At last, a clear position
Finally, after doubts were raised about where Malta stands, because there has been too much open-ended speech by the prime minister, and too many dubious remarks by the foreign minister and Maltese EU commissioner, here it is:
Malta will support every effort to ensure that the Libyan people get the stability and freedom they deserve.
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Malta will support ‘every effort’ to help Libyan people – Gonzi
Christian Peregin
Lawrence Gonzi: “We want to be close to the Libyan people”.
Malta will support “every effort” to ensure the Libyan people get the stability and freedom they deserve, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
“The Gaddafi regime has lost its legitimacy. A regime loses its legitimacy when it starts shooting on its own people when they are trying to express their freedoms,” Dr Gonzi said.
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The prime minister also said that the international community must work hard to have a change of government in Libya “as quickly as possible”.
Unlike with previous statements, there is only one way to interpret these. Malta will not sabotage other country’s attempts at helping the Libyan people to shake off Gaddafi, whatever those attempts are. Malta will not sit on the sidelines and claim neutrality. Malta will support those efforts. Though Malta is neutral and “has constitutional responsibilities” (the prime minister was also quoted as saying that) there are other ways in which it can and will support efforts to dislodge Gaddafi.
Malta does not want Gaddafi to stay on. Malta thinks he should be got rid of as quickly as possible.
Amen to that.
Now will somebody please buy a couple of large rubber stoppers and plug both Tonio Borg and John Dalli.
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As for those who dismiss gestures and words as meaning nothing, British defence minister Liam Fox’s words at the same press conference yesterday are especially relevant:
“We need to isolate Mr Gaddafi’s regime and hasten its demise to ensure prosperity. Any other message will give comfort to the regime.”
Wake the Labour Party when it’s all over.
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And one other thing. I wrote about this yesterday, but it bears repeating. The prime minister should stop saying that Gaddafi lost his legitimacy when he began to shoot on his people. He says this only because he cannot admit that Malta has dealt for decades with an illegimate ruler.
Gaddafi never had any legitimacy. The international community recognised him as the Libyan head of state because it was convenient to do so. It was far from convenient for those over whom he ruled with an iron fist and a torture chamber.
Legitimate govenment is rooted in the consent of the governed. Gaddafi never governed with the consent of his people. He seized power through force.
Up until now, leaders like Malta’s prime minister have operated on the basis that the consent of the governed in Libya had never been put to the test, so it might well have existed. They ignored all signs that it did not.
What we see today is 42 years of anger and frustration, 42 years of lack of consent to Gaddafi’s government, blowing up in all our faces. And serve us right.
Lawrence Gonzi is not in Castille now because in 1969 he rolled into Valletta in a convoy of tanks and immediately arrested and put to death anybody who opposed him, spending the next few years dismantling the apparatus of statehood and government and murdering all opponents or suspected opponents. He is there because we said so. He remains there until we say so. That is legitimate government.
To say that a government loses legitimacy when it begins shooting on its own people is to descend to the levels of barbarism…..and utter banality.
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This is very welcome news. But why have updates from Libya vanished completely? I understand that the tsunami tragedy has to take precedence but no news from Libya is bad news, especially for those suffering the retaliation of the Gaddafi forces.
[Daphne – I was talking about this just now. New networks need to be fed with a constant flow of material. Nothing much is coming out of Libya because journalists are being escorted about under guard and are not allowed to speak to anyone. Those who attempt to move about alone are at risk of being detained, shot or tortured, as has happened already.]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365165/David-Cameron-backs-Nicolas-Sarkozy-calls-Libya-air-strikes.html
Daphne, please read the paragraph by John Nichol. Very edifying.The no-fly zones will not stop the massacres on the ground. Is anyone supplying arms to the freedom fighters? As much as I hate to say it, that would be a good thing in this case.
Why do you think France legitimised the interim council. Remember that France was a major arms supplier to Libya. Now it is the ONLY country in the world that can legally sell weapons to Libya.
Good news but too little too late.
He’s saying that “Malta will support every effort”, but previously he has categorically excluded allowing military operations to be supported from Malta. That needs to be retracted. He also needs to actually agree with the imposition of a no fly zone and whatever other military action may be required at this time rather than being ‘neutral’ about it.
The way our government is being ‘neutral’ about this situation is in practice equivalent to being in support of the regime.
As far as I can understand our constitution it does not in practical terms prevent us from providing assistance to military operations. All that is needed is that it is formulated in a way that we are asking for assistance rather than granting it. Maybe someone more knowledgable on the subject can comment on this.
Formulated for whose benefit?
“The Gaddafi regime has lost its legitimacy. A regime loses its legitimacy when it starts shooting on its own people when they are trying to express their freedoms,” Dr Gonzi said.
