Unbelievable – 'my brother the drug trafficker; please take him seriously'
A green-soap smuggler says the Scarlet Pimpernel came to his prison cell trying to broker a deal involving his brother the EU Commissioner
As if it isn’t enough that we have to contend with magistrates twirling their Lycra skirts at parties for those who are plaintiffs and defendants before them.
As if it wasn’t enough that we had a chief justice and a judge who had open channels of communication to drug-dealers and took bribes so that they could settle their dues with a variety of shopkeepers.
Now we have an EU Commissioner who appears to maintain full and open channels of communication with his brother, who is out on bail awaiting trial for drug-trafficking, and who fights that brother’s pitch (and his) by insisting that we take his claims seriously.
It’s an open secret that Bastjan Dalli jaghmel l-arja b’huh when networking and trolling for business in Libya and Malta. Just imagine how much more he’s doing that now his brother is EU Commissioner and a Really Big Brussels Cheese rather than just a piddly cabinet minister in tiddly Malta.
I’m not saying that John Dalli knows about this or that it’s done with his acceptance, collusion or complicity. I’m just saying that John Dalli the EU Commissioner is most unwise to make it so damned obvious that he and his brother are as thick as thieves (Note to Malta Today and Maltastar: that’s an idiomatic expression which is not to be taken literally to mean that the Dalli brothers are 1. thick and 2. thieves).
When you’ve got a brother like that, and you’re an EU Commissioner (or cabinet minister), you’ve just got to cut him loose and ask him never to contact you again until you have retired.
As for John Dalli, honestly: he might believe his brother because 1. he is his brother and 2. he has a vested interest in doing so. But for God’s sake, why should the rest of us believe somebody who tried to smuggle drugs that turned out to be soap, ran away to Libya to avoid arrest and then, when caught and jailed, tells us that the Scarlet Pimpernel, complete with mysterious face and soft voice, came to his door at night to say that he can go free if he implicates his brother in a scandal?
I hate to spell this out, but the way things are going, his brother is ALREADY being implicated in a scandal. Is John Dalli’s judgement now so impaired by lanzit and resentment that he cannot see this?
From Maltastar, today
EU Commissioner John Dalli said this morning that his brother’s statement in court should be investigated.
Bastjan Dalli testified yesterday that whilst he was kept in the lock up, someone had approached him and told him that if he (Bastjan) implicated his brother (John) in the Mater Dei case involving private investigator Joe Zahra, he will earn his freedom.
John Dalli was this morning reacting to the news after a meeting at the UHM headquarters in Floriana.
Speaking to journalists he said: “These are serious allegations and should be investigated”.
John Dalli has in many occasions spoken of a plot against him in 2004 when he was forced to resign by Prime Minister Gonzi after he saw what the Court described as a fabricated report.
Joe Zahra is serving a two year prison sentence.
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Here’s some background to the case:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090204/local/bastjan-dalli-arraigned-on-drug-charges
I didn’t know how risky it was to import soap to Malta. While we were still digesting our Christmas lunch, these poor creatures were toiling during the night to provide our households with “sapun tac-cavetta”.
In the New Testament we read how water was miraculously turned to excellent wine. Now we read how presumed cannabis blocks(known as sapun) really turned into soap (sapun).
Malta must really be a sacred island.Look at this:
http://stocks.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20061025/local/undeclared-spirits-found-in-container.
“The ways of the Good Lord are infinite”, that’s what Fr Gorg Dalli says on TV.
Another soap opera.
I would not believe this Bastjan chappy if he said that today the 15th of October 2010 was a Friday.
We can hardly believe what certain magistrates and judges say in court nowadays let alone what Bastjan says.
This is laughable. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Hi Daphne,
What is meant by “jaghmel l-arja b’huh ” ?
thanks :-)
[Daphne – I don’t think there is an equivalent expression in English, which is why I used Maltese. It means ‘throwing your weight around’ but using somebody else’s weight, in this case, a brother’s.]
Mark, ‘jaghmel l-arja b’huh’ is used when somebody gives himself airs and behaves arrogantly because he knows he has his brother to back him up.
A related saying is ‘ghandu hafna arja’ jew ‘ghandu hafna sahha’ which together with ‘jaghmel l-arja b’huh’ symbolize a unique characteristic in our society.
Politicians’ sycophants when given a job (sidelining meritocracy) say in a government department or a quango by a minister, the position being as is usual, in the particular minister’s gift, the person invariably exhibits arrogance and arbitrarily positions himself high up in the pecking order at the place of work.
Quite often these characters get away with murder as many have found out that one cannot ignore their pretentiousness with impunity!
The big brother.
What John Dalli did not say (at least according to Maltastar’s report) is whether he had informed the police commissioner about his brother’s “serious allegations” as he had said he would when informed about them.
From timesofmalta.com:
“As soon as he was let out on bail, he spoke to his brother about what had happened. John Dalli told him he would speak to the Police Commissioner about it, but he was not sure whether he had actually done so”
I think you misunderstood the meaning of this part of the article…though I can hardly blame you because it is rather poorly written. It is BASTJAN here who doesn’t know if his brother spoke to the COP or not.
And thus my brother’s keeper.
What a farce. First we had water turning into whisky, then cannabis turning to soap and now they want us to believe what was supposedly said through the hatch in a prison-cell door. Go and tell it to the marines please.
