in this case I was interested to see that the results of Malta Today’s survey on the subject, published last Sunday, tallied with my own understanding of how the situation is seen.
Though Malta Today attempted to work itself up into a scandalised rage, the fact of the matter is that well below 50 per cent of respondents from both sides of the political spectrum taken together think that Pullicino Orlando should resign, and a good chunk of those think that he should do so only if found guilty of corruption – which he won’t be, given that making telephone calls can’t be classified by any stretch of the imagination as corruption.
What I did find quite amusing is that some people who claimed to vote PN said Yes when asked whether they thought the Nationalist Party should kick him out. They are among those who haven’t yet grasped the niceties of parliamentary democracy, among which is the obvious fact that if the party kicks you out, you get to keep your seat and the party loses it. And hence that other fact that Niccolo Macchiavelli would have had no trouble discerning: that Pullicino Orlando, far from being the weakest MP is actually the one in the strongest position. And that’s why some people in the Nationalist Party would rather he left; it has only partly to do with the case itself.
So back to my original argument that the general public couldn’t give a euro-cent about all this, just as they didn’t give a euro-cent about Charles Mangion and Karmenu Vella and their flats for rent. If it doesn’t catch the imagination, you can forget it. The spectacle of Pullicino Orlando chasing Darth Vader round Malta and shouting at him in a studio while brandishing a press card caught the public imagination. The thought of him collaring MEPA officials just didn’t. I’m not passing a value judgement here; I’m just pointing out facts that are obvious to me because of the nature of my work.
Partnership for Peace? Deadly dull and boring. I had to pop down the road from the office for a nice sardine salad and glass of dry white before I could sit down and work up the enthusiasm to even key in the words, still less think about the subject. And since I can’t be enthused to think about it even now, I can’t tell you what I think – but given that for the last couple of decades I have operated on the principle that anything I find boring my readers do too, that doesn’t really matter.
If the soldiers like Partnership for Peace and think that it will open up their horizons beyond searching people at road-blocks and guarding concentration camps for illegal immigrants, then that’s fine by me. The only part of the debate – such as it is – that sparked the slightest bit of interest in me was Reno Bugeja’s question to my favourite government minister Tonio Borg (at least he’s given the foetuses a rest) on TVM’s Dissett a couple of weeks ago. Minister Borg explained – no doubt seeking to mitigate the fears of anxious mothers worried about body-bags and minestra going to waste – that Maltese soldiers will volunteer for overseas missions and will not be sent ‘against their will’.
I exploded with laughter there on my sofa, shouting out loud with great merriment that the Maltese army must be the only one in the world in which soldiers are asked whether they would like to be sent somewhere or not (ghax inkella tmur il-mami tiggieled mal-kurunell). And Bugeja took the words right out of my mouth by asking Borg precisely the same thing.
Sadly, the sound of my barely controllable laughter allowed me to catch only a part of the reply: the part in which Borg looked surprised and wrong-footed at this unexpected come-back from his interviewer, given that he probably thinks asking soldiers whether they want to go or stay is a normal part of army discipline and, more importantly, politically and strategically a good thing. I just think that it serves as an important reminder of just what a bunch of spoilt brats we really are. God forbid I should point out to Tonio Borg that if you join the army, you take orders. And then they say that the Italian army is Europe’s joke. They haven’t met ours yet.
And here’s my favourite quote of the week, from an article in The Times last Wednesday about Labour’s leadership contenders and their views about who won the referendum:
A few months back, another leadership contender, Evarist Bartolo, had also made comments in this sense but his were in reply to the questions of a puppet on a satirical show.
Oh please stop. You’re killing me.
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
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Well I am not much into politics… but I hope that this partnership would really work….if that partnership could be understood as to what is happening in Iraq than ,we are venturing in muddy waters…..
To those who seek some kind of alternative view it would be worth giving a peep to Gore Vidal ( American Essayist) “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
‘..If the soldiers like Partnership for Peace and think that it will open up their horizons beyond searching people at road-blocks and guarding concentration camps for illegal immigrants,…’
Our soldiers are regularly sent to places like Sandhurst, the US, Germany and Italy for extra training. It will be a great opportunity for them to (as you rightly point out)to broaden their horizons and justify the expense for such training. I always thought that our army was little more than a glorified police corp.
[Moderator – And didn’t you think it was funny when they complained, with a press release to the newspapers, that they were having to sleep on camping beds?]
The Emasculation of the Maltese Army
http://www.extremefunnyhumor.com/pics/iron%20man%20competition.jpg
Dr Lino Spiteri conveniently forgets that the Prime Minsters in whose Cabinets he served didn’t make us laugh. Give me a 100 Berluscas but not the PM’s he was servile to. I use ‘servile’ on purpose. His ‘Jien u Ghaddej Fil-Politika’ memoirs is either a case of rampant senile dementia or revisionism.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080413/opinion/top-clown-for-prime-minister
“but given that for the last couple of decades I have operated on the principle that anything I find boring my readers do too, that doesn’t really matter”. exerpt from your article: unhealthy reasoning
[Moderator – In that case, what form of healthy reasoning do you suggest?]
@ Moderator re Niku
Maybe he prefers AS’s (wink)
Il-Parternxipp rebah meta ma rebahx..
Removal of VAT without informing us that he will replace with another tax that basically brought the economy to a standstill…
@ Moderator
I have a nephew who is in the Army.
If, what he tells of army life is anything to go by, they are trained to sleep anywhere – even on a bed of nails, I have no doubt. He is not a mealy-mouthed wimp, nor the type to run to Mother to ‘wipe his nose’.
I wonder who it was, in reality, that issued such a press release. What do they expect, bookings at the Ritz?
No comment necessary. At least not snide ones…
http://www.di-ve.com/Default.aspx?ID=72&Action=1&NewsID=50759&newscategory=33
I don’t know the recruitment process for the army in Malta but does it weed out the wimps who are unsuitable for army life or does it try to be too politically correct and accept all who apply?
Someone like me for example should be kicked out of the application office but I doubt that happens in Malta.
Those brutal thugs who attacked defenseless immigrants a few years ago are ample proof of this.
@niku: I trust your nickname is not in the imperative
I just saw JPO on Smash TV `Realta` – He repeatedly stated that even if the Gov. loses a vote it doesn`t mean the Gov. has to call a new election. This only happens on a money bill. He said the Gov would obviously not call a vote on such a bill if it didn`t have the majority at that particular time in Parliament so MLP die hards shouldn`t build up their hopes that the `dirty tricks brigade` will soon manage to` waqqa l-gvern`.
So. Today, Sunday, the 13th of April was, finally George Abela day. I could only visit this site late in the day as I was out. Now that Dr Abela has pronounced himself officially, I expected to find hundreds of comments on this website, Since there were so many, oh so many, including Mr Moderator and DCG herself who “supported” Dr Abela in his bid. Yet what do I find. NOT ONE WORD. NOT ONE! Very interesting! I am sure all Abela “supporters” who write on this site have read what Dr Abela has had to say in his opening salvos. His attacks against the PN, especially the way it handled the Partnership for Peace question. And his praising of Dom Mintoff as the “column” of the party. And, all you Abela “supporters” who write in this column…believe me…he is raring to go on the attack… not against Dr Sant, though, but against another “Dr”…who is probably praying to his great uncle so that this tragedy would not befall him.
Just read this carefully, so that you can grasp it: Dr Abela wants to be, and God willing will be, leader of the Malta LABOUR Party. LABOUR Party. Got that? Il-partit tat-Torca igifieri. Dak li kien ta’ Mintoff. U ta’ Sant. The Party that will not allow this Government to have one single restful night for the coming 5 years. And Dr Abela will see to that!
[Moderator – Albert, the number of Internet users the world over drops significantly each weekend, because people tend to look for something to read when they’re bored at work, and take a break from their computer over the weekend. Our readership is no exception, which is why we received few comments today.]
I heard the following two bits of information. I cannot confirm that they are true myself and no, I personally do not have a shred of evidence so even though they come from a very reliable witness to me, they must remain hearsay until proved otherwise.
1. During Joseph Muscat’s interview on PBS, One television developed a technical fault. Incredible coincidence that viewers had to change channel at that particular time? Amazingly it was fixed right after the interview was over.
I don’t watch super one so don’t know if true myself but personally I wouldn’t put it beyond them.
2. Malta’s wannabe answer to sherlock holmes paid a visit to the chap who decided it’s a good idea to manufacture fireworks bang in the centre of Naxxar with results well known to us all. It seems that the fireworks were being manufactured for a victory celebration. Again till proved this is hearsay, but the person who told me wouldn’t lie to me.
I was reading il-mument this morning… when it comes to Labour choosing a worthy successor of Dr Sant (not to mention KMB) it seems it is spoilt for choice!
Take Mr Anglu Farrugia promising to make Nationalists’ lives difficult. Wow! I must admit I feel tempted to sham a membership with MLP just to vote for him.
@albert farrugia – stop hoping a) that Abela will be leader (Sant is still pulling the strings) and b) that the MLP will give the government sleepless nights – it’s us that used to be given sleepless nights when the MLP were in government
@david buttigieg – it’s quite well-known that those fireworks were for a victory celebration that didn’t take place.
@ andrew borg-cardona
Perhaps Albert Farrugia had his own personal’annunciation’ regarding the new MLP leader! You never know! Perhaps the ‘messenger’ also told him that ‘he will be the scourge of the PN’, the saviour of mankind, the deliverer of the party from the abyss of mediocrity.’
For all his gloating, he still does not get it that what is needed is a viable leader – someone worthy of being looked up to and who will guarantee a credible opposition, among other qualities.
@albert farrugia
Re George Aberla- I quote from today’s Independent:
“The party’s raison d’etre, he said, could no longer be that of winning the election at all costs, but rather to work for the overall good of the country. Moreover, he said, an oppposition is there not just to criticise, but to be a government in waiting.”
This is what the country needs from the MLP and not filibustering and continuous attempts to disrupt the working of parliament. GA understands it.
Another quote this time from the Sunday Times:
“Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant had personally drawn up a paper to start discussions with the Nationalist opposition in a bid to lead to “convergence” about EU membership, the MLP leadership contender says…”We held internal discussions as we believed it was high time to remove the EU freeze. I’ll never forget that,” Dr Abela says.” and “Why did certain officials have to wait for five years to accept that the EU referendum was won by the ‘yes’ vote, when the result was so clear? Why did we gather people in the streets to claim that the ‘partnership’ option had won? Why did we keep insisting that the EU wasn’t good for the country? Where were the Labour exponents to stop all this?”
I think it is nothing short of SCANDALOUS that the MLP knew that EU membership was the best thing for Malta and yet opposed it so aggressively believing that its position would help it gain power. It is SCANDALOUS that it bred irrational fears about EU entry trying to capitalise on people’s fear of change. This is political dishonesty of the highest order, playing with the country’s future for your own gain. GA is the only one who was not involved in this atrocity. He is the only one that can rif the MLP of the heavy baggage it carries.
