General Johnny Dalli is rounding up his officers

Is this going to be the Sargas election?

Now Jesmond Mugliett is beginning to go off, too. You always know when Johnny Dalli is planning something, through the sheer inability of his lieutenants to maintain an inscrutable facade.

Here he is on Facebook today:

On the same day that PM calls for a stop on personal attacks, I am called a person of dubious character by the hate blogger of wardija. To me it has long been evident that the PM had lost control over this coterie of evil bloggers.

First of all, Jesmond, I live in Bidnija and have done so for the last two decades and counting. Bidnija, not Wardija and certainly not Bahrija.

Secondly, you do yourself and your General Johnny no favours when you expose your links by using the exact same terminology – hate blogger – that Saviour Balzan does. Incidentally, both Saviour and Jeffrey know exactly where I live because they have been to our house, Saviour when it was set on fire (to write a report) and Jeffrey when he needed my help and support in the last general election.

Thirdly, you are of dubious character. You are underhand, disloyal and – if the accusations of the Labour Party before 2008 are to be believed – also unprincipled. But more to the point, I don’t like or trust you – and when a woman doesn’t like or trust a man, even only going on instinct, she’s usually right. I ignored my first instincts with Jeffrey. That’s always unwise.

Now for the lessons in democracy, lessons you need to be taught because your views on freedom of expression and control are one of the reasons I believe that you, General Johnny and Lieutenant Jeff more properly belong with Labour.

Indeed, I think the reason you spend most of your time socialising with Labour sleazes, feel so at odds with the Nationalist Party’s shift away from the conservative right, and have entered into personal unions with Labour sympathisers, in Jeffrey’s case twice in succession (I would have found it impossible to be in a relationship with a Laburist, the fundamental differences in attitude, rather than politics, being too acute) is that you are more comfortable with people who think that way, and that the Labour Party is your natural home, as your behaviour demonstrates.

“The PM has lost control over this coterie of evil bloggers”.

Do you understand that you are NOT living in China or North Korea, Jesmond? I address myself to you, too, Jeffrey, because you have said similar things on your own Facebook wall (pathetic for a man your age, but anyway).

The prime minister of a democratic country does not control the media. He especially does not control the blogosphere or the internet. This is an EU member state. The prime minister could not even control the media when that prime minister was Dom Mintoff and the year was 1979, which is why his supporters had to resort to arson and terror as their last-ditch attempts at control.

The prime minister does not phone people and tell them what to write. More to the point, he does not phone people and tell them what not to write.

Let’s try to envisage the scenario you and the Labour Party have in mind, shall we, Jes and Jeff?

BRRRRNNNNNNG!

Hello?

Mrs Caruana Galizia? Il-prim ministru jixtieq ikellmek.

Oh, what a nice surprise. This has certainly brightened my morning.

Hello, kif int, all right? Tajbin?

Tajbin, grazzi, u int? Mrs Gonzi? Kullhadd tajjeb?

Tajjeb, grazzi. Tajbin. Imma qed nghidlek biex tieqaf immedjatament milli tghid affarijiet dwar Franco, Jesmond, Jeffrey u Dalli ghax tipijiet bhal dawk ma tafx x’jaqbdu jaghmlu meta ikollhom xi fellus f’rashom. Jekk tkompli sejra hekk, ikun ghib ghalik.

(AND HERE I MUST BUTT INTO MY OWN IMAGINARY CONVERSATION TO SAY THAT I CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE THE PRIME MINISTER SAYING SOMETHING LIKE THIS, AND IT SOUNDS ALL WRONG NO MATTER WHAT SORT OF WORDS I USE.)

X’inhi? Mela sirt tahsiba bhal Mintoff issa? Ejja ahraqli d-dar ukoll, ghal ftit, jew ghamilli xi bomba wara l-bieb, jew arrestani u deffisni go xi cella mahmuga. Ma nistax nemmen x’qed nisma. Int il-prim ministru, jew din xi cajta?

———

The prime minister could never lose control of ‘evil bloggers’, Jesmond, because in a democracy the prime minister never has control of bloggers in the first place.

This is a simple concept for people like me to understand. It is clearly much more difficult for people whose natural home is the Malta Labour Party.

———-

Jesmond Mugliett’s ‘friends from the gutter’ are so well informed, well read and up to speed, that they don’t even have a clue what he’s on about. They just know that ‘Defni’ is something evil and bad because that’s what Super One tells them.

And so Jesmond got this stupid response among others, from somebody who thinks that mine is a fictitious name (and can’t even spell it) and is not even sure what gender I am because Daphne, for all she knows, is a man’s name:

I WOULD DISREGARD ANYTHING ANYONE SAYS UNDER A FICTISCIOUS NAME. THE FACT THAT YOU ANSWERED HER/HIM YOU GAVE HIM/HER THE IMPORTANCE THEY DO NOT DESERVE!

It must be really heartwarming to know you have the validation of so many people with half a fried brain.

———–

When Jesmond Mugliett, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Saviour Balzan (what irony, a newspaper owner…) and the Labour Party say that the prime minister should stop people like me, do they know what they’re saying?

They have either taken leave of their senses, or they have no understanding of how the media operate in a democracy. As for the Labour Party, we knew that about them already.

Their history with free speech involved instigating the burning down of a newspaper building and using Xandir Malta in much the same way that they now use Super One.

Now we have the even more delicious irony of hearing Franco Debono call, simultaneously, for harsher libel laws, an end to criticism of his behaviour, and more democracy. Indeed.

As for using the term ‘evil’ to describe people who criticise you, Jesmond, might I suggest that the next time you disport yourself in Magistrate Herrera’s salon, you take a good look at some of your fellow guests. I wouldn’t spend five minutes in their company if you paid me.