Yesterday, Robert Musumeci was John Bundy’s guest on his show ‘Affari Taghna’ on Super One. Bundy asked him what he thinks about Nikki Dimech’s ‘frame-up’ and Musumeci replied that he has absolute respect and trust in the judicial system…….F**cking right!
This particular programme is the TV equivalent of Malta Today – a medium for whiners with grudges, spite and envy. All the presentors / invitees are ex-PN who were fired or did not get what they want.
The more I read about this saga the more I think how clever Gonzi was to send Dalli packing to Brussels.
Now do you get my point about Rachida Dati?
Not necessarily. To quote The Godfather: “keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer”!
Bullshit quote which sounds good but means nothing. And it’s not like John Dalli is exiled to some godforsaken spot at the antipodes. He’s mouthing off in the newspapers every other day for heaven’s sake.
Tony, Brussels, what Brussels? John Dalli seems to be spending more time here than there.
I think he’s finding the task exhaustive and time-consuming, especially the long parliamentary sessions when he has to face multiple rounds of MEPs’ statements and questions.
He has so far impressed no one, while gaining a reputation for sending minions to represent him.
Kicking John Dalli upstairs is the best thing that could happen to the PN.
So Qormi has also given us the Dalli brothers :John, Bastjan and Gorg. As our neighbours say “Basta e avanza” .
I can’t wait ….
From http://www.timesofmalta.com:
“Saturday, 16th October 2010 – 15:52CET
PL to unveil new emblem next month
The new emblem of the Labour Party is to be unveiled at the party’s headquarters on November 6, Labour Pary deputy leader Toni Abela said this morning.
He told a news conference that thousands of people took part in the selection process.
Dr Abela said that this year only fund collection marathon organised by the PL was to be held on December 12. The activity will again include a Christmas village and a series of activities for the family.”
All is left now is just one more protracted competition to come up with a new logo and they will be all set for the next election.
And yesterday John Dalli was on Bla Agenda – revolting, I just cannot understand how at his age he could not sense the blatant way he is being used. It is even more incredible that he is being used by Norman Hamilton, whose curriculum is self explanatory.
I might understand that for someone like Nikki Dimech this is not immediately evident (although being used by John Bundy doesn’t take much to reckon) but for a shark like Dalli it is simply unbelievable. I may accept that he has a revenge agenda but his strategy is simply stupid.
Despite the harm that will accrue to Malta, I think that a spell in opposition will do the PN a load of good, particularly if it helps clean its ranks of this kind of scum.
Well said… “a spell in opposition will do the PN a load of good”. And good to Malta too.
A (long) spell in opposition didn’t do the MLP much good.
Yes, the PN needs to rest and revive like it did when Sant’s government came tumbling down. The big difference is that there is no other party that can be a better or an equal replacement to it.
Joseph Muscat hasn’t got what it takes. He’s too shallow, with no clear ideas about what to do if he becomes PM. As I see it, we cannot allow the PL to govern and dismantle all good that the PN has done.
The other alternative is the formation of a new party but that is pie in the sky.
[Daphne – Sending a party to opposition doesn’t necessarily do any good. Labour has been in opposition for 21 out of the last 23 years, and it is as shoddy and ill-constructed as ever, possibly worse actually.]
Daphne, what you say is true but it also proves how different the two parties are-the PN when in opposition managed to reconstuct itself while the PL passes the time opposing anything the government does and says never being constructive. It has or rather Muscat has just one aim – to be PM at 39.
No. You’re getting it all wrong. It’s not that PN managed to reconstruct itself while in opposition. It’s that MLP managed to lose the 1998 election on the issue of EU membership. It’s as simple as that.
Some of you tend to make out PN as being the Party of Heroes. It isn’t. It’s simply the party that rises to the occasion – The Reasonably Competent Party.
Incidentally, this is why John Dalli’s “ici Londres” rhetoric is complete rubbish. It’s not that the party has changed, or “become arrogant”. It is, after all, staffed more or less by the same people who were there in 2003. It’s just that it has nothing to look forward to.
The stark reality in this country is that there is only one political party that can make some sense of being in government or the opposition, and that is the PN. Conversely the MLP/ PL is neither fit for one or the other!
@joseph micallef
how can you say that about PL when you haven’t even seen the new emblem yet?
Lino Cert I must admit you have a point!
However some remarks on the graphic value can already be made
1. With the exception of one, all torches are leaning back
2. All flames are swept backwards
3. All seem to be carried away by prevailing “currents” and the torches seem happy to adjust
4. Although one does approach, all flames miss the blue which usually suggests that the flame has no supply of oxygen. Thus the emblem symbolise lack of oxygen
5. Mono colour flames are usually produced in the “controlled” environment of a laboratory and they produce sooth. People in the south beware
6. We have no way of knowing what fuel the flames are burning. Hope it is not the heavy kind but since they are all leaning it might be so
7. The text in all emblems is in different weights suggesting non uniformity
The only way to force a party to renew itself is not to vote for those candidates who have shown themselves unsuitable to remain MPs let alone Ministers – the last election showed the way when a number of ‘established’ figures failed even to get elected.
Sending the present government to the opposition benches but still electing the same ‘tired’ even if ‘tried’ individuals will not guarantee a renewal and who believes so should look back at what happened in the past.
Agreed, but we have to be careful what new faces we elect. Sliema people elected Nicky at local level and the fifth district elected Franco instead of anyone near the bottom of the alphabetical list.
In Maltese we have two sayings:
Imut Papa u jilhaq iehor.
Il-musmar il-gdid jaqla’ l-qadim.