Gaddafi should have lost its legitimacy early on when he supported ETA, IRA, Red Brigades, Baader Meinof, Muslim rebels in the Philippines, Fatah, Abu Nidal and other factions so that he became associated with violent mercenary groups.
While The Times (as a leading news source, since we have so few) fill their space with petty news, because all other international news is focused on Japan, and Malta has little to do with this, the people of Libya carry on living in misery and war. Do they think that Gaddafi stopped his attacks to follow what is happening in Japan?
“A regime loses its legitimacy when it starts shooting on its own people when they are trying to express their freedoms”
It was illegitimate from day one since it seized power by force.
You are right to say that Gaddafi’s regime was illegitimate from day one.
As much as I hate to say it, the Libyans themselves, but we all know that they would have met the same fate as the victims of this most recent uprising.
Due to passage of time, this illegitimacy was ‘regularized’ due to the fact that any sort of relationship, trade, and diplomatic exchanges had, by necessity and the absence of anyone else, to be made with the regime.
Thus the ‘regularized illegitimacy’ became legitimacy in the ordinary sense of a relationship between countries. Such ‘regularized’ illegitimate regimes exist in substantial numbers where governments are not elected by free elections devoid of any corruption.I can name at least a dozen including China and N. Korea.
Sorry but the second paragraph somehow lost a sentence and should read:
As much as I hate to say it, the Libyans themselves, should have sorted out the situation at that time but we all know now that they would have met the same fate as the victims of this most recent uprising.
Fancy words will not stop the killing taking place in our own Mediterranean neighbourhood.
An immediate cease-fire will.
Gaddafi is taking the maximum advantage of the international media’s convenient focus on the Japan catastrophe to do his damnest to safeguard the Gaddafi family’s interest on the wealth of Libya.
Baxxter, CVN-65 preparing for battle. F18s and F14s being elivated to flight deck as we speak.
So? Let Tom Clancy get excited about that sort of thing. He’s a twit. War has never been about hardware. It’s about people.
Leading article in The Sunday Times today:
“However, there is no doubt that on the second point we must help ourselves. We have had an interminable discussion about the irrelevance and damaging nature of the neutrality clause in our Constitution.
Not only is it hindering us from pursuing the stated objective of peace in this case, it is also jeopardising our own safety as well as that of the Libyan people – with whom we must stand.
There is not a moment to lose in putting this right. But the question is, will the Labour Party finally see sense and play ball? The PL cannot say it is supporting the government’s efforts vis-à-vis Libya without actively doing something that displays this.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110313/opinion/editorial
Deja vue. We should not be surprised of recants.
Here we go rubbing salt into Libyan wounds again.
“The Gaddafi regime has lost its legitimacy.”
Wrong. It never had any legitimacy to lose in the first place, and I would have expected the leader of a democratic government, whose power is rooted in consent given through free and fair elections, to at least acknowledge this.
Instead, and this shows how despite all the chest-beating on divorce and abortion our leaders are only nominally Christian, we reveal that we think there are human rights for us and animal rights for those we consider to be half-devil and half-child.
“…as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers…” – remember that one?
“The Gaddafi regime has lost its legitimacy. A regime loses its legitimacy when it starts shooting on its own people when they are trying to express their freedoms,” Dr Gonzi said.
Surely by the same token Gonzi PN has lost its legitimacy when it totally goes against the wishes of the majority of its own people with such things as the City Gate project. I mean isn’t this just dictatorship without the guns?
[Daphne – Your stance is reprehensible. It demeans the acute suffering of those who have had to endure beatings, torture and the disappearance of friends and family, and who have lived oppressed all their lives. Get a sense of perspective, because you really need one.]
Beowulf,
Crawl back into the wood and don’t come out again – unless someone sprays Cuprinol in your general direction.
Beowulf
Dr Gonzi was elected to lead the country for a time period as happens in any democracy. Gaddafi never stood for election, nor did he ever allow anybody to do so.
And for argument’s sake how on earth do you know that the “majority” of the people are against the city gate project?
I know that the majority of people are against the City Gate project because when the Times ran a poll asking that very question 85% of people said so. In case you are unsure of the maths anything over 50% is a majority. If you say that this is only because a lot of those against it voted in the poll then please answer why. Those in favour of it had the same chance to vote didn’t they? Also when the plans were on public display no visitors comment book was available. I wonder why?
[Daphne – The Times poll is not a proper survey.]
“Those in favour of it had the same chance to vote didn’t they?”
Sounds a lot like Sant’s “Partnership won the referendum” mathematics.