@Meerkat
GA said yesterday about Mintoff “The MLP owes Mintoff a great deal. All those like him will be welcomed back if I am elected leader.”
Beg your pardon? What is this man trying to say? I’m getting worried.
@Adrian
So what exactly do you mean? That GA would be a softy-softy leader who would make life easy for a government elected by the equivalent of a small town the size of Safi? Is that what you are implying? Fat chance!
And “amrio” Getting worried are you? How right you are. And its not only you who’s worried!
@amrio
What do you expect him to say, that Mintoff was a quasi-dictator when he was in power? I think GA, as a labourite, appreciates the social reforms that were made under the Mintoff government. I am sure he has views about the bad things that happened in those times but does it make sense for him to pronounce them at this point in time? I think not.
I am rather perplexed on what Abela said regarding labour unfreezing the talks for EU-membership in 1997. What does this exactly mean? Did it mean that the MLP was going to restart the talks to bring Malta as a full EU member??
I think it is very important that George Abela is clear with what was really going on, because if the MLP also recognised that the best future for Malta was as a full EU-member, then it is astonishing that the MLP was all-out against membership, putting our future on the backburner. Most especially since Joseph Muscat, the most likely new opposition leader, was one of the main advocates for the partnership camp; did he too know that he was putting our future on the backburner? Or was he just playing the puppet without asking questions?
‘GA said yesterday about Mintoff “The MLP owes Mintoff a great deal. All those like him will be welcomed back if I am elected leader.”
He intends to rally around him those disgruntled Mintoff sympathizers. He needs as many supporters as he can muster, remember, and with a quite few factions working surreptitiously against him withing the Labour party ‘every little bit helps’.
I am so sick and tired of people like Albert Farrugia implying that because PN won by 1500 it is somehow undeserving of being in Government.
Albert Farrugia – MLP lost YET AGAIN. If you can’t get over it then learn to live with it! PN won fair and square. Get used to it!
@Adrian,
But hey, what is he inferring by ‘all those like him’? Is he referring to the ‘kemm konna ahjar meta konna aghar’ old-timers, to the Euro-haters, to the extreme leftists?
What people like amrio seem not to understand is that George Abela will be a LABOUR LEADER. When he would adress some public meeting he would have in front of him crowds waving the red MLP scarf, that one, yes, with the torca. I think “supporters” of GA here are not really grasping this.
I believe that the most worried are those within the MLP who for the past years have been supporting policies with which they did not agree. It will be quite a problem, IF Dr. George Abela makes it, for them to explain to him how and why they kept mum when they should have stood up to be counted as he did. As for Mintoff, yes he still gives the creeps to a lot of people, but those who know Dr. Abela trust in his good judgement. As for being worried, I have not seen anything but praise of Dr. Abela in this blog to the extent that some bloggers have flung accusations of ulterior motives at those who wrote in favour of his candidature.
It is not the ‘Torca’ that makes people wary, it is the way the symbol was abused and instead of symbolising freedom it became the symbol of tyranny and destruction.
After all the ‘torca’ is an emblem taken from one of the most known symbols of freedom.
@Albert Farrugia
Hang on a sec.
Party leaders (MLP, PN, AD etc.) give their party a specific imprint. I don’t think that I’m swearing if I say that we had an extreme left Labour party under Mintoff, a left-of-centre PN party under EFA and Gonzi, and a right-or-left-of centre MLP party under Sant.
Prospective MLP leaders will also want to steer MLP to a specific path.
When GA is saying what is being mentioned here, does it mean that his vision of MLP should be left, rather than left-of-centre?
What is for certain, is that alongside the ‘torca’ the crowds will be waving the EU flag as we have seen for the first time in the last MLP meetings.
@Albert Farrugia
I never had any doubts that George Abela will be a Labour leader, and no one expects him to be otherwise. What I cannot understand is why you expect him to be an uncompromising and belligerent leader of the opposition. I think it is clear that this type of opposition scares non-party diehards away and has not worked for the MLP. I would like to believe that Dr Abela is a man of principle and intelligent enough to realise that the best way to win the confidence of non-MLP voters would be to show that the MLP is a government in waiting and not just a criticise-everything type of opposition. As a Maltese citizen what I would like to see is a government and oppositon that can talk to each other and that can co-operate on nation issues that they agree upon. I do not expect a toothless opposition far from it, the opposition has a democratic duty to point out the deficiencies of the government and to criticise what it disagrees with. George Abela does not carry a chip on his shoulder like many other labour stalwarts, and I think he will be able to gain PM Gonzi’s trust that he will put Malta’s interests first. I see his leadership of the MLP as an opportunity for the divisions in our country to be reduced. I might be dreaming…but what are we without dreams?
Modern, large european political parties are only nominally “left” or “right”. Their poloicies are pragmatic and reflect realities. The point here, at this stage, is that George Abela will be a LABOUR Leader. I think the praise that is flowing (or used to flow) in this site for him is coming from people who got the impression GA is some sort of “semi-Nationalist”, who will not, sort of, fight the Nationalists all the way. As if he were the chairman of some pressure group. As leader his first and main job would be that of exposing the GonziPN hoax. He will use his 34 seat minority to put pressure to bear on the 35 seat government. He will make sure that the MLP will be reconciled with its past. Which included BOTH Mintoff as well as Sant. GA´S opponent will not be Jason Micallef but Lawrence Gonzi. Please grasp this clearly.
GA`s opponent will not be ….
The problem is, who is GA`s opponent just now?
I am no insider of Maltastar.com workings. But I find it most strange that at 14.15 hrs on Monday, 14th April, 2008, the web site still displays issue 602 of Saturday last with no news, yet, of the latest addition to the MLP leadership race.
Looking up past issues, I found out the following: (note references to dates)
maltastar.com team Mon, 24 March 2008
Labour MEP, Dr Joseph Muscat, has officially launched his bid for the leadership of the Malta Labour Party. This launch was made in a media release, issued on Monday afternoon, in which Dr Muscat set out his vision for seeking the Labour leader’s mantle.
maltastar.com team Sat, 29 March 2008
Labour Deputy Leader Dr Michael Falzon has officially launched his bid for the party’s top post, on Saturday morning.
maltastar.com team Mon, 31 March 2008
Labour MP Evarist Bartolo has officially launched his bid for the party’s top post, on Monday afternoon.
maltastar.com team Fri, 04 April 2008
Labour MP, Notary Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, officially announced she will be contesting for the post of Labour Party leader, during a press conference on Friday afternoon.
[Moderator – Joseph Muscat is one of the founders (if not the founder) of Maltastar.com. He even named one of his daughters after the website.]
@Albert Farrugia
I think you are describing the leader that MLP supporters like you wish to have. You do not realise that this type of leadership will not make the MLP electable as has been demonstrated all the way since 1981.
No I do not believe that GA will be the type of leader you describe.
Mod – If JM named his daughter after maltastar, her name would have been either maltetoile or mensonge…..
Having followed the leadership discussion from the start, I do not remember anybody giving the impression that Dr. George Abela was a ‘semi’ anything. On the contrary, and one can even recall the article written by the author of the blog, the argument was always that Dr. George Abela is no man’s man and he speaks his mind with conviction. It can be easily understood from previous entries that the ‘praise’ heaped on him was more in the way that he is the best bet that the MLP have to ever be in government. As I have stated before many took this to mean that he was a ‘semi’ something, which is very untrue and is very obvious to the fair reader that all support given was in line with the thought that there can never be a good government without a good opposition. Having been born and lived a good part of my life in Dr. George Abela’s home town, I know that he sees no one as his ‘opponent’ but solely as someone that he has to convince, as he clearly stated yesterday, not with shouting, neither with internal fighting but with strong arguments. Having said that, it was clear in his speech that the real opponents he has are in the MLP.
@Pete
Maltastar isn’t published on Sundays. Probably they will feature GA tonight!
So is Adrian implying that GA will not compete with the Nationalists for votes? Or will he not expose their misdemeanors? If so, what do we need an opposition party for? Regarding political opponents, I repeat, GA´s opponent will be Lawrence Gonzi. Yesterday he declared he wants unity in the party. So the opponents are, as should be,the Nationalist Party. Of course, by argument and conviction. But the final aim is to win votes at an election, winning government over. The Mlp will not be somepressure group, as some would like, for example Alternattiva to be. How convenient!
@Albert Farrugia
Agreed with what you are saying, and in fact, that is what most bloggers here (except me) were saying – that GA is the best candidate for MLP leadership.
I am saying ‘except me’ as I was very cautious and had not expressed myself yet.
And I repeat, I did not like what GA said yesterday about Mintoff and his ilk. In my humble opinion, a future MLP leader should dish out all that was wrong in the MLP recent and remote past, and start afresh a new chapter in Malta leftist political parties. Calling Mintoff and those who think like him will not get us anywhere… except maybe re-unite all flavours of past Labour and re-form another fortress-type party.
@ Albert Farrugia
Your words not mine……..
An opposition has a constitutional role, it is there to point out misdemeanours (?… call them what you like) and bring the administration to order. Which is as it should be. What we have had and seen for a very long time now is that the opposition is only there to throw spanners in the works. It is not enough to say that this or the other is not good. The opposition must give other options. That is the whole point of the opposition.
When Dr.George Abela tried to this inside his party, giving argument and reason, the only way that was left for him was out.
No one has ever expected the opposition to be a pressure group, but always to live up to its constitutional responsibility and be a constructive opposition. If on the way, nationalist sympathisers are won over, there is no problem. That is as it should be. The electorate chooses the best under the circumstances. The main point of the argument is that Dr. George Abela is not the type of person to give you the creeps every time you see or hear him, and above all he instils trust.
As for Alternativa, the less said the better.
@ amrio
I agree. I was quite disappointed with GA’s speech. I did not expect him to glorify MLP’s past and Dom Mintoff in particular. I understand that at this point he may need the votes of the die-hard delegates to get the job, but not to the extent of glorifying Mintoff’s years when law abiding citizens lived in constant fear just because they had different opinions.
I expected much better than GA, especially if he thinks he can garner votes from people who (like me) do not trust MLP.
@the guy/gal called “me”
Well, this is another myth that the new Labour Leader, hopefully George Abela will expose and explode: That Labour is an opposition “which throws spanners in the works”. Now really? Just being critical of the government is spanners okes in the works?
Let me show you how an opposition which puts “spokes in the wheels” looks like. Just take hold of the book “The Politics of Persuasion”, which in some blog or other was called “the book event of the (last) year”. It is written by former president Guido de Marco. It claims to be an autobiography, but really its very disappointed. We learn in it nothing new, really. EXCEPT something which shocked me. At the beginning of Chap. 23, on pg. 129, the author recalls a meeting he and other PN officials had with the Italian Christian Democrats. Demarco says:
“The party sought to exploit its contacts abroad…We had to explain to our Italian friends that the political support Italy was giving to Mintoff was having a negative impact on our struggle to keep a measure of democracy in Malta”
And, no, this had nothing to do with a perverse election result in 1981. Demarco is hear recounting a meeting that took place in 1977. So here we have a main exponent of the Nationalist opposition actually having contacts with a foreign government, complaining that this government is helping the democratically elected government of Malta.
