And here's the other Grima brother, with his half-assed excuses again: it was the 'loose cannons' wot did it
A couple of loose cannon, looking for a newspaper building to burn down
He posted this a few hours ago beneath the Black Monday video on timesofmalta.com. If you wish to be driven temporarily insane, visit the comments board beneath that story. It’s horrendous. Even Victor Laiviera’s there, asking (rhetorically, of course) who benefitted most from the events of Black Monday. Ah, Watson! There the finger of suspicion must point. Eddie kien, mama!
Joe Grima
As I told Kurt Sansone some days ago , the perpetrators of these reprehensible events were loose cannons, not even remotely connnected to anyone in Government. I was with Prime Minister Mintoff as he drafted a personal letter to Mabel Strickland expressing his regret at what had happened and stating that the physical destruction of his adversaries was not part of his make-up. I also remember Mintoff’s uncontrollable fury at what had happened. In the twenty odd years I spent close to him I never saw him as livid as that day. One must also remember that Nationalist provocation at the time was at its peak, Desperate at not being able to unseat Mintoff at the polls Nationalists resorted to terrifying provocative acts for years on end. For the Times now to vividly remind people of erstwhile Labour aggression is no surprise. This Government is desperate again, this time desperate to divert attention from scandals and other current disasters. What better than a 30-year-old-case of arson? Is the Times not the eternal ally of the PN? I am now waiting for the Church to put its two bits in and the entire sixties/seventies scenario will have been appropriately revisited
I’m beginning to think that the only reason Joe Grima rejected the Labour Party in the Alfred Sant years is that Alfred Sant rejected him. Now it’s back to square one, defending Mintoff and Labour as though Alfred Sant never happened and we’re back again in the days when the only reason we knew what Joe Grima looked like was because we saw him thumping parliamentary desks and political-meeting-lorries with his fist.
For small mercies, be grateful. At least this means the Grima brothers now favour the same party leader. They fell out over Mintoff (Joe loved him; Godfrey….didn’t). They fell out over Sant (Godfrey loved him; Joe….didn’t). And now they both love Joseph Muscat. Hurrah!
AND OH! LOOK! HERE HE IS AGAIN. LATEST UPDATE FROM TIMESOFMALTA.COM’S COMMENTS BOARD
Joe Grima
@E Gatt. Putting words in my mouth doesn’t work. Mintoff was not the despot that Nationalists have portrayed him to be. There are moments in politics when very powerful men are left powerless by events out of their control. To my knowledge, Mintoff never sent anyone to do anything untoward. When accusations arose, his policy was to send the suspected one to the courts to defend himself and await the outcome. With their lawlessnes, some of his greatest adulators had him cornered and, on those occasions, rendered him helpless. When the police don’t respond to lawlessness there is nothing anyone else can do. Take the case of my arsoned property, radio station and my car ten years ago. The police have still not come up with the perpetrators in court. Am I not also a helpless victim in this case? Who sent them? MIntoff used eloquent but aggressive language to confront his critics. He also made his own mistakes. That having been said he remains to this day, Malta’s greatest benefactor for what he left behind for all Maltese to enjoy. This space is too small to discuss a gigantic personality such as Dom Mintoff. Meet me in other forums.
THERE’S MORE – NOW HE NEVER TURNED HIS BACK ON LABOUR AND SUPPORTED THE NATIONALIST PARTY, EU MEMBERSHIP OR EDDIE FENECH ADAMI. HE JUST PRODUCED A TV SHOW FOR NET WHILE THE COUNTRY WENT TO THE DOGS UNDER THE FECKLESS NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT.
Joe Grima
@James Portelli. Your facts are wrong. I left active poiitcs when I did not contest the 1992 election because I was in serious disagreement with KMB’s drugs distribution policy. I left, not because I thought Labour would not be elected, but because I believed a trusted number cruncher who assured us Ministers that Labour would win by 52%. As Cabinet Minister I did not want to have to approve KMB’s misguided drug policy. I accepted NetTV’s invitation in 1999 , seven years after I left politics. Your theory leaks like a sieve. I never converted to anything. I held my own views and the people I worked with, top-grade Nationalists, but gentlemen I still respect, knew precisely what I stood for. We worked together in harmony, not expecting anything from each other but fair and balanced weekly TV programmes in which all parties had their say. Don’t fool yourself.There are no blameless governments. Just look around you and declare here and now that this Government or the majority of these Ministers are blameless for the pitiable state our country is in. Finally, beatification is not for me Mister. Neither is it for any of yours. Politicians don’t take that route.
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If Joe Grima thinks that the perpetrators were “loose cannons”, then I would love to know what he has to say about the “loose cannons” who wrecked the Law Courts and the Curia. After all, KMB was on one of the trucks driving down St Lucia Street, Valletta along with them. I know because I saw him. He even stopped to sign autographs for adoring female fans.