No Daphne, what is reprehensible is the position of your government and other EU states who are sitting back and allowing the Libyan people to die at the hands of a madman. That is truly reprehensible. The people in Libya have been enduring beatings, torture and the disappearance of friends and family for decades now yet Gaddafi has been treated like some sort of bloody hero.
[Daphne – Are you not Maltese? Why, then, is it my government and not yours too?]
What part of “and other EU states” didn’t you understand?
Of course the Times poll is not a proper survey Daphne but it’s the only one the country got a chance to take part in wasn’t it?
[Daphne – Pointless if it means nothing. You can always commission your own. It costs no more than a few hundred euros. Get Astrid to sponsor it. In fact, I’m really surprised the FAA didn’t shell out and do something properly. Not that I would give a damn about the results. You don’t put stuff like that to the popular vote. Try a survey on kaxxex tal-konkrit bit-twieqi tal-alumilju, bieb ta’ garaxx tal-istil hdejn il-bieb ta’ barra u gallarija bil-lavur, and you’ll see what I mean. Ever been to a party full of Maltese people and seen the total lack of style and dress sense? Only the British are worse, and I don’t mean Londoners, either. Half of them look like they’re just popping out to the shops and the other half look like they’re going on the game and are practising.]
I can’t believe you refer to and I quote, ‘total lack of style and dress sense,’ unquote. And then, ‘the other half look like they’re going on the game and are practising.’ Pot, kettle, black. Priceless!
[Daphne – That’s probably because you don’t get out of Malta much. In the places that count (and I don’t mean Italy, which is horribly conservative), the way I dress is the norm. It is considered strange here because people are extremely conformist and have no individual style at all. Look at a crowd of Maltese people. Does anyone stand out? No. That’s how they want it. Clothes as camouflage – ‘please don’t notice me’. Just look at the cut-and-paste interior decor and you will see what I mean. Does everyone else have it? Oh good, then it’s safe. Homes, clothes, decisions, career choices – all of a piece. Dull, dull, dull as dishwater. And you don’t know me from Adam, anyway. It’s not like you’ve dived into my wardrobe or anything, so you’re not in a position to speak.]
My dear Daphne I may know you better than you think!
[Daphne – Obviously not, because you have never been through my front door.]
*face palm*.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/mar/12/ex-inmate-in-libya-tells-of-arrest-torture/
Gaddafi and KMB have something in common: no one voted them in.
You forgot Joseph Muscat.
I guess KMB was at least elected in Parliament (correct me if I’m wrong) but Joseph Muscat definitely wasn’t.
I would really like the scenario if, come next election, the PL would be elected, but Joseph Muscat will fail to get the quota of votes required to be elected. Ah… dream on!
KMB wasn’t elected to parliament.
KMB was called Dr Zero because he was not elected into parliament when he became Prime Minister for the first time.
0 votes = Dr Zero.
Yanika, KMB was also referred to as “Zero” in the 1980s. That was a reference to the fact that he had never earned any votes, having been co-opted into parliament, in much the same way as Joseph Muscat was. (Zero Mk II?)
In Malta we had a government against the wishes of the absolute majority. We had the police torturing honest citizens and murdering some others. People disappeared and were found murdered.
Nearly all PN clubs were destroyed, meetings and other political manifestations disrupted, there was no freedom of speech. The leader of the opposition was not even mentioned by name and his house was ransacked and his family assaulted. The list is endless. Already Labour supporters are threatening their political adversaries after the next general election.
Ah the glorious Golden Days of Labour
Gaddafi is a shrewd strategist. Many years ago, he managed to neutralise Malta. When it was clear that the PN would be in government, back in the early 80s, he worked his way to trade a Nationalist electoral victory for a neutrality clause in our constitution. 1987?
That manouevre is proving useful for Gaddafi 23 years later.
No wonder Labour always insisted about Malta’s strategic position. A stratetic position for Libya, I ask?
Neutered rather than neutralized I would say.
Beowulf is just another Golden Years dreamer. He lives in hope.
Hoping that Gaddafi retains power.
Hoping that the Golden years can come back.
Hoping that the Maltese people will one day forgive the tyrant Mintoff.
Hoping that Labour will one day come to power and go back to the days when people like Fusellu could once again terrorise innocent citizens.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing would be a more appropriate name for you.
And some will be rubbing their hands
Already Libya has not made it to the front page of The Telegraph, today. Sadly, I can see history repeat itself: Gaddafi overtakes Benghazi and disposes of his opponents; Libya suffers sanctions and ostracism for a few years during which the people suffer a lot more than the core regime; once things quieten down and normalise, the international community comes round once again drawn by the promise of oil and commerce. Full circle!