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Posted by Colin
Perception is very much the issue. This is my personal experience here in the UK – people ask me if Malta is on Gaddafi’s side.
That’s the bottom line.
They’re not surprised about India, China and Russia. And they still think of Germany as the former Nazi-Germany (perception). But they’re surprised about Malta, considering the proximity to this evil regime.
These people think Malta is refusing to participate in upholding UNSC resolution 1973. I KNOW that is not the case and it’s more complex than that. But it didn’t need to be.
This perception exists because none of our public figures went on record, on the international stage, taking a firm stand against Gaddafi’s oppressive regime.
I think it would have been the easiest thing to do. What better time to stand up to a person who’s bullied you for decades than when you’ve got your friends covering your back? Not even that!
Your friends are going to beat him up for you!
So actually, all Malta needed to do was state unequivocally that it supports fully the international community’s move to protect the innocent civilians of Libya and get rid of Gaddafi.
Malta doesn’t actually have to do anything else. What else could it do? Send in a couple of helicopters and a few coastal guard boats?
Just offer our moral support and show that we are a principled country. Instead, the perception here in Britain is that the Maltese are opportunistic cowards.
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Posted by Joe Cilia:
I have had enough. When the PN come round to my place asking for my vote, I will tell them that I am neutral, that I will have nothing to do with their aspirations of winning, and that I’m a nurse, so if they need humanitarian aid they can ask me for it, but if it’s my vote they want to help them win, then they should go to my neighbour, who lives only a few steps away from me and who can easily vote for them instead so there is no need for me to give them my vote as well.
The government has gone totally insane on this issue.
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Exactly. Why has it been so difficult to understand by our politicians? Could it be that they suffer from Stockholm Syndrome?
The Leader of the transitional council in Libya appreciates Malta’s stance on military base but hopes it ‘would widen its cooperation’
The adviser to the leader of the Libyan transitional council Mustafa Mohammed Abdul Jalil has expressed “optimism” that Malta will widen its cooperation for the multinational force enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya.
Ahmed Jibril, a former ambassador for the Libyan government, spoke to MaltaToday yesterday in answer to questions put to Jalil regarding Malta’s position not to allow the island to serve as a military base in enforcing the no-fly zone.
“The council understands Malta’s position as a neutral state, and its acceptance to abide by the United Nations Security Council for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya,” Jibril said, speaking for Jalil in Benghazi.
“However the council is optimistic that Malta will widen its cooperation when it comes to paragraph 4 of the resolution that imposes an obligation on all states to fully cooperate in the protection of civilian lives.”
Paragraph 4 of the UNSC resolution authorises United Nations member states to “take all necessary measures” to protect civilians under threat of attack in Libya.
Asked if he meant that “widening the cooperation” means using Malta as a military base in enforcing the no-fly zone, Jibril said the council “fully understands Malta’s sensitive situation” but it would “appreciate a further effort by the Maltese government in assisting the multinational effort in imposing the no-fly zone over Libya.”
“The council is taking note of all the positions taken by countries and is giving them great importance in considering future relations,” Jibril said.
I think he was quite diplomatic, but no words can lighten up what he said.
I found it extremely distasteful. Who does he think he is? He is hardly representative of anyone except for what passes for a legitimised, armed opposition – certainly not enough to be dishing out sublte threats at a country that has after all taken sides against Gaddafi’s regime.
Malta chose to help in ways other than having Libya bombed from its territory. This fact does not warrant such remarks.
Getting touchy, Kev? Shades of foreign interference Mintoffian brainwashing rising to the surface?
Q. “Who does he think he is?”
A. Somebody who has been oppressed by a tyrant all his life.
I think his comments are too diplomatic – we have made superficial gestures against Gaddafi but never really burned our bridges with his regime.
You found Jalil distasteful, did you kev – you narcissistic wombat? Not half as distasteful as Malta’s lack of wont to participate, I’m sure.
Who does he think he is? He’s acting just like Malta, expressing his opinion and free will. Here’s the first price Malta is paying for deciding the way it did. There are consequences for everything, kev. You can’t have your cake and friggin’ eat it. God knows that you do try, and perhaps there have been times that you’ve succeeded in your own petty way.
But that’s not what happens on the world stage. Malta didn’t partcipate, much to your (and your ilk’s) liking.
Now that you’re paying the price (in the form of relations with a future Libyan government) you don’t like it. There you go, stomping your feet, and the arrogant ‘who does he think he is’ Mintoffian attitude.
No, wonka, Malta DID participate. Precisely ‘madwar il-mejda’ (remember Joanie Drake?) in the Council. And we gave our views. Like the German representatives, ours sounded for a non-military approach. The EU27 finally agreed on various sanctions against Gaddafi and his regime. That is Malta’s position. No different from Germany’s and others that opposed military intervention.
The arrogance is on your part. I can understand the rebels’ anger. But you? Where did that chip come from?
Kev
Defending the Great EU satan isn’t your usual style. What’s happened now?
@ kev:
“The arrogance is on your part. I can understand the rebels’ anger. But you? Where did that chip come from?”
Speaking for myself, that chip comes from having to suffer years of Mintoffian heavy handed pseudo-socialist propaganda including friendship agreements with Gaddafi, Caucescu, Kim Il Sung and their ilk.
But then again, most probably you will not understand this as you will look back in nostalgia to those golden years.
Tell you what kevvy. I’ve got no chip on my shoulder. Unsurprisingly, you equate my anger with arrogance. This was how the Labour administration labelled anyone who would not coutenance their tyranny and oppression. You can’t understand my anger, because, apart from appearing here and babbling inanities through your missives, you’re insesitive to the plight of a people being massacred just a few kilometres down the road from us.
