Here’s another one
Posted by Francis Saliba MD:
One more fact about Mintoff’s paranoid treatment of the poor policemen asigned to protect him.
When the British forces were packing up to leave after the UK government refused Mintoff’s demand for a higher rent, he developed a phobia that an attempt could be made to blow up Castille, Guy Fawkes’ style, using the abandoned tunnels under Valletta, therefore a continuous police guard was stationed in the Ditch.
On a cold and rainy night the policeman on duty who was sheltering from the rain was mystified to recognise Mintoff & Co searching the area. When the poor fellow could not contain his curiosity any longer he left his hiding place, approached Mintoff and asked him respectfully if he needed anything.
He got the scolding of his life for sheltering from the rain and was peremptorily ordered by Mintoff to go to the Police HQ there and then and to inform the Commissioner of Police that Mintoff had just dismissed him on the spot. Better counsel later prevailed and the constable did not actually lose his job.
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1979 and all that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c37GdAzgQo
May I suggest that these and other anecdotes be published in a booklet. If I may suggest a fitting name, How about
” .Il-Hrejjef Ta Gahan”.
As seen by an unbiased citizen.
Should help scaring naughty children and make them sleep.
How about ‘la verita offende’
It should be made compulsory reading for all secondary-school children, instead of the nonsensical prose and poetry they are obliged to study.
Don’t you dare call the “salvatur” Mintoff, the subject of your proposed booklet of fairy tales, a “Gahan” and don’t you call your good self “an unbiased citizen”. That is a gross fairy tale that would not fool or frighten any child preparing to go to bed but it may make him giggle uncontrollably.
Going back to what you wrote about that unfortunate policeman who was on guard duty outside Mintoff”s villa:
I wonder whether anyone has ever seen soilders sleeping in their cars while on guard duty in front of 10 Downing Street?
Dear Doctor, let’s call this checkmate and move on to something else.
@ Silvio.
Check mate nothing. You are mixed up. I did not write anything about any policeman on “fixed point duty” outside Mintoff’s villa.
And policemen outside 10 Downing Street are sensibly provided with shelter from wind and rain. The policemen outside Mintoff’s residences weren’t. That is why Mintoff’s wife felt the need to pass them an occasional glass of water surreptitously when Mintoff was not “in residence”.
But Mintoff was the Prime Minister who believed Laurence Pullicino, the then Police Commissioner, and his suicide team of high ranking Police Officers, that Nardu Debono who was found dead in a ditch in Qormi had escaped from Police Head Quarters.
Not even a Magisterial enquiry was carried out about this murder case because for Mintoff the statement of the high ranking Police Officers was enough to determine this brutal case.
This is the type of person who used to be our Prime Minister.
Eventually it transpired that Nardu was beaten to death by the same high ranking Police Officers at the Police GHQ in the presence of Laurence Pullicino.
Nardu died whilst in Police custody and was picked up from a Police cell by Ex Police Sergeant 710, Joseph Mangion, who was following instructions issued to him by Laurence Pullicino, was put in a luggage booth of a blue Simca and was driven to Qormi where the dead body was thrown into a ditch.
However, after the 1987 election when Laurence Pullicino was accused in court of Nardu’s murder the same PS 710 had testified that he saw Nardu Debono walking in the streets of Qormi.
I think it was KMB who glibly accepted the perjured affidavits of the police officers involved, presented to him by the Commissiomer of Police Lawrence Pullicino, which successfully aborted any genuine investigation of that murder for many years.
I am not aware that the Commissioner of Police himself was so stupid as to be actually physically present during the violent “softening up” of Nardu Debono that led to his death.
PS 710’s immunity was, and is still is, a big mystery to me. I guessed that it was hoped in vain that he would divulge the truth if offered a presidential pardon – but he never did. He spent a good part of his subsequent police career on “sick leave” whilst actually participating in the construction of government flats in the Mandragg.
As the then Police Medical Officer I saw him doing it with my own eyes.
Dr. Saliba you are a great man and you played a great part during those times because you saved many jobs of police officers who were being inhumanely treated by the Mintoff regime, to the extent that some of them ended up with depression or anxiety.
But Mintoff had no respect for such people and their families either. We all thank you for what you did.
You yourself have suffered a lot too.
I really enjoy reading your comments because you know the story and certain events inside out.
The murder happened in 1980 when Mintoff was prime minister and Mintoff was also questioned in parliament about what had happened and what the police were doing about the brutal case. He had admitted that he believed the statements of those disgraceful high police officers.
May I refer you to page 8 of Liberta Mhedda.
Mintoff did not have any respect for anybody in the police force who believed in the maintenance of law and order without fear or favour – hence the rapid turn over of Commissioners of Police until he hit on Cachia and Pullicino.
I am not saying that he had any genuine respect for these two either. He simply had a use for them in the promotion of his “sixth” point that political violence against his opponents was admissible.
As Police Medical Officer I was deeply distressed by the ruin of the careers of so many worthy policemen and their families. That concern was the real reason why Mintoff forced my illegal compulsory reirement ostensibly “on grounds of public ineterest”. Public interest indeed!
Sounds more like George III
http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Health-minister-Joe-Cassar-goes-viral-20120404
Video goes viral? It has 302 views now, probably all from people watching it embedded in their article. It’s almost as though they created the video themselves.
[Daphne – Such brilliant satire.]
What rubbish, one for the “Affari Taghna” I.Q. level crowd.
Yes, from “bcoolblabour” – says it all.
Mintoff ivvendika ruhu minn Boffa li kien ta’ l-istess partit tieghu, u minn Attard Kingswell, u sa hansitra itollera nies tal GWU stess jigu msawta gewwa id-dar tal Union stess,ahseb u ara kif kien jitratta lin-Nazzjonalisti.
Dwar Boffa qala storja tal-wahx ghax akkuzah dwar kaz ta’ sess ma’ tifla taht l-eta’ li kienet tigi minn Boffa stess. U wara dan il-kaz Mintoff lahaq kap tal-partit.
Imma bil-Malti nghidu kif taghmel jaghmlulek ghax Lorry Sant xi haga simili prova jghamillu fil-Parlament meta beda jxejjer dak l-envelope il-kanella. Nahseb ghal Lorry Sant kienet it-teorija ta’ x’ghandek taghmel biex tilhaq kap fil-PL.
Il-kelma preciza mhix li Mintoff “ivvendika” ruhu minn Pawlu Boffa imma li vilment “ttradih”. Dak lanqas ma kien l-ahhar tradiment Mintoffjan ta’ xi Laburisti bhalu. Saqsu lil Fredu Sant.
Imma hemm min jixtieq jirrevedi, jew inessi, dawk il-pagni tal-misthija fl-istorja ta’ Malta.
Jiena naf b’kaz li darba Mintoff ipparkja quddiem ir-Radio City fil-Hamrun, bil-Mercedes griza, ezatt fil-kantuniera. Kien hemm daqsxejn ta’kunstabli gdid, ghamel citazzjoni lil Mintoff ghaliex l-vettura kienet ipparkjata hazin. L-ghada filghodu dan il-puluzjot spicca ha wiehed miz-17 l-transfer (ghaliex kien jaghmel xogholu) fi zmien 16 l-sena fil-pulizija. Pullicino kien l-aqwa difensur tal-korp tal-Puluzija!
Rizultat ahhari-tirufnat lejn L-Awstralija.