Spanners in the works you said?
I remember Mintoff accusing the PN of being in collusion with foreigners, working against the Government of Malta. At the time, I as a young man, though the man was nuts.
Now it turns out he was right.
We are readyyyy…for Georgeeeee….
The issue that Daphne fails to address is why the PN never included joining PFP in their 300 odd point electoral manifesto and then acted immediately on being elected to join PFP without any sort of meaningful consultation with the opposition party? If joining PFP was so important that it was the first thing the government needed to do upon re-election it should have been addressed in the party’s electoral manifesto. If circumstances changed so dramatically between the time the manifesto was adopted and the party’s election so as to make joining PFP imperative then the government should have waited for Parliament to convene and should have held a debate to explain its rationale to the country in a democractic manner. If it was so important to joint PFP before Parliament could be convened then as a bare minimum the government should have consulted (not advised) the opposition. As things look from where I stand the PN just pulled a fast one on the country while thumbing its nose at the democratice institutions it is sworn to uphold. Shame on the PN! Kudos to you Richard, you’ve shown who really pulls the strings when push comes to shove!
[Moderator – You really are pushing the definition of boring. Maybe they left it out of the manifesto because they knew that Alfred Sant would have just gone on about how we’re ‘makku’ that will be eaten alive by that kraken called the international community.]
@ Albert Farrugia:
No one is saying that they don’t want a Labour leader in George Abela. What one hopes is that one will find a good Labour leader in him, and that he will offer a real choice to voters, many of whom feel they have no choice at all, but to vote for the lesser of two evils. For me it meant rushing to the polling booth and desperately ticking in the names marked PN – and that’s how it will remain if MLP don’t do things properly this time.
By all means, let George Abela be a true Labour leader, which will obviously mean that he will not be sucking up to PN in any way, and that’s how things should be. No one wants a wimp.
But first you (as in MLP followers) have to get him elected, and here we all are waiting for you to do this, and to vote wisely in your choice for a leader this time. If you really want a change you’ll get rid of the resident gang and go for Abela.
I found it quite refreshing to note that Myriam Spiteri Debono, Marlene Pullicino and Adrian Vassallo all seem to be supporting his bid for leadership, and were all at the Regatta boat club, and that the turn-out was splendid.
Good luck to Dr Abela, may MLP find itself the leader which it deserves, and may Malta be given a Leader of the Opposition (and hopefully a future Labour Prime Minister) of a calibre which she so richly deserves.
@The Abbott
Because the PN is today nothing more than a strategy-machine. No more no less. From the “party of values” of 1981, it has transformed itself into a power organisation. A very successful one, to be sure. But at the expense of the values it itself used to preach. It’s obvious that the PN did not include PfP in its manifesto as it did not want to open up that front. A very good move, strategically, sure enough. But which effectively reduces the party’s electoral manifesto to a meaningless piece of paper.
In a normal democracy, an electoral programme is a political party’s contract with the electors. Its mandate cannot extend by one inch its declared programme. But the PN has now shown that it believes the power it has won gives it a blank cheque. It does not even have the minimum respect for Parliament. But, of course, this is boring, according to the apoligists, now!
Something else which, however is NOT boring, since it affects our pockets, is the departure tax. This PN government boasts about Euro and Schengen, and yet holds its hand out and makes us pay an illegal tax in order for us to be able to venture anywhere further than Marsalforn. That’s European credentials for you.
The PN DID promise to remove this tax. But of course, it cannot happen as yet, since Parliament is not yet in session! SO, PFP, no Parliament but no problem. Departure tax, no Parliament, BIG problem!
And they are execting the new Labour Leader to give them one minute’s rest. Yes, sure….
[Moderator – Albert, you can’t expect the government not to take decisions that weren’t hinted at in the party’s manifesto. You seem to use the words manifesto and mandate interchangeably, when in fact the two have little to do with each other. The government’s mandate is outlined in the constitutional document, and the party’s ideas are outlined in its manifesto, which has no legal recognition. I don’t even think there is any cause for moral outrage either (the people who are outraged now would have been outraged no matter how membership was sold to them) because the PN was not elected to government on an anti-PFP ticket.]
Are you saying that the PN was afraid that Alfred Sant would make a campaign issue out of the PN’s plan of rejoining PFP and that is why the PN intentionally left it out of their manifesto?! If as you say the PN really meant to joint PFP all along but hid it from the electorate then we are talking much more serious stuff. If there is any evidence for your statement then it would be grounds for an investigation of the people behind the plan to bypass the electorate and Parliament on this issue?
[Moderator – It was a joke. And even if it weren’t, they’d be no grounds for ‘an investigation’ because there’s nothing remotely illegal about a party excluding it’s intentions from its manifest – which is why everyone who recognised Alfred Sant’s instability dreaded the possibility of his return to power.]
Amrio – Take your pick: Debono Grech, Spiteri Debono, Coleiro (Preca), Freddie Micallef, Moran, KMB … The list goes on. Same old faces – Same old tricks?
When I see PfP my brains shuts down. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn
[Moderator – Too right.]
Me – You said “What is for certain, is that alongside the ‘torca’ the crowds will be waving the EU flag as we have seen for the first time in the last MLP meeting”
Could it not be that the flags were more-or-less planted there (until the trend caught on, at least), to quell public fear that MLP would try to pull us out of the EU?
@ amrio
GA knows that in the MLP there are Santjani and Mintoffjani…since he knows that he is not exactly the Santjani’s poster boy he is pandering to the Mintoffjani who hate Sant with gusto
@Moggy
Your comments are clearly sincere. However, we are grown-ups, and not all well-wishers are sincere. “Tbus l-id li tixtieqha maqtugha” is a well-known proverb. Were George Abela to be elected Leader, you can rest assured that the blazing PN guns would fire round after round of character assasiniation. And they might, even next time round, convince you to go “rushing” to vote and “desperately” marking on the blue boxes. Scare-mongering is another PN forte. I am sorry it worked wonders also with you. “Rushing”? “Desperate”? Voting took place from 7 am till 11 pm. Surely no-one needed to rush! “DEsperate”? Is the PN in office so weak that it leaves people feeling desperate, for whatever reason? Just look at things in a better perspective, dear Moggy, and you realise by yourself that your automatic use of these two words betray nothing else than, I am sorry to say, scaremongering at best, brainwashing at worst.
@Albert Farrugia
“…….our struggle to keep a measure of democracy in Malta.”
Well you quoted well. I was not young in the year you quoted, that is 1977. There were already very terrifying things happening. Why don’t you go to the national library, ask for the past newspaper section and have a look for yourself.
@Moderator
You are reducing the argument to a legalistic one. Of course a manifesto is not legally binding. But, come on, it is a PROMISE. Those who are seeking the electors’ mandate declare what they intend doing with that mandate.
And the PN manifesto was a precise document. Infact, PN exponents were so proud of the precisness of their manifesto. The proposals were listed, one after the other, and even NUMBERED precisely: 353 proposals.
So are you saying the the PN was, after all, not really MEANING that it had 353 proposal? Which basically means that the PN tricked electors, right. As the saying says “Lil min tafu, ssaqsix ghalih”!
[Moderator – That’s it: it’s a promise. And did the PN promise to keep Malta out of the PfP?]
@me
It still does not remove the fact that, as is now admitted, the PN was having contacts with foreign governments (GOVERNMENTS, not PARTIES), encouraging them to withhold support to Malta (what support? economic? political? military? what? Demarco gives no clue).
The Government of Malta was a democratically elected government in 1977 with a majority of votes.
A government is democratic as long as its actions are democratic.
The fact that Dr. DeMarco put it down in his book is proof enough that he has nothing to be ashamed of.
You should find out the way that the 1976 elections victory was celebrated by the MLP.
@Moderator
AH…ok..NOW I get it! So is anything NOT promised is by definition, part of the mandate! Wow. Now I see why I am not a Nationalist and am not mesmerised by GonziPN. These concepts can only be grasped by Blue flag wavers. We lesser mortals try to struggle with what is logical. But those close to the PN sure are lateral thinkers.
So if, for example, the PN did NOT promise, say, to oblige women to wear a headscarf…it follows that it has, infact PROMISED to do so. And were the headscarf to be introduced here comes Moderator to tell us…well…the PN did NOT promise it WONT introduce a headscarf did it?
But, really, and in this I have to say I admire the PN. Its old roots in the clergy and the legal profession have made it able, or at least try, to argue for what clearly is nonsense.
[Moderator – The PfP is not nonsense. You still need to watch your use of the word mandate. The mandate is the constitutional document that outlines the structure, rights and responsibilities of the state – it has nothing to do with the party’s electoral programme. It would be within the parliament’s mandate to pass any law it pleases (as long as the law itself is not illegal, and then, that is up to the courts to decide). Our government is not authoritarian and we trust it not to draft laws like the one you just mentioned. If it did, it would risk an Alfred-Sant-in-’98 or good old popular revolt.]
I think the omission of the PN’s plans to join PFP from the party’s electoral manifesto and the government’s rush to join PFP as item # 1 on the agenda after being reelected with a relative majority is evidence of deceit. If the issue of PFP is so boring, as Daphe would have us all believe, then it would have been a non-issue to the electorate. The reality is that any plans to join the PFP would have become a major election issue and the PN knowingly failed to disclose this particular plan to the electorate and then pulled a fast one after the election by bypassing Parliament as well. Let’s not split hairs on this one – the deceit is there for all to see. The only other question I have is what other matters are in the offing that were not disclosed to us before the elections because they were “too boring”?
[Moderator – I suggest you read Manufacturing Deceit, by Chopsky and Sherbert. Seriously, it is a non-issue. It was only made into one because of the demagoguery of the Labour Party’s conservative elements, playing into people’s fears about NATO soldiers coming here to grind virgins and babies into pâté for use in McDonald’s hamburgers, to be eaten by conspiratorial Jews at the Pentagon while plotting to establish a New World Order.]
Signor Luca ossia Anglu Bellu
Siccome lei ha dimostrato una certa carenza d’espressione, la regalo questo libro molto utile. Servira’ per fare bella figura..
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/2831562260/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
Albert Farrugia.
Stop. Banging. On. And. On. About. PfP.
Get. A. Life.
@Albert Farrugia
Guido is not my favourite PN stalwart;I have mentioned this fact b4 in this blog – the way he used to start mass meeting speeches with “Nazzjonalisti” for me as a young teen
jarred with EFA’s “Huti Maltin u Ghawdxin”
Having said that I have tried to read his autobio (haven’t yet finished it) and now, I can at least appreciate the background of Guido’s culture.
I have to agree with Me; what PN at that time was striving to do is to highlight to the Italian Democrats who were in power that the Maltese Govt (albeit, as you correctly said, democratically elected in 76) was eroding its democratic credentials by, amongst others, giving the violent elements in the party tyhe upper hand.
@Moderator
I do not intend to hijack this blog on this subject. I can just say that your arguments continue convince me even more, as I stated earlier, that the PN is today just a strategy machine. No political principles, no programme. Everything is subordinate to its strategy to keep power. Next time round electors will know that, however its electoral programme would read, it would mean simply NOTHING! Masks have a habit of falling off relatively quickly!