You can’t understand my anger because you can’t fathom the chagrin I feel at having pusillanimous twerps like the PM and his acolyte, the Minister for Foregin Affairs, representing me (and others s’intendi!), flip-flopping and refusing to see the signs of the times, stepping up to the plate and doing what needs to, and should be, done.
To make matters worse, you – personally that is – are the sort of individual who sees a conspiracy in everything. Why, you even saw a conspiracy lurking around natural phenomena last week – you claimed that the Japan earthquake was caused by a solar flare! Nature conspiring against itself, as it were. You’ll believe anything that you’ll read provided it sounds outlandish and ridiculous enough.
Now you’ve even taken this position on Malta. You joined hands with your lilly livered brothers-in-law on your intrepid journey down the four feathers road to hell and international opprobrium. And yet you have the “courage” to complain when others are warning us of the consequences of our decisions – though this is only so, because you happen to agree with this opportunistic policy, irrespective of the isolation that this will lead to.
You are insensitive and trite. You can’t understand my anger because you don’t know how disgusted I feel at being forced to share my nationality with you and people like you! You and your ilk were always a motley collection of hypocritical opportunistic selfish nincompoops, making a bish out of administering this country when the Labour party was in power, and you’ll be making a complete and total ass of yourselves when you’re in power next time round.
Pity is, just like the rebels in Libya, there’s little or nothing that we can do about it – except perhaps do what you did and leave the country when Labour is returned. Then we’ll criticise your buddies from OUR throne abroad then, as you do now – comfortable in the knowledge that the consequences of decisions taken after having fomented the rabble by remote (you should have heard all the balderdash that was coming across on the radio waves when the Government’s position was announced!! – and by you, I’m not referring to you kev) won’t affect us one iota in our safehaven.
Hope that answers your question as to why I’m angry.
See, William, that’s what’s preventing you from objectively assessing the situation.
Aren’t we lucky then, that we’ve got ‘Objective You’ to save us?
I loved the caricature, wonka, and I’m sure it could have been funnier had you not run out of expletives.
So is that what you think I think? No wonder you’re in such a quandary, miskin.
Seeing that your heart bleeds so much – unlike our soldier ant, Baxxter – you can check out what is happening in the Ivory Coast and report back on the hour.
Kev, what is happening in Libya is much worse than the Ivory Coast. There 10,000 people have been killed in a civil war that has drgged on for years.
In Libya, which is incidentally much closer to home, 8,000 people have been killed in a few weeks, and this is not even a civil war. This is one man against his entire people.
And we’re not even counting the ones he killed over the last 42 years.
Willywonka, since my reply seems to have vanished, I’ll just query you on the source of the 8,000 dead you mention.
kev – try these ultra-biased-anti-ghaddafi-colonialist-al-Qaeda-terorist sponsored media for starters:
http://politifi.com/news/Libya-Rebels-Over-8000-Killed-in-Revolt-2128385.html
http://rt.com/news/line/2011-03-21/
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/03/20/libya-rebels-over-8000-killed-in-revolt/
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/7a197558-c540-46a6-9678-0547a7a30996.aspx
Bravo Colin – this is exactly what Tonio Borg should have said. Without getting into the issue of “Malta will not be used as a military base” which is completely unworkable in any case. We don’t have a military base to offer.
“They still think of Germany as Nazi-Germany” Wow! Very deep perception. That puts their perception in quite a context I would say. I would suggest they at first read a history of Europe (if they know where that is) of the last 70 years after WW2.
I would suggest you read back what I wrote and revise your comment. I wrote they still thought of it as “the FORMER Nazi Germany”.
Your omission of the word “former” changes the implications entirely and forms the basis of your argument. If they perceived it as still being “Nazi Germany” that would be quite different.
Nevertheless, I think you’d agree that the “former Nazi Germany” comment was intended to be tongue-in-cheek (Remember Basil Fawlty? Don’t mention the War!). Perhaps that was your intention when you wrote, “if they know where that [Europe] is”. Back to the real matter at hand…
http://english.albeu.com/albania-news/albania-supports-the-attacks-on-libya/32495/
Albania supports the attacks on Libya
20.03.2011, ora 20:47
Several hours after the air strikes on Libya, Prime Minister Sali Berisha supported the decision of the coalition to protect civilians from the Libyan regime of Gaddafi as Albania. Berisha also offered assistance to facilitate the international coalition actions.
In a press release of the Prime Ministry, these operations are considered entirely legitimate, having as main objective the protection of freedoms and universal rights that Libyans deserve.
“Albania stands ready to provide necessary facilities to the international coalition in its mission that is important for freedom, peace and stability in the Mediterranean”, concludes the statement./albeu.com/
The Maltese ARE actually opportunistic cowards.
Strong with the weak, weak with the strong …….. yada yada yada
Muscat as per the times said that Malta is in favour of peace bla bla bla bla. Tell that to the people in Libya, where as an opposition politician he would have been killed or jailed along with thousands of others whose only crime was to disagree with Muammar Gaddafi.
Too many of our political class are either too thick too comprehend the unfolding events or too shallow to want to do anything to be part of them.
Malta has some of the most gifted people I have come across anywhere in the world. Apart from Simon, none of them are in politics.
Ouch!
Brilliant!
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=4412935
Sweden is neutral too…but waiting for UN to ask….
Ireland neutral too, but will not participate…it was St. Patrick’s day when things were decided…besides they have no cash to support the initiative…
Din minn hobbok hrigtha, Stann?
Ghax St Patrick u bla flus. U le, jahasra! San Pawl, ghidilhom…