[Daphne – Sic transit gloria mundi. KMB was in a Valletta cafe this morning (we go to the same one), just another old man stopping by for a coffee. Nobody so much as noticed him. The only reason I did is because I happened to be looking in that direction. The photographer I was with – not Maltese – didn’t believe me when I said he is a former prime minister who for five and a half years (because he hung on to the last legally permissible day before calling an election) made life in Malta absolute hell. Shouldn’t a former prime minister, and such a hellish one at that, create a bit of a frisson when he walks into a cafe? Apparently not.]
“Journalists, Dr Muscat said, could only be credible if they were ethical.” ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091015/local/journalists-politicians-should-work-together-to-build-better-society-joseph-muscat )
Any further comments are superfluous.
Mr Grima is entitled to his opinion and I am genuinely sorry for his arson case. But . . .
Nowadays, we are so saturated with democracy that the bleeding heart liberals and champagne socialists under 40 years old – unless heavily into pot – cannot even dream of the mess we were in 30 short years ago.
“Mintoff was not the despot Nationalists have portrayed him to be” Yeah, right, Joe! I was in Valletta 30 years ago – Mintoff came out onto the balcony and waved from the ‘Palazz’ while Valletta was engulfed in smoke from the Times’ building . . . an exact replica of Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned. If he wasn’t a despot, he was a nutter.
And nor is the despotic streak in Labour a thing of the past, I assure you. Why do you think they are (not ‘were’) so against EU entry? Because dictatorships are not accepted, that’s why.
Believe me – or believe Daphne if not me – we’re only a gnat’s ass away from the “good old days” people like the Grimas hark back to.
Maybe that should be “Nat’s ass” rather than “gnat’s ass”
Let us for a moment accept Joe Grima’s theory that the socialist thugs who burnt down The Times and later went to Birkirkara to wreck Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami’s home were ‘loose cannons’
I happened to be near Castille that night as I owned a pizzeria on the corner. When the mob arrived, I walked out and stood on the corner watching these ‘loose cannons’ throwing furniture out of the window and flames coming out some metres from the balcony. The shocking thing was that there were at least one hundred policemen next to Castille and not one tried to stop them.
Another shocking event was when the fire engines arrived about 20 minutes later (from Floriana). It took them about 15 minutes to reverse into St. Paul Street and the firemen were obviously given instructions to go slow. What I am getting at is that the destruction was allowed to happen in the presence of a strong contingent of the police force, who obviously were given orders from above, to let the fire rage for maximum destruction.
So, Mr. Grima, trying to convince us that Mintoff never sent anyone to do anything untoward, is not very convincing to my generation who lived those years.
We lived through those times, and we know that several ministers had their mascalzoni running with them wherever they went and acting on their master’s advice. They beat people for just looking at them in their ugly faces. Even Mintoff knew about these atrocities and HE DIDN’T LIFT A FINGER TO STOP THEM. So he was complicit. Mintoff and KMB, together with all their colleagues in their hated cabinets, were fully responsible for the atrocities which occurred in Malta in those horrible years (1971-1987). And no Joe Grima or Godfrey Grima or whoever will ever change that. And Labour is still paying the price.
What I don’t get about ‘New Labour’ is they do not realise that by saying “Yes, there was a rotten core to the administration 30 years ago. There are things that happened that we as a party are not proud of, and for which we apologise for unreservedly. We also distance ourselves from anyone who was part of that rotten core, and who is unrepentant.” they would gain so much more than they do by pretending it was not their fault.
The most disturbing fact about Black Monday, apart from the fact that the police watched the thugs and did nothing (probably obeying orders from above) is that Mintoff sent a letter to Mabel Strickland where he daclared “this is not my style. I don’t crush my opponents”.
That letter must have been prepared well in advance.
I strongly believe that the PN wins consecutive elections partly because of the memory of these events. Memory drives people on the eve of an election to forbid power to Labour, and as I say by their actions Labour cursed their future.
What hurts is that during these events no thugs were arrested for their actions by Mintoff as implied, and the worst is that even after the Nationalists came to power in 1987, I believe justice did not take its course . Not only that but some and even top police officers befriended the newly elected PN government and justice minister, in order to do away with their actions.
I vividly remember those dark days. I hope history does not repeat itself. I was really surprised that as soon as Dr Muscat was elected party leader he paid a visit to Mintoff. That was not a wise step. The Labour Party is still infested with supporters who condoned violence in the 1970s and 1980s. It looks to me that Labour will inevitably win the next election considering the disaffection of the electorate.
My 80-year-old frail mother has been waiting more than three years for a simple 20-minute cataract operation. This is really nasty from the side of the Nationalist administration. We feel badly let down.
And I presume Nationalist cabinet members carry out cataract operations during their house visits? Do you realise the absurdity of your logic? If this is a source of disaffection then we are really stuck in a 1970s provincial mindest.