Unmasking the PN. That is one of the main missions of George Abela.
@Albert Farrugia
I am finding myself more and more in agreement with the gist of your arguments (but not always in the way you potray them). True, PN decided to go forward with PfP membership reactivation (which was not in the manifesto) but not with such things as departure tax.
I think you do appreciate that no govermment can keep all its promises in the first days of its life (some of the promises will also maybe never see the light of day as circumstances change in 5 years). We know that PN has made 350+ promises, and will also implement other things not mentioned in the election document like PfP.
Why has Gonzi went ahead with Pfp so soon after election? Don’t know. Was it something wrong? No!
When will the removal of departure tax, and the changes in car taxes occur? I don’t know, hopefully as soon as possible.
Technical question for all. Does a government have to wait for the Budget to effect changes in taxes, social benefits and such?
@Abbot
Why does Pfp stir up such emotion? This is a real non-issue, if there ever was one. Will anyone stir up a storm in a teacup if the government makes an agreement with, for example Scotland Yard or Interpol for further Police training or intelligence exchange? Or if MITTS employees get sponsorships/attachments with Microsoft or Oracle or Cisco? Was our participation in Frontex ever an issue?
For once, I totally agree with Peppi Azzopardi when in last week’s Illum he wrote an article on Pfp which he admitted himself won’t re-read!
May I remind all that in the last MLP electoral manifesto which they could implement (1996) they promised us the removal of VAT and gave us CET; they promised to curb cost of living increases and gave us mammoth increases in electricity bills.
Now that is deceit of the highest order, nigh not mentioning Pfp!!
U ejja, come on!!!
@Meerkat :)
Ruhi. Qalbi. I. Have. A. Life. Thank. You. Very. Much. But. I. Cant. Stand. People. Who. Try. To. Fool. Me. And. Who. Think. They. Can Fool. All. The. People. All. The. Time.
They. Should. Have. Had. The. Guts. To. Include. Promise. Number. 354. “Indahhlu Malta fil-Partnership for Peace”
Chicken, anyone?
@Albert
Fool.Poeple.All.The.Time?
So, according to your logic, Maltese poeple are the foolest of fools – as they have been fooled 6 out of the 7 last elections!!!
LOL – I think that should read – You.Can’t.Fool.Poeple.All.The.Time.Only.Once.In.1996!!!!
PS: If you don’t mind, don’t ‘Ruhi Qalbi’ Meerkat, ta? I’m very jealous….!!!! :)
@ Albert
Well of course the PN had contact with foreign governments whilst it was in opposition! So what’s your point? If you knew anything about geo-political workings you’d realise that this is quite normal – look for instance at Morgan Tsvangirai appealing on behalf of the MDC. As to your point that Prof de Marco was ‘encouraging’ foreign governments to withhold support from Malta – I think Mintoff had already single-handedly achieved that feat by aligning this country with the likes of Gadaffi and Brezhnev!
I could also go on for pages trying to explain the irony of a Lejber supporter lecturing anyone other than Hitler on the ills of scare-mongering – but your nonsense has given me a headache and I need to fetch an Aspirin.
[Moderator – The MDC also run an office out of London, where they base their international political lobbying and public relations efforts. I’m going to add Kim Il-Sung, Eternal President of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, to the list of Mintoff’s dictator friends.]
Amrio – It’s P E O P L E, not “poeple” :)
Keep up the posts, though!
If any of you are using Firefox, you should really install one of the dictionaries it supports, like the English dictionary. It will check the spelling of your comments automatically.
@Anna – you say:
“I could also go on for pages trying to explain the irony of a Lejber supporter lecturing anyone other than Hitler on the ills of scare-mongering…”.
What does that imply? Are you now comparing the Labour government of the 70s with a Nazi regime? Has the PN scaremongering reached THAT level to have influenced you so much? The PN won government in 1987 crying “National Reconciliation”. Yes. Truly are we reconciled. Being called a Nazi because one is a Labour supporter.
[Moderator – It’s Godwin’s Law: ‘As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.’ More from How to post about Nazis and get away with it – the Godwin’s Law FAQ.]
PFP does not stir up emotion in me, I think we should have stayed in and never left. However it does stir up emotion in a sector of the electorate – for whatever reason. In other words it is not a non-issue in Maltese political terms but a big issue and any decision to reactivate membership should have been disclosed prior to the election. That’s my one and only point. Had the government obtained a Parliamentary vote on the subject its actions would have some legitimacy. By acting in this underhanded manner it has opened itself up to avoidable criticism and squandered goodwill capital that it will need for much tougher fights down the road.
@ Matthew
Don’t be so persnickety Matthew, I am having the time of my life following this written ping-pong between the bloggers. Spelling go hang :-)
Right on, folks!
@Amanda
Sorry, I think I’m mildly dyslexic, and people is one of the words I find hard to type! And normally, I can photographically see misspelled words, but again, not the word people!!
That also explains my nick!
Matthew I dislike Firefox as it (used to) muck up streaming video, and I particularly like watching sites like… well, never mind!
@Moderator
ha ha…good one, Moderator :) Never heard of Godwon’s Law myself!
Yes when the thing goes on and on things escalate, huh? Anyway, it can be quite enjoyable too.
Albert, if you’re incapable of recognising the most obvious of hyperboles you’re clearly on the wrong blog – you might want to check out the following before you leave though…
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=344
@Albert
You know what deceit is, being told that VAT will be removed and yet you spend the best part of your legislation trying to creating CET which not even your ministers understood, besides making a big ‘hofra’ in between. Not to mention the big hype about EU membership. Now we get to know about the plan to unfreeze it. You really need to get a life Albert. MLP lost yet again for the third time plus a referendum…..bear with it. Help out for a good choice of new MLP leader, maybe there won’t be another mistake.
@ Albert Farrugia
I see that you already got a life calling me Ruhi Qalbi.
And amrio, ruhi, qalbi…toqghodx tinkwieta :-)
Who is Albert Farrugia?
@ Corinne Vella
Are you echoing that book someone wrote
Min Hu whotsit Costa?
An interesting point has been raised. In lieu of the Nazis, which obviously would be too extreme a comparison to make, which totalitarian/pseudodemocrat state/party/leader should we be associating Mintoff’s MLP with?
Where has someone started off by getting elected to power and slowly started to erode civil liberties by gradually modifying a country’s laws, using intimidation, violence and propaganda to slide slowly towards (police)statehood?
Let me see now. Robert Mugabe? Hugo Chavez? Vladimir Putin? Was Mintoff ahead of his time? Why can I only think of comtemporary examples? Suggestions anyone?
@ amrio
re your post to Amanda about the disadvantages of Firefox
so you like watching these clips?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_eVEW_Y02o
how sweet!
Corinne – “Who is Albert Farrugia?” – Gerald in disguise, maybe?
Amrio – Apologies, but as you could see, I was just joking, because I’ve made a hell of a lot of mistakes myself
I reckon Chavez is spot on – the Mugabe analogy may be a little extreme (we don’t want Albert to start stamping his little feet again). Indira Gandhi was a bit of a tyrant (and had a nose, incidentally, scarily similar to Mintoff’s – maybe we should commission a study to measure the correlation between troll-like features and one’s affinity with despotism).
I understand that GA took part in the EU discussions and has said that he can`t understand why Sant refused to do so.
After all, even if Sant was against EU it was still in Malta`s interest to get the best possible deal.
What I don`t understand is why GA never mentioned throughout his 10 year absence from the MLP that they were planning to open up discussions with PN for convergence on unfreezing (is that a word) Malta`s application.
Even more I don`t understand how all those involved in these plans suddenly abandoned the plans and went all out against EU again in 1998 elections.
[Moderator – No, but thaw is.]
@ Mark
Careful, there, Mark! GBO’s schnozzle was quite prominent. I would not classify him with the likes of Mugabe, Mintoff or Chavez!!!
Min hu Evelyn Costa?
@Marika
GA said that he had been silent because he did not want to harm the party and did not want to take any action while Alfred Sant was leader out of a sense of loyalty.
@ Albert Farrugia:
“Your comments are clearly sincere. However, we are grown-ups, and not all well-wishers are sincere. “Tbus l-id li tixtieqha maqtugha” is a well-known proverb.”
They are, yet yes, I have heard the adage.
“Were George Abela to be elected Leader, you can rest assured that the blazing PN guns would fire round after round of character assasiniation.”
Well, we cannot expect the two parties to do anything but, but floaters and mature voters usually see through such attempts at sullying the names of others, especially when it is not genuine. You understimate the intelligence of voters.
“And they might, even next time round, convince you to go “rushing” to vote and “desperately” marking on the blue boxes. Scare-mongering is another PN forte. I am sorry it worked wonders also with you. “Rushing”? “Desperate”? Voting took place from 7 am till 11 pm. Surely no-one needed to rush! “DEsperate”? Is the PN in office so weak that it leaves people feeling desperate, for whatever reason? Just look at things in a better perspective, dear Moggy, and you realise by yourself that your automatic use of these two words betray nothing else than, I am sorry to say, scaremongering at best, brainwashing at worst.”
No brain-washing, I can assure you, and the only scary thing to watch during the whole campaign was how the MLP leader and some of the candidates were behaving, and what they were saying. Again, don’t underestimate my intelligence. I don’t need anyone to dictate to me how to vote, and why. I make up my own mind based on what I see and hear, and also on what I remember – and my memories of Alfred Sant in Government (2006 – 2008) are not very rosy at all.
That is why I ran all the way to the polling booth on 8th March to vote Labour out.
What people like Albert Farrugia genionely fail to understabd is that there were those who voted PN so that the the MLP under Sant won’t get in. These are certainly not the diehard PN supporters and are the kind of voters that the new MLP leader should try to attract. They won’t be attracted if the MLP use the same approach of the past, a negative agressive and militant one. But they will be attracted by a moderate leader who shows that he/she is a seriour balanced person and who is willing to put the country’s interests before those of the party. The best way he/she can demonstrate that is by being an opposition that does its duty without saying “no” to all government proposals, by ditching all “them and us” refernces, and by showing it has serious well-though out alternative plans of how to run the country.
Moggy – You said “I make up my own mind based on what I see and hear, and also on what I remember – and my memories of Alfred Sant in Government (2006 – 2008) are not very rosy at all.”
Many of us could go further back than that, which is why we (almost) “ran all the way to the polling booth on 8th March to vote Labour out”!
I will vote Labour out for as long as I am able to vote, because their mentality and outlook is not one I can associate with, and their past is not one that will be forgotten, especially with some of the old faces of my youth still very much present in the MLP machine.
Rest assured, Albert Farrugia, that there are many others like me, many others of the same generation, who were brought up predominantly under a Labour government, for whom violence, police beatings, use of tear gas at peaceful demonstrations and the like, intimidation, wrongful arrests, deprivation from certain commodities (yes, even good toothpaste!), temporary closure of our schools, etc, etc were taken to be the norm.
