"We are afraid of Malta….it has good relations with the Gaddafi regime. We call it another province of Libya and not an independent state" – the Opposition in Benghazi
The new government of Benghazi thinks that this man runs Malta.
The Financial Times (ft.com) published an article earlier tonight in which a member of the Libyan opposition’s banking committee in Benghazi is quoted as telling the newspaper that the new Libyan opposition fears Malta and regards it as a Gaddafi satellite.
And this was before they heard the news that Gadaffi’s emissaries flew in today to speak to the Maltese prime minister and then flew out again immediately.
While the idiots in our midst worry about the prospect of upsetting Gaddafi, I have said right from the start that they are too damned dumb to understand that what we should really be worrying about, because of our Gaddafi history, is the real risk that the opposition will not trust us. This means that if the opposition takes over, as it will do sooner or later, Malta’s favourable relationship with Libya, which was actually a favourable relationship with its dictator, will be reversed.
From the most trusted, we will become the least trusted.
That is not good at any level, but if the twits at all levels think that it’s going to be business as usual for the Maltese in Libya, friends of Gaddafi, they are poor strategists and lousy psychologists.
All we needed was that total moron John Dalli shooting his mouth off and rooting for Gaddafi. If he really did have John Dalli & Associates in mind as so many concluded he did – with good reason, given the facts – then he failed to calculate the risks properly even there. After he said what he did, it’s not likely there’s going to be an orderly queue at John Dalli & Associates’ door in Tripoli once the regime is ousted.
Here’s the paragraph in question.
Mr Huni said they believed Col Gaddafi’s sons had kept most of their assets offshore, including in Turkey, Dubai, Bahrain, Europe, South Africa and Malta.
“We are afraid of Malta, it has good relations with the Gaddafi regime, we call it another province of Libya, rather than an independent state,” he said.
He alleged that Malta was used as an offshore centre when Libya was under sanctions in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Here’s the link.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c007e5e-4a80-11e0-82ab-00144feab49a,s01=1.html#axzz1G96O0TH4
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/169043.html
If the Libyan Opposition knows that the Gaddafis stashed their ill gotten gains in Turkey, Dubai, Bahrain, Europe, South Africa AND Malta, then could il-Pixtu ta’ Kruc be sitting on a pot of gold?
[Daphne – I have information that yes, indeed he is: a pot of gold so vast that the figures will make your eyes water.]
Could it be the reason for the LP refusing to submit its financial statements (including the balance sheet) and prefer to pay a penalty each year?
No wonder KMB and the whole LP set-up are wetting their pants and hoping that Gaddafi will somehow survive.
So has this “pot of Gold” been frozen?
But does it mean that the Pixtu can personally draw from the pot of gold?
As I have previously commented on this blog, Malta should recognise the interim government in Benghazi now.
President Sarkozy of France is meeting with emissaries from the Libyan National Council from Benghazi while our Prime minister is meeting emissaries from Gaddafi.
What message kind of message are we trying to deliver?
If the rest of Libya has rebelled why hasn’t this ‘province’ of Libya (i.e. Malta) joined the rebellion too?
“…offshore, including in Turkey, Dubai, Bahrain, Europe, South Africa and Malta.”
Why is this source mentioning Malta when it has already included the whole of Europe? Aren’t we a part of Europe? Excuse me, but a source that singles out Malta and in a statement pulls it out of its European context, is one which is making a very worrying attempt to damage our reputation.
[Daphne – Those are our chickens coming home to roost, Joe. For 42 years Malta has made a big meal of having a special relationship with Libya. It turns out now that our special relationship was with the Gaddafi regime. We are being singled out by the Libyan National Council (the new government in Benghazi) precisely for this reason. Like I said at the beginning – what must the Libyan people have thought of the Maltese over all these years, watching us come and go and getting into bed with their oppressor and butcher to make a fast buck and to stop him sending warships in our direction? Fortunately, many are able to distinguish between the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, and reserve their greatest fear and suspicion for Labour, which really did have a personal relationship with Gaddafi. It’s going to be very difficult for emissaries of the Malta Labour Party to build bridge with the new government in Libya, I can tell you, and sitting on the fence is not going to save people like Karmenu Vella, George Vella, AST, Joseph and the works, but is making the situation worse.]
At this point, it looks like our position is already compromised with regards to the new order of things in Libya. Allura, we might as well keep our status quo and root for Ghaddafi!
[Daphne – You cannot be serious. And that is quite apart from the fact that there is no ‘we’. I don’t root for Gaddafi, never did, nor did anyone I knew personally. Rather the opposite. Those who root for Gaddafi do so because the Labour Party told them to do so. Labour roots for Gaddafi. The Maltese people do not. We are all forgetting, thanks to Labour Party propaganda, that Malta has had links with Libya for hundreds of years. There were Maltin ta’ Tripli in the same way that there were Maltin ta’ Tunez and Maltin ta’ Bona (in Algiera). Most left when Gaddafi came to power. Maltese businesses operated in and traded with Libya before 1969. But the Labour Party seeks to have us believe, with its anniversaries and its events, that we first got in touch with Libya in 1969. That is a tacit admission that the relationship they celebrate and mark with an anniversary event is not the relationship between Malta and Libya, as they claim, but between Malta (or rather, Labour) and Gaddafi. But more about that in my column on Sunday.]
sure … that’s why gonzi never visited Gaddafi … don’t make it political to favour PN cause both the MLP and PN did wrong … as was said by the opposition party in Benghazi … Gonzi met with Gaddafi emissaries …
So point being don’t blame it on labour blame it on both …
Many Labourites – and the odd EU commissioner – are living in denial: they refuse to accept that Gaddafi is on the way out.