Rest assured, Albert Farrugia, that yes, there are many others like me who almost fly into a panic at the mere sight of a crowd of people waving MLP flags.
No, Albert Farrugia, it is not brainwashing that makes me and many others like me – including many people of my generation – rush to vote MLP out each election.
Ah, ok. So its no more George Abela “the only one who can win a majority for the MLP” anymore. Which is good so. I was hating this “advice” being given. Now I can feel more at ease giving my support to him.
And, of course, it is everyone’s prerogative to live in the past. I suppose there are some who won’t go to Germany as they dropped bombs on our heads, once. It’s the past, you know. And some wont watch Italian TV as the too were the enemy. Yes. Everyone has a right to make his clock stand still.
Yes, national reconciliation. Another promise in a long forgotten electoral programme. But anyway, what’s an electoral programme?
You may have many talents, Daphne, but political vision on a global scale is something you clearly lack.
Neutrality? A thing of the past. Our dear old Edward himself had told us so after reading Fukuyama’s “The End of History” and swallowing it hook, line, sinker, boat and angler – even after Fukuyama himself admitted he had messed up. The West has won! No more wars forever!
As they say, go tell it to the marines…
[Moderator – Fukuyama didn’t ‘admit he messed up’. All he said was that when writing his thesis – the globalisation of liberal democracy signals the end of the ideological evolution of human government – he did not account for the effect that late 20th century and 21st century technology would have on human evolution. And ‘The End of History’ does not mean ‘the end of events’, or as you say, ‘No more wars forever!’ It means the end of radical evolution in human government. Globally, we will only see incremental change, as more and more states complete the transition from authoritarian rule to liberal democracy.]
@Amanda
In this blog I have reputation as a PN diehard (what a horrid word!) but… I would never say never.
To be frank, I don’t see myself voting Labour under any of the prospective leaders mentioned currently. But maybe someday I would change my mind and be faced with a Labour party that I can feel enough confidence in to vote.
So unless you already have the KartaAnzjan in your pocket, never say never.
Now that Vu Cumpra’ Cassola has been denied a prime preening spot in the Italian Govt he can always consider running for election in any one of these countries… I am attaching this link biex jara fejn jaqbillu l-iktar.
(NB: Aghzel liema trid basta toqghod ‘il hemm…fil-kas hu lil AS u lil Harry Vat Forms mieghek… u lil Jaysin u lil Charlon u lil _____________ (everyone fill in his or her favourite candidate to send packing…)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7341476.stm
Albert Farrugia,
The main difference between the Germany and Italy’s past is that both Germany and Italy have asked forgiveness and made reparations for their shameful past. The MLP have not.
And we are talking about a party that had no qualms about closing schools, attacking and beating up people even using the police! We had people murdered too remember? Why should we put it behind us when MLP will not even acknowledge it, let alone apologize.
Amrio – So I take it that if there is an MLP leader you feel comfortable with, then you would be ready to risk history repeating itself, right? And you would be ready to forget, despite some of the “old” faces being still there, and despite no apology for the past being given, right?
Each to his own, Amrio! (And mind you fall off that fence!)
Meerkat :) – I think you’re putting posts under the wrong comments, again!
Albert Farrugia – Comparisons are odious; comparisons of the MLP to war-time Italy and Germany are moreso.
And another thing – Just because I may have criticized JM, EB, MLCP, AF or whoever, does not necessarily mean that I would accept GA as a possible future prime minister, especially not with the same old faces backing him.
David,
all that is being written and said regarding the past is a very clear indication that no such thing as “national reconciliation” (promised in 1987) has as yet happened in Malta. Though, thankfully, it is not really apparent in our day to day lives, it comes to sparkling life during elections and in political discussions. Yes, there were difficult moments in Malta’s past. Maltese politicians of the generation before this one were those whose main task was that of emancipating the Maltese population in the face of colonialism. Sometimes their methods were harsh, and ruthless. Sometimes they had to foster “unholy” alliances. And sometimes they looked at their Maltese political opponents and saw them as even worse enemies than the colonial masters. Yes, there were difficult moments. People were hurt. Some physically. Many psychologically. Many were made to feel outcasts, as if they were foreigners in their own land. Traditionally, the MLP always fought its battles alone, apart from the help of the General Workers Union.
Anyway these are just rough thoughts on a very vast subject. But my point would be that this country needs national reconciliation as a man in the desert needs water. We need to get to terms with the past.
Yes, indeed, Moderator, it seems Fukuyama didn’t account for many happenings which he couldn’t foresee, poor soul.
But what caught my eye was this piece:
“Globally, we will only see incremental change, as more and more states complete the transition from authoritarian rule to liberal democracy,”
I could write a whole essay, but let me just say that, 1. incremental change has always been interspersed with cataclysmic change; and 2. the transition I’ve seen for at least the past two decades is that of the West becoming less (“liberal”) democratic and more authoritarian (and totalitarian and tyrannical). But then we hardly inhabit the same globe, so there you are – two planets, two histories.
As to “liberal democracy”, forget it – it has always been a joke. What liberal democracy is based entirely on taxation, central economic planning and a nanny-state philosophy? No wonder to so many ‘liberal’ has come to mean opportunistic centrism.
But perhaps you’re taking the Emy Benzina viewpoint, which characterizes “liberal” as being opposed to morality in Katlikk Molta (apart from the supposed “civil libertarianism” aspect, which is not essentially a Liberal preoccupation – not these days, anyway).
There is then the American usage of ‘Liberal’- which can only be described in contrasting terms relative to GOP conservative/libertarian definitions… Hillary says she prefers the term “progressive”, by the way (how cliche!) – which I guess makes her a progressive neo-con (how sweet!).
[Moderator – Like it or not, we have yet to see a decent answer to Fukuyama’s thesis.]
@Amanda
Let me (maybe) make it clearer. The thought I have expressed in various comments in this blog is this:
I will NOT vote Labour with any one of these new canditates as leader, nor will I do so until every old-timer from those black days we have mentioned as nauseam has gone into REAL political retirement.
But hey, I’m still young, and who knows, maybe someday we will have a Labour party whose views and aspirations are best for our country.
At that point, why not vote Labour? Never say never!
@Albert Farrugia
Don’t give me this rubbish about psychological pain. The MLP in the 70’s and 80’s was trying to create a hard-line socialist police state.
Every day we would open the papers to read of a new episode of violence. (including said paper being razed to the ground) of a new episode of institutionalised intimidation. Of a another episode of human rights being withheld, of private enterprise being stifled or forced out of business. Of our freedom of speech being curtailed. Of our legal avenues of redress being blocked. Of our sources of independent education being slowly stifled and subsequently an all out battle to have them closed.
There is no equivalent of any kind in our history. There is only one villain in the story and it’s the MLP. And the main villain in it all is Dom Mintoff. And in no way can you equate Mintoff picking a useless fight with the church and losing it with his hnizrijiet of the 70’s and 80’s.
National Reconciliation does not equate with rewriting history, as you and others are trying to do. For a start it should include an admission of blame and an abject apology.
Reconciliation is not a one-way street. And its not run-of-the-mill labour supporters who need to apologise, they were used and misled, victims like (but not quite exactly like) the rest of us, it’s the party that needs to apologise.
And simply making unofficial remarks about how we all suffered and we condemn the violence is no good, if anything its more frustrating because we are being taken the mickey out of.
And for your information the full translation of the phrase national reconciliation is:
“We really think that we should jail a quarter of the police force and fire another half, charge a few ministers with inciting violence and fostering an atmosphere of corruption in every little aspect of our lives and throw them in jail, round up their thugs and throw them in jail too, and ban a huge chunk of the MLP’s officials from ever involving themselves in politics again. Problem is, the very same people we want to do this to have filled the police force with a mixture of their hard-line supporters, thugs and criminals. They have also surrounded themselves with a another bunch of armed thugs and criminals. So if we try and do anything we’ll have an armed revolution on our hands and jeopardise the fragile democracy we are trying to rebuild after the MLP came so close to destroying it. So if from now on they more or less behave, we’ll sit back and do nothing and call it National Reconciliation, and in the meantime they’ll kind of fade into obscurity and we’ll get on with getting the country out of the disaster they reduced it to.”
National reconciliation does not mean forgetting all the above, and whilst we don’t hold it against individual labour supporters we’re still waiting for that admission and that apology. We’re not convinced we’re going to get it, but for as long as we continue to draw breath we’re going to be reminding people of the need for it. Got it?
Albert,
To come to terms with the past it has to be acknowledged. MLP has not done so yet. Rather you hear some labour exponents boast about labour’s past with some even calling it glorious.
I’m glad you consider murder and mayhem “difficult moments”.
The ball is in labour’s court if we are to reconcile.
@ Amanda Mallia
Oops Sorrrrrry
amrio gave me this copy
I will put comments under right entries
I will put comments under right entries
I will put comments under right entries….
@Albert Farrugia
Are you saying that the end justifies the means? Are you saying that the excesses of our colonial masters justify the excesses of mintoff and his gang? I understand that “national reconciliation” requires all sides to be ready to forgive and forget. For one I did not see any witch hunts against Labour wrongoers after 1987, and when Lorry Sant was taken took court we all remember what happened. From the Labour side I have never heard anyone (till now) come out and say “we were wrong”.
I for one accept that during the Mintoff years important reforms were made, but my gripe is the way that these were made and the high price we had to pay in terms of confrontation, hatred and violence. Surely there was a better way to do it.
Emotions run deep and people like myself who lived through those years (especially the 81-87 period) won’t easily forget and are scared that a future MLP government may adopt these same policies. You seem to imply that GA will be that type of leader. If you are correct then there is really no hope for the MLP.
@ Amanda: Yes, I know where you’re coming from, and I was there too. I understand the panic. Just before the elections, I acually had a panic attack just driving into Floriana. I looked at Portes de Bombes, and I got these flash-backs of driving in the same direction to extract my father from Valletta, on the day the creme de la creme of Labour Supporters ravaged the Law Courts and the Curia. On that day, as I was driving towards Portes de Bombes, huge trucks were driving in the opposite direction after all the damage had been done, with the people they were carrying slamming huge chains and other enormous tools against the sides of the trucks, making a terrible din. That din, and what I saw, frightened me – and I hadn’t known how much it had until last March!
So yes, apart from Alfred Sant’s stint as PM (1996 – 1998, sorry – wrong dates on first post), there are still memories of the violence, the fear we lived in for so long. Suffice it to say that I was also one of the students who got away by the breath of a hair when Labour thugs came up to University to beat the living daylights out of us a few days later.
No wonder we ran to the polling booths, and no wonder we have always done so since 1982 (first time I voted). And no, brain-washing had nothing to do with it. Anyone with the memory of a gnat would do the same after seeing and hearing such things and feeling such fear.
However, nothwithstanding all this, if the right Labour leader ever materialises, and I am convinced enough of him, I do not think that it would be totally impossible for me to vote Labour. The old faces are still there, but they’re slowly changing and slipping away, and the tendency to violence seems to have been curbed. I hope I am not being too optimistic, having said that.
Since 1987 I have learnt that no party is perfect, and that at times, they say one thing and do the other, or criticise one thing and do exactly the same years later. The Nationalists have been a disappointment in some ways.
Of course it depends on many factors, but a good Labour leader will help, even if only to make any future transition (and it will happen one day) a smoother one for all of us, and one in which we will have as little to fear as possible.
Adrian Borg: Emotions run deep and people like myself who lived through those years (especially the 81-87 period) won’t easily forget and are scared that a future MLP government may adopt these same policies. You seem to imply that GA will be that type of leader. If you are correct then there is really no hope for the MLP.
I sincerely hope that GA will not be, as you put it, that type of leader. No, I refuse to believe it. I don’t think that Labour wants to go there again.
@Moggy
I wouldn’t like to believe it either but he did pass a worrying comment about welcoming Mintoff back.
Sorry I know has nothing to do with the subject discussed here, but I was shocked this morning, Silvio Parnis @ the independent
I will skip independent every Wednesday for sure…Tal biza…..
[Moderator – Here’s the article, complete with mouth-breather photo: Attracting the younger generation]
@Moggy
You said – “No wonder we ran to the polling booths, and no wonder we have always done so since 1982 (first time I voted). And no, brain-washing had nothing to do with it. Anyone with the memory of a gnat would do the same after seeing and hearing such things and feeling such fear.”
So you have ran to the polling booths even in the 2008 election? I’m sorry to say this – I am being totally unpolitical and in no way ironic, but I seriously think that you need some form of phsychiatric help. I mean even the hutus and tutsis in Rwanda are managing to live together after the butchery and death of 1994 and due to your plight (which was is no way comparable to that in Rwanda or Bosnia) you are still mentally scarred till this day?
Have a chat with any reputable phsychiatrist and he will tell you the same thing…
[Moderator – A chat with a physchiatrist would be difficult, and one with a psychiatrist would be pointless because I don’t think Moggy is mentally ill. It’s not a question of one tribe reconciling with another, it’s one of preventing the enablers of violence and authoritarianism from governing.]
Albert Farrugia: why are you defensive about the MLP in the 70s & 80s? No one who criticises those times wants to ever face the same circumstances ever again. Do you?
@ David
The Hutus and the Tutsis have still not resolved their differences, which is why a little something called the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was set up (given the ignorance you displayed in your last post, I’m assuming you may want to look this up…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_Rwanda).
The fact that labour supporters such as yourself dismiss people’s memories of the Mintoff years as nothing more than fits of hysteria is testament to the fact that you and your ilk still have a long way to go before you can ever be taken seriously.
@ kenneth spiteri
re Silvio ‘Rose Rosse per te’ Parnis
Mela qata’ qalbu mill-anzjani u ha jdur fuq iz-zghazagh?
Can someone tell Silvio Parnis that keeping his mouth open is not a good look. He always has this startling expression in every photo. Ah but then keeping his mouth shut has never been his forte…and why should he, pray, he is so entertaining…
hey Kenneth Spiteri,
I read that bunch of words put together by Silvio Casanova too. I think even a 10-year old ordered to write an essay on why labour lost the elections would have been more interesting and objective…How the heck do people really believe that politicians like our dear Silvio can be trusted to take reasonable decisions??
After reading those words I was curious to see Silvio’s education and work experiences, so I googled his name and found his amazing site, then clicked on ‘profil.’ Oh dear, what a joke, luckily it is in Maltese, I say no more.
Have a look everyone – http://www.silvioparnis.com/
P.S. Moderator, seriously, you can not call that an article.
@Mark
Why don’t the Nationalists take Dom Mintoff in front of the International Tribunal if the crimes committed under his rule are so hideous?
Just a straight answer please – try not to display too much of your arrogance, I’ve just eaten.
When a ‘saviour’ is called a traitor by his own successor and the listeners applaud……can there a better judgement ?
Those who rubbished history have always ended up in the rubbish dump of history.
@ David
I believe it was you who brought up the obscure Rwanda analogy. But to answer your question: Mintoff’s policies consisted of state-sponsored intimidation, economic mismanagement, political alignment with rogue states and the suppression of civil liberties – not war crimes. Most people would therefore understand the average voter’s reticence to vote for a party whose recent past encompassed all of the above, even if its actions stopped short of hacking people to death.
Now was that answer straight-forward enough for you? Or are you still struggling to keep up?
@David Zammit
Hope this answer will be straight enough.
Because,
1) Mintoff was very wise not to get directly involved in the ‘hnizrijiet’ that took place.
2) Most of the crimes committed by Labour fell under prescription by the time the Police took action.
3) PN was idiotic enough to pursue national reconciliation by not actively seeking justice against MLP and Police officials (except Pullicino, who became the only scapegoat.
@Mark
No Mark you seem to be the one with the reading problems and keeping up – that wasn’t what I asked you. Read the following question again and answer what I asked:
Why don’t the Nationalists take Dom Mintoff in front of the International Tribunal if the crimes committed under his rule are so hideous?
[Moderator – You are being deliberately obtuse, and your comparison with the events in Rwanda is clumsy. International tribunals are normally case-specific, like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. They are normally set up by the United Nations in cases of war crimes, genocide, crime against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Conventions. Now, Mintoff is not suspected of being guilty of any of the former, but in a certain sense he did enable a situation were inhumane acts were perpetrated without hindrance – though not systematic and widespread enough to meet the UN definition of crime against humanity.]
@Mark
So for you 48% of the voters are below average?
@ amrio
I mentioned the International Crimes Tribunal – I believe Nazi criminals are still taken to court up to this day and age. So why has the PN never taken anyone from MLP to such a court?
[Moderator – Because, as far as I know, no government official in Malta’s history has ever been suspected of genocide, breaching the Geneva Conventions and committing war crimes. Some people from the MLP are suspected of enabling the perpetration of inhumane acts – but not on a widespread enough scale to constitute crime against humanity. Please refer to my previous comment.]
Well said, MikeC and Corinne.
Amrio – As I have already said, each to his own – it takes all sorts.
@David Zammit,
How, but how can you possibly defend Mintoff and KMB?
Straight answer please?
By the way, do you even remember those times or weren’t you born yet?
Moggy – You said ” …driving … to extract my father from Valletta, on the day the creme de la creme of Labour Supporters ravaged the Law Courts and the Curia. …driving towards Portes de Bombes, huge trucks were driving in the opposite direction after all the damage had been done, with the people they were carrying slamming huge chains and other enormous tools against the sides of the trucks, making a terrible din. That din, and what I saw, frightened me – and I hadn’t known how much it had until last March!”
I know exactly what you mean. On that day in September 1984, when I was just 17 years old (and working for my 10 points), I was barricaded in an office in Sta Lucia Street, Valletta, directly above the then Bugelli bookshop, behind the Law Courts, along with my sister Corinne and a few other petrified colleagues – at least 2 or 3 of whom were, and still are, MLP supporters.
The sight of KMB handing out roses and signing autographs for adoring fans whilst on one of those enormous trucks, on whom there where the most awful men banging heavy chains and tools, just as you said, will never leave me for as long as I live. Can you imagine? – They were “fresh” from the Law Courts’ rampage, and were – I believe – getting themselves worked up on their way to the Curia. Even reading your post gave me the shivers because of flashbacks.
I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. It is just one of many MLP atrocities I have experienced first-hand, so no, unlike you and Amrio before you I could never ever consider voting for the MLP. I will also make d**n well sure – for as long as I can – that history is not forgotten.
Yes Amrio and Moggy – It does take all sorts.
Quote from Silvio Parnis’s Independent article today: “I have had worrying reports from various people where traditional Labourite families couldn’t convince their children to vote Labour, not because their children had any obligation to do so, but because even though their children knew we needed a change, the Labour Party was not convincing enough.”
I don’t consider the fact that they (the Labourite children)think with their brain (as opposed to with their nether region) worrying at all … It is actually quite refreshing.
[Moderator – I noticed that too. It’s almost as though he’s encouraging brainwashing as a systematic process for producing Labour voters.]
@David Zammit
“So for you 48% of the voters are below average?”
Considering that about that many voters wanted to continue with the same in 1987 the answer is a definite YES.
Please, be honest with yourself, can you really compare today’s freedom and comfort of living with pre 1987?
Ofcourse not.
David Buttigieg – Your namesake might have lived a sheltered life in the ’70s and ’80s. (Sheltered and protected from any atrocities, I mean.) Maybe he was even banned from even reading a newspaper, unless it was the party one. It was either that, or – as you imply – he was too young to have been aware of such happenings.
David Buttigieg – Though not many labourites would like to admit it, they too have fared well under the nationalist governments. As you said, they have gained freedom (of speech, at the very least) and a host of other things.
@moderator
Okay – if you read all the thread I was just asking Mark the reason why such ‘hideous’ crimes were never punished…
I thank you for your straight and clear answer unlike the poor replies given by amrio and Mark. I tend to agree with what you have stated.
@David Buttigieg
Please quote for us where exactly I defended Mintoff or KMB.
straight answer please…
[Moderator – I have read and moderated all 6,500 comments before this one.]
@ David
This is getting tedious. I’ll try explaining this to you again, in (even) simpler terms.
At no point did I suggest that Mintoff’s ‘crimes’ (your word, not mine) were hideous enough to warrant bringing him before an international tribunal. The reason for this, as I’ve already explained, is that his actions, while hideous in their own right, did not amount to war crimes. And I’ll remind you (again) that it was you who brought up the ridiculous analogy with Rwanda.
That having been said, his actions certainly warrant the mistrust and general distaste that the majority (yes the majority, David, even if by 1,500 votes – or do you now also need lessons in arithmetic?) of the Maltese electorate showed for the MLP on the 8th of March.
Now would you like me to draw you a picture to help you understand?
@moderator
My comparison with Rwanda was deliberately clumsy to compare the excess of the statement written by Moggy who claims that in each election he runs home after having voted!
Recently on ‘News Hour’ program on the BBC a journalist went around Rwanda investigating how Hutus and Tutsis live together today. It was evident from the program that despite the harsh realities of that genocide nowadays both tribes live and work together as well as can be expected.
On reading some of the posts in this blog one gets the impression that many writers have not and will not get over the events of 20 or 30 years ago…
[Moderator – I think Moggy said that he ran to the voting booth, not from it. I get the idea behind the comparison, but forgiveness and reconciliation are very personal matters – you can’t expect people to adhere to some sort of emotional deadline.]
@David Zammit
So you content yourself with the fact that Mintoff was never tried in an international tribunal for genocides and / or war crimes… oh well… some people content themselves with small things.
I will never content myself with the fact that almost no-one was brought to justice for the hnizrijiet that occurred under Labour in the 70’s and 80’s. And I hold the PN admin of the late 80’s politically responsible for this.
Amanda and Moggy and all others… having felt the brunt of the MLP angels in your childhood (like I did) what do you feel regarding this?
@David Zammit
Some things are difficult to get over.