Mind you, even if he were to remain in power, it would be immoral to even think of doing business with him, let alone accept him as the legitimate ruler of Libya.
Gaddafi is on his way out.
It’s so sad to read that the new Libyan National Council in Benghazi thinks this way of Malta, but honestly I don’t blame them.
Firstly, because of our cowardly relationship with Gaddafi, brought about by Mintoff in the ‘golden years’ which made us seem as his servants.
Secondly it’s the stance of the PN government which stayed attached to Gaddafi in fear of being denied ‘OIL’ and lastly even now that we know that he reached the point of no return, we are still fearing him in case he makes a comeback.
This is hypocrisy, we should take a stand and let the brave people of Libya know that we’re on their side no matter what.
We must no be afraid of a dictator who has bullied the world for 42 years.Enough is enough.
The Nationalist government kept close to Libya and by necessity Gaddafi because the latter’s regime was the only authority internationally recognized, in Libya.
Have we forgotten the LP insinuations that the NP (to the detriment of Malta) distances itself from the coziness to Gaddafi previously accorded by the LP to Gaddafi? Now, all of a sudden, some are accusing the NP of being too close to Gaddafi?
The issue of OIL is a nonstarter. I wish for once the LP or indeed the government would illuminate us about the savings Malta reaped from buying ‘cheap’ oil from Libya. I was/is under the impression that oil is bought at market prices, whether from Libya or elsewhere.
Do I take it that in Labour’s years, they were buying at international prices and then receiving rebates or commissions through a back door? If so, where did these ‘finder’s fees go? Maybe Pixtu can shed some light especially when Gaddafi goes and the matter of ‘client secrecy’ no longer applies?
Can he become a material witness during Gaddafi’s trial?
How providential it turned out to be that the NP has kept a discreet distance from Gaddafi’s doings and how fortunate it was for Malta that the very close Gaddafi friend (Mintoff) toppled the Labour government and that these events are happening (and hopefully resolved) during a Nationalist administration.
I just read The Malta Independent’s editorial and it gives one food for thought. It indirectly points fingers at those gutless, or rather sinister ‘journalists’ who have been feeding international news networks with slanted information leading the world to believe that Malta is somehow a haven for a bunch of Gaddafi aficionados.
Of course, Dalli did not help matters. Sooner or later, Gaddafi goes, dead or alive, but in the meantime the world organizations stand idle letting the massacre continue and perhaps when very few of the ‘rebels’ are left to save, they will show their might!
A tad too late, say I.
Has Malta frozen Gaddafi’s assets in Malta?
[Daphne – Silvio, yes, Malta is part of the EU. The EU has laid down sanctions. Malta has to enforce them. What are you suggesting – that Malta might be cheating or pretending to enforce sanctions while protecting Gaddafi family assets?]
No you got me all wrong. I was only asking, I really didn’t know that the sanctions included freezing their assets.
You have access to the internet. Use it.
Not the first time it happened. Major international banks know what they have to do and how to do it as long as their national governments look the other way.
Sanctions are only effective in stopping food, medicine and general goods needed by the middle class and poor. Everybody else will be better off as they’ll have more power on the lower classes.
We can all see that living one’s life in a certain way, will, in the end, affect one’s destiny. It’s only a matter of time.
It seems to me that the first thing we need to do if the opposition takes over is to make sure they recognise Malta as a state before we recognise them as the legitimate government of Libya.
Dan hu il-Helsien ta’ Mintoff.
Not if, when. And we’re in no position to make such demands. To exclude the international context is to make the same mistake that Dalli did.
Malta does not exist in a vacuum.
The best we can do is to get the government to appoint an independent commission of reputable foreigners to investigate misdemeanours here in Malta and bring the relevant people to public shame at least. The SA judge responsible for the T&R Commission come to mind…
We need it for the record. We need to leave the past behind not by forgetting it but by shining a stark light on it and moving away from its shadow.
Stop with compromise. I bet we’ll get a couple of terrorist attacks if this commission were to happen…
We’ve had terrorist attacks even without the commission.
I can’t imagine why so many people are getting the jitters now as though kow-towing to Gaddafi for years afforded us any sort of protection from his insanity.
agreed
Daphne do you not find it rather strange that our Prime Minister did not tell Gaddhafi’s emissairies that Gaddhafi should be removed? He simply told them that violence should be stopped! Something which in my opinion should be stopped on both sides. Such a statement does not tally with the wishes of the new revolutionary Council in Benghazi.
[Daphne – We don’t know what was said because we were not told, apart from that brief sentence that violence should stop. They met for an hour, and I hardly think the prime minister repeated that like a parrot. I would wish, however, for a public and categorical denunciation of Gaddafi that will severe our ties with that regime once and for all – publicly.]
So now Malta is in a VERY HAPPY position
”
Gaddafi got the message. ” We are not your friends any more
The opposition dont trust us, because as they say we are just another province of Libya.
So now what?
[Daphne – That’s what comes of being half-assed in your behaviour, Silvio. And we did not give Gaddafi the message that Malta is no longer his friend. Not at all. Rather the opposite, which is why we were the Gaddafi delegation’s first point of call.]
But in your opinion should we severe ties with Libya even if Gaddhafi remains in power?
[Daphne – The European Union has made itself clear already on that one. You can’t call for somebody to step down, condemn his murderous behaviour, and then say ‘Right, now it’s back to business.’ We’ve gone beyond that point.]
This has been done before with Gaddafi. Is it possible that you forgot?
Malta exudes fear from its much larger neighbours. Is this a joke or has the paranoia pandemic reached African shores?
[Daphne – Fear is exuded by those who are frightened, Jack, not by those who frighten others. Or is that what you meant?]