When I was very young (about 3 or 4) I was playing with a cat and got scratched in my eye (my mum says I was lucky I was not blinded). Up till this very day, me and cats do not get on very well.
If Moggy lived in places like Zejtun when he was a kid, he must surely have the sight of MLP thugs beating up PN supporters and tearing their voting documents at the polling booth. Such terrifying experiences (as my encounter with the cat) are very difficult to remove from one’s consciousness.
@amrio
Guess who gave 30 minutes of his time in Parliamet to Mintoff once…
@Albert Farrugia
?? I know who. And I also know why – to solve the impasse in the electoral reform talks. So? What are you implying?
What Labour supporters fail to appreciate is that nobody from the MLP camp ever came out and admitted that what they did in the 70s and 80s was wrong and they always try to justify the hatred and the violence by referring to the social reforms of the time. This is why we fidn it hard to ever trust them because we can see that they are not honest and truthful for as long as they keep defending the past.
@amrio
What I am implying? Unless you are a small boy, you know exactly what I am implying. And so do other readers. Apart from the fact that that was not to solve any electoral reform talks. That happened during the Opposition’s reply to the Budget for 1998. The then Leader of the Opposition “sacrificed” 30 minutes of his time to give Mintoff a voice. The smell of power is enticing, right? Even if it means going to the aid of someone whose “…policies consisted of state-sponsored intimidation, economic mismanagement, political alignment with rogue states and the suppression of civil liberties” (Mark – a few posts above)
@Albert Farrugia
I was referring to another similar incident that occurred in ’86 or ’87, where the Deputy Leader of the Opposition gave 30 minutes to Mintoff to speak his mind. This was done in return to an agreement on the electoral reforms that forbade the ‘perverse’ electoral result of ’82.
As to the incident you mentioned, I don’t have the exact details, so I won’t speak authoritivly. But if memory serves me right, I don’t think it was that Mintoff speech that made MLP lose the ’98 election. Was it not some hard-headed pseudo-politician who decided to call an early election?
@amrio
Yes, hard-headed enough who was not afraid to stand up to the one who had carried out “…policies (which) consisted of state-sponsored intimidation, economic mismanagement, political alignment with rogue states and the suppression of civil liberties”.
While the ones on the opposite side rushed to his defence. And this hard-headed pseudo-politician was so hard-headed that on taking up office DISMISSED police officers who were connected to certain shameful incidents in 70s/80s. After these same officers continued doing the same jobs, if not even getting a promotion, during the 87-96 PN administration.
The truth will surface again, someday.
@Albert Farrugia
What’s the big deal about EFA giving up time to Mintoff. Mintoff was right to criticise Sant’s budget and after all it was saying the same things that the PN had said. What did you expect the PN to do when they saw the chance that Sant could lose the vote on the budget? Vote in favour? Sant could have compromise with Mintoff and not go for an early election after all, it wasn’t the PN that brought his government down.
@Francis V
The PN voting in favour? Of course not. I would not expect the PN to be a loyal constructive opposition. The “ejjew nahdmu flimkien” slogan is a more recent addition to our political vocabulary, which is only address to the MLP in opposition. So yes you are totally right. If the opportunity means siding with someone whose “…policies consisted of state-sponsored intimidation, economic mismanagement, political alignment with rogue states and the suppression of civil liberties”, so be it. And, of course, the hard-headed man who dismisses police officers for alleged wrong-doings so long ago as the 70s and 80s needs to be shown that that is not the way to do things. Right?
@Albert Farrugia
You said: “And this hard-headed pseudo-politician was so hard-headed that on taking up office DISMISSED police officers who were connected to certain shameful incidents in 70s/80s. After these same officers continued doing the same jobs, if not even getting a promotion, during the 87-96 PN administration.”
I have to agree with you once again. See my comment above http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/?p=345#comment-6627
@amrio
Well, what can I say? That is why I consider so unjust the demonisation, vilification and ridicule to which Alfred Sant has been subjected to in all the years he was leading the MLP. If the PN really believed in national reconciliation, as they had promised in 1987, they would have clearly signalled their support for Sant as he was weeding out the negative elements in the MLP, the police and other entities. This effort would include, yes, the censure and punishment of those involved. Which censure and punishment would have come from BOTH sides of the political divide. Then we could move on as a country. But, as I am sure you and many others will realise, that it is in the PNs interest to prevent such a reconciliation from occuring in this country. And so the PN was horrified at Sant’s successful actions in this sector. Thus the demonisation campaign.
@Albert Farrugia
And, of course, the hard-headed man who dismisses police officers for alleged wrong-doings so long ago as the 70s and 80s needs to be shown that that is not the way to do things. Right?
Do you remember who was president of the MLP during the reign of the man whose policies consisted of state-sponsored intimidation, economic mismanagement, political alignment with rogue states and the suppression of civil liberties, that by the way are a historical fact?
@David Buttigieg
Do you remember who said “iggudikawni b’dak li naghmel?”
David Buttigieg – Apart from AS being MLP president in the ’80s, let us not forget that:
MLCP was very much part of the MLP, and had been for several years beforehand
EB was too, and was (and probably still is) pretty pally with AS
AF was a prominent member of the police force (and we all know what that meant)
How can any of them be trusted with the future of our country in their hands?
(And for any smart-Alecs out there: the fact that I have not mentioned GA, MF and JM does not in any way mean that I would approve of them being possible future prime ministers.)
Amrio – You said “Up till this very day, me and cats do not get on very well.”
I know exactly what you mean. Seeing a bottle of Optrex always reminds me of when a large brown glass one was thrown directly at my sisters and I (aged between roughly 5 – 11 years, in the ’70s) through a closed balcony window at my grandparents’ home behind Castille.
The person leading the gang of rioters was none other than F**ellu. (My late grandmother luckily suffered “only” a slight cut to her head, and out of four of us children, luckily only my eldest sister and I were injured. I’ve still got the scar on my left foot, lest I ever forget the incident.)
The sound of the glass shattering – like an explosion – cannot be forgotten. Neither can the look on my grandmother’s face while tending to her bleeding forehead.
So you see, Amrio, Optrex and I do not go very well together, a bit like you and cats!
David Zammit, a little less drama is in order. What’s all this rubbish about comparing Malta to Rwanda? Good governments make mistakes. Bad governments ARE a mistake. Many of the people in Malta today experienced both. Many of the people in those bad governments want to be in government again. It demeans Rwanda to hold it up as an example for Malta to follow. It is absurd to suggest that anyone in Malta who remembers the 1970s and 1980s can be immune to seeing the same people in goverment again.
Albert Farrugia – “@David Buttigieg
Do you remember who said “iggudikawni b’dak l-naghmel”
Let’s not start tit-for-tatting, shall we? There is no way that you could ever compare Gonzi/his government/previous PN administrations (including any minor failures) to the Labour governments of the past. Any attempts at doing so will not be swallowed by the people who remember events (MLP atrocities, I mean) as clearly as if they happened yesterday.
Albert Farrugia – If AS subsequently felt the necessity to weed out the negative elements “from the MLP, the police and other entities” why did he consider it fit to remain president of the same party at the height of all their “wrong-doings” (to put it mildly)? Just wondering …
Albert Farrugia – Incidentally, AS repetitively said, of late, that he has “no regrets”. Or have you forgotten that too?
@Amanda,
Of course, I forgot the “no regrets” statements. AS ignored the will of the people in the referendum – how much more anti democratic can one get – but he has no regrets.
We now know the mlp had agreed that the EU was a good thing in 1997 but still tried to keep us out, all out of pique. But AS has no regrets.
@Albert Farrugia – Gonzi said “iggudikawni b’dak l-naghmel” – well then he passes with flying colour! To any objective individual at least.
I don’t expect any of you here to sympatise for any of the labour contestants keeping in mind your strong beliefs. I too understand that the people who suffered from “labour atrocities” as you call them during the 70s and the 80s are still hurt and will never forget what happened. But let us remain focused on today. If anyone followed “Dissett” MLC made it clear that the party never sent people to harm others. Knowing her personally makes me believe her! Let us not forget that during the mentioned times even labour party building were attacked so do you really believe that the labour party sent people to destroy their buildings????? MLC also said something that made me think: she is still waiting for justice for Karen Grech and Raymond Caruana. Youths who were killed because of politics. If I remember well, some time ago Dr. Fenech Adami had said that he knew who killed these two people so why hasn’t anyone been prosecuted????
[Moderator – There’s no doubt that you believe Marie Louise Coleiro Preca – she probably believes what she’s saying herself. Either that or it’s sophistry on her part: the Labour Party may never have officially ordered people to wreak havoc, but they certainly allowed and encouraged them to do so without hindrance, and then used all the powers of the state to foist injustice upon the victims.]
Anyone knows what Daphne is up to? I haven’t seen any comments from her for ages.
booths, and no wonder we have always done so since 1982 (first time I voted). And no, brain-washing had nothing to do with it. Anyone with the memory of a gnat would do the same after seeing and hearing such things and feeling such fear.”
So you have ran to the polling booths even in the 2008 election? I’m sorry to say this – I am being totally unpolitical and in no way ironic, but I seriously think that you need some form of phsychiatric help. I mean even the hutus and tutsis in Rwanda are managing to live together after the butchery and death of 1994 and due to your plight (which was is no way comparable to that in Rwanda or Bosnia) you are still mentally scarred till this day?
Have a chat with any reputable phsychiatrist and he will tell you the same thing…
@ David Zammit:
So you think I need a chat with a psychiatrist, eh? Well, I can safely assure you that I do not. I am not mentally scarred, but the memories persist, and they’re there even more before elections. If you were in the same position as we were, instead of being safely ensconced in the knowledge that the hooligans that destroyed the Law Courts and the Curia on that day were on your side, and that you would come to no harm, then you would not forget as easily as you do. Take it from me.
David Zammit: “My comparison with Rwanda was deliberately clumsy to compare the excess of the statement written by Moggy who claims that in each election he runs home after having voted!”
The statemnt “ran to (not from) the polling booth” was used to convey the anxiety with which many of those who have experienced the 70s/80s courtesy of Mintoff and KMB, as well as the 1996/ 98 debacle courtesy of AS, strive to vote Labour out at every election.
If Labour does not try to recognise and understand these anxieties, and does not try to make amends, and if the general sentiment is that people who have been through certain things should talk to a psychiatrist instead of the perpetrators doing their part, then what hope is there that things will change?
@ Mary Agius:
Who was it who said that the people who ransacked the Law Courts and Curio were the creme de la creme (I think the actual word was “aristocracy”) of the Maltese workers?
@Mary Agius
I do not think ML Coleiro Preca personally ordered the violence by the labour thugs and savages, but she was a member (secretary general no less) of the party in government that WAS responsible for those acts (And sant was president!).
Also, (I stand to be corrected on this as I was hardly born) didn’t a ceretain someone justify the burning of the times by labour thugs as it’s own fault due to their provocation and criticism of the government?
moggy i never mentioned law courts and curia. let us all agree that we will never reach an agreement on all this stuff as people see it from different perspectives.
moderator since you commented on what i said i think you did not read my last comment since you seem to have discarded it completely.
Mary Agius – Read my comment about 5 or 6 above yours. The Labour thug who threw that Optrex bottle directly (and purposely) at my sisters and I when we were young children was none other that the same thug who was, several years later, kept artificially alive whlle a stream of people such as Mintoff, Lorry Sant, etc visited him at St Luke’s. I can still clearly picture him on his death bed – It was broadcast on the Xandir Malta news (in typical bad Labour taste).
If they were so close to him as to visit him on his deathbed (while he was – I stress yet again – being kept ARTIFICIALLY alive), then they were also aware of his thuggery, etc, etc and the bribes several had to pay him(while a few others, like my father, chose not to) to ensure a quota or two to keep their business going. I believe he accepted those bribes while sitting at the desk of a then prominent Labour minister.
They may not have sent him out directly to do what he did, but they must have known pretty well what was going on. Not condemning is (almost) akin to condoning, is it not?
(Incidentally, MLCP was very much a Labour face in those times too, I believe, because her name is certainly one I remember from my childhood in the 1970s.)
@Amanda,
I was too young in those days , who was the thug in question?
@Mary Agius,
“moggy i never mentioned law courts and curia. let us all agree that we will never reach an agreement on all this stuff as people see it from different perspectives.”
From what perspective do you see those acts pray tell?
Mary Agius – The Law Courts are supposedly the very seat of justice, and their destruction should not have shocked only anti-MLP people like myself; it should have shocked the entire nation.
Likewise the destruction of the Curia – Not only for the destruction itself, but also for what it signified. A whole lot of hyporcrites came out on the attack when a person (Arab, I believe) “insulted the RC religion”. Where were the same people – or were they the same people? – when the Curia was ransacked and human excrement left there? Or was it OK because the perpetrators were MLP supporters OK’d (to put it mildly) by KMB himself? Two weights / two measures?
From what perspective you see it, I fail to understand.
David Buttigieg – The thug was notorious in my childhood and youth, though despite his “heavyweight” attitude and the fear he instilled in many people, he was particularly puny, hence his nickname … “Il-F*****u)
If I am not mistaken, he was also one of the people who led the rioters to burn down The Times building.
@Amanda
You seem to attach great importance to the fact that Il-F was kept artificially alive. To be honest, I don’t recall seeing or hearing of his hospitalisation and death (at home, we didn’t watch too much Dardir Malta at that time).
Why is this fact so important? Are you implying something? Please share.
Amrio – Maybe some of his visitors needed to get their affairs sorted out before his departure … That’s purely an assumption, but it could very well be close to the truth.
Amrio – If you knew of the guy by reputation, then I find it hard to believe that you had not heard of his “hospitalization and death”. Though few would admit it, many were probably relieved at the news, horrible as that may sound.
I clearly remember a neighbour bursting into our house (in the days when the “antiporta” was left unlocked) announcing “sparaw lill-F!”
Years later, the burly man who had shot him turned up at the office were I worked, and introduced himself – although it had nothing to do with his visit to such office – as “Jien dak li sparajt lill-F”. You’d be surprised at the number of people who more-or-less told him “prosit”. Such was people’s relief.
Please stop playing the fool – I don’t tolerate them easily.
“Mary Agius” – Why the silence? Did I hit the nail on the head?
@ Mary Agius:
No you did not mention to Curia and the Law Courts. You wouldn’t, would you? I mentioned them. I also asked you a question, the answer to which would have thrown some light on the way violence was tolerated in those days. Of course you refused to answer it, which tells me that you know the answer, and that it is not one which you like to admit.
Where violence, ravaging, pillaging, desecrating and ransacking are concerned, there should NOT be two separate perspectives. Any Law-abiding, self-respecting citizen would only have one option: to condemn them – without reserve!
it’s not silence sweetie. i went to work as some people have to work for a living lol. i already said that what happened is the 70s and 80s was not something to be proud of as i myself said that i understand the anger and the hurt. i would behave on your same lines today had i gone through what you have. contrary to what you may think i listen to both sides even when history commentaries are on tv as they are the only things to illuminate me on what happened. i can never say that what happened is right and i never said as has never been said by mlcp.
what i meant by perspectives was really a political line of thought. it did not mean a perspective on the way people look on what happened.
just for the record: some people have been abused in a physical way back then but others are still suffering nowadays because of their political beliefs and that happened to me now not in the 80s. so do you feel this is right??? with your same argument of “chi tace acconsente” does this apply to our present government?
Mary Agius – You are missing the point entirely, so – just so that maybe you’ll understand it – I’m reproducing my previous comment here again:
“Mary Agius – The Law Courts are supposedly the very seat of justice, and their destruction should not have shocked only anti-MLP people like myself; it should have shocked the entire nation.
Likewise the destruction of the Curia – Not only for the destruction itself, but also for what it signified. A whole lot of hyporcrites came out on the attack when a person (Arab, I believe) “insulted the RC religion”. Where were the same people – or were they the same people? – when the Curia was ransacked and human excrement left there? Or was it OK because the perpetrators were MLP supporters OK’d (to put it mildly) by KMB himself? Two weights / two measures?
From what perspective you see it, I fail to understand.”
As for your comment about your “suffering” (without going into the merits of the case), surely you cannot put it on a par with the Labour atrocities I and many others have mentioned? Doing so would only be trivialising them.
@Amanda
I can assure you I am not playing the fool!I had a quick look around and the shooting of il-F (can someone explain why we’re not saying his full nickname) is listed as had happened on 10th March 1981. I was busy studying for my O’s at that time, and was not that much interested in politics.
It was one year after where I felt the full brunt of the political climate in Malta at the time, and got really interested in politics.
This blog is making me (alas) remember and catch up with what used to happen in those days.
So I repeat I am not playing the fool, I never do.
@amrio
Heh thats one of the major objectives of this blog – to keep that ‘lest we forget’ attitude ingrained in the minds of the PN core voters here. Ma jmurx jghaddilom min rashom jivvutaw AD ma jmurx jitla l-MLP!!
@ David Zammit
Rest assured that there’s absolutely no need for this or any other blog to keep the memories ‘ingrained in our minds’. Perhaps you were comfortably seated on the fence at the time,seeing that you are a tifel tal-partit, or maybe you’re too young to remember, but those of our generation who passed through those horrific years, SHALL NEVER, EVER, FORGET!
@eve
ZZZZZZZZZ
Amrio – OK, OK – No hard fellings!
As for Fusellu (it’s in full, OK?), yes, it was around 1981, because I was around 13/14 at the time. Though I wasn’t particularly interested in politics either at that age (our parents actually tried to shield us from some things), some things you just tend to pick up along the way.
When I was young, Fusellu was a familiar sight driving around Sliema in his yellow Mercedes (in the days when most families had just one old car, if any at all). I simply remember wondering how such a puny little man could instil such fear in most people.
@David Zammit
That’s a good response David. Act bored and try to ignore the simple fact that people remember what it was like to live under an MLP government, and that is why the majority of them cannot bring themselves to ever trust Labour again until they are sure that the MLP admitss its excesses and apologises. With people like you I realise that there is a greater chance of Osama Bin Laden turning catholic than the MLP ever getting round to doing this.
Eve – Well said.
David Zammit – You have to understand that people like myself and Amrio (whoever he/she may be) come from a generation where such incidents were never discussed in public and rarely made it to the news or to the newspapers (if at all). You – who were either too young (to remember) at the time, or simply came from the “right” side – can never fully understand that.
Even if internet had existed in those days, none of us would ever have dreamt of posting comments the way we do, because for that we would have paid dearly.
Let me make it a little more clear to you:
My sister was arrested (and kept for over 24 hours) simply for attending a peaceful protest in Sliema in 1983/1984. I will not go into the conditions in which she was kept, because I believe that she has already done so herself. The person responsible is now a prominent member of the MLP.
My husband – who was still 17 at the time – was arrested too, in 1984. The pretext? That he had daubed paint on a desk at some government school. The real reason? – Because, like myself, he was an active member of the ASSP (the then association of private school students), at the height of the Church schools crisis.
So, David Zammit, kindly allow us to enjoy such freedom of speech. You are lucky to have it too, and lucky that you are not persecuted for expressing your views despite the fact that they are not the same as those of the party in government.
@Adrian Borg
What you fail to acknowledge is that MLP did not lose the 1998-2008 elections because it was tainted with the violent acts of the past. There were other more complex reasons. I remember the last debate in 1996 where EFA tried in vain depict the mlp as still being a ‘violent thug’ party by popping out a photo of Wistin Abela with a couple of Zejtun thugs all wearing tuxedos. The rest is all history and we all know how that election went. So no past violence is not on the people’s minds when voting – that is with the exception of those few who day after day fail to move on.
@David – you’re wrong, I’m afraid. It’s not fear of a resurrection of violence that keeps certain people away (myself included) from the Labour Party, but lack of trust in certain individuals who are still controlling the party today.Put simply, it is very clear that the Labour Party has no quality control mechanism. However inept or inadequate you are, you can still reach the top, become a minister or even party leader.
@DCG
I tend to agree with the quality control issue. But the same applies for PN. I can mention a dozen or more MPs in the current and the past Gonzi administration who are either inept, have massive conflicts of interest or are just not cutout to be their. Its a tendency of Maltese politics for people who may not be right for politics to be elected time after time. Maltese people seem to think that if a person is a good village doctor or an effective lawyer he is necessarily a competent parliamentarian, that is why they continue to elect such people.
Taking a look at the maltatoday surveys one can see a clear tendency. Prior to the election campaign MLP has a huge majority. This is mostly due to disillusioned nationionalists whose party has been in power for ages and don’t seem to take any interest in politics anymore.
After week 1 the advantage falls to a few percentage points – the nationalists hear their party’s rallying call, they decided that this time round they will once more vote PN. After week 2 the reception class issue comes on the agenda – it makes the MLP seem unreliable and unpredictable, it scares off any floaters that were going to vote MLP this time round – the PN overtakes MLP in the polls. Week 3 sees a further increase in PN advantage possibly up to 4000 votes as Joe Saliba stated in an interview. This advantage falls to a bare minimum after the JPO scandal is revealed.
This is irrefutable proof that it was in fact the way that the MLP handled its campaign that destroyed its chances. With some tact and some good PR handling I’m sure the MLP would have won – with a small majority mind you but it would still have governed for 5 years with 3 more parliamentarians – and yes with Sant at the helm.
Next time round it needs to be more slick, less clumsy in its PR and less complacent.
what i fail to understand here is why people like mlcp is being held responsible for what happened for the simple reason that she was general secretary in those times. i feel she is being crucified for giving her life to the party.
That said why don’t you all mention the zebbug “accident” as you nationalists call it. i don’t think that labour party ordered their thugs if there really were any to be agressive with labourite supporters.
and don’t you all remember the thugs who were close to EFA like the one who went barefooted, who was given a ‘proklama’ for all the things he did.
one question: you all seem to know the thugs as you call them that were part of those years. i stand to be corrected but when pn government took over, he could have easily prosecuted the rest although one of them had been killed. why hasn’t this happened?