Mintoffianomics: police officers ordered to cook and serve as waiters at Girgenti Palace banquet
The police were requested to cook a banquet for 300 people at Girgenti Palace last night, and 25 police officers were ordered by their superiors to dress up as waiters and serve it.
The government likes to think that it is taking a businesslike approach to maximising resources, making sure everything is used all the time and that costs are cut by using what we have (that would explain all the new expenditure on salaries for meritocratic people, then…).
They don’t seem to realise, or perhaps they do, that things are taking the Mintoffian turn so many of us remember so clearly: the descent into the cheap, the ridiculous, and the seriously damaging.
This is the latest shock news.
Last night, there was a banquet at Girgenti Palace for between 250 and 300 delegates from a conference of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) currently being held in Malta.
The Police Corps was requested to provide the catering. Around 25 police officers were ordered – yes, ordered by their superiors – to serve as waiters at the banquet.
Of course, this is appalling at several levels which I hope I do not have to explain. But I will point out the hypocrisy: even as the Labour government talks this week about allowing the police to form and join a labour union, it commits such gross abuse.
Demanding that the Police Corps provide the catering for a government banquet is abuse of the highest order. The government is responsible for the police, but the police are not answerable to the government. They are a separate power. This is a democratic safeguard.
It looks like the Labour Party HAS NOT LEARNED ITS LESSON from a quarter-century in Opposition and thinks that it can picked up where it left off, with the police doing the government’s bidding – this time not beating up Enemies of the State and sometimes killing them, but cooking dinner, putting on waiter’s rig and serving at table at Girgenti Palace.
You might be asking the obvious question – how the police could have coped when they don’t have catering facilities. The fact is that they do: the police kitchens which are there to provide routine food for routine purposes. And once a year, at Christmas, they have a party at Police HQ and they do it all themselves. They make the food and hand it about. And that’s about it. They are not equipped or trained to cater for a formal banquet for 300 people.
So apart from the abuse of power in ordering the police to cook and serve a banquet for 300 for the government’s guests at Girgenti Palace, you also have the other factor. I am sure the police did their best under Manuel Mallia’s whip – we all know what miserly household management skills he has, sending his Romanian nanny to get water every day from the public fountain at the Valletta Mainguard (I repeat that this is a fact) – so he will have thought nothing of using the police to cook supper.
But what can it have been like? For shame, all round.
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I’ve also heard that the Police Force Band is practically being dismantled and opened up to anyone outside the police force who’s interested.
This means that on the day of performance, band players have to be given police uniforms for the day. If true, it would also add to the absurdity of the above.
Fancy that, fitting those uniforms and getting the average trombone player to shave his white sideburns.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maltacom/7655496564/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Please could you explain to me who the police are answerable to, is this a joke when you say that the government is responsibly for the police, but the police are not answerable to the government.
Aren’t they suppose to be answerable to the public who pays their wages which is in fact the government, or do you mean the police aren’t answerable to anyone and they do what they like and when they like. Such nonsense.
[Daphne – That’s it, Mr Farrugia. The Police Corps are a separate constitutional power. The police and police commissioner are subject to scrutiny by parliament. The Labour Party has taken it to mean ‘the government’, because they have the parliamentary majority.]
To Jozef: get your instruments right.
Does anyone who is not a policeman, have the right to wear a police uniform ? What next, dress up as a policeman during the three forthcoming carnivals.
Is it safe to assume the 25 were all PN voters?
[Daphne – Hardly. You shouldn’t assume that it was they who spoke.]
Don’t the police officers have contracts stating their duties?
Or is there the infamous catch-all clause ‘do whatever the boss tells me to do’?
Who did the washing up? Local wardens in pinnies?
They left it for Simon, along with all the other mess.
You wrote ‘this time not beating up Enemies of the State and sometimes killing them’. May I add the words ‘for now’?
U iva, mhux xorta? L-aqwa li tmajnihom xi haga.
Li jisparpalja Joseph biex ikarkar lil mara u t-tewmin mieghu kull darba li jsiefer, irridu ingibuhom minn x’imkien.
The police force has introduced a new term “Work as required”.
Can’t believe it…wait for it we’ll be back to buying second hand again soon.
The reality of government is that that is being run that way, borrowing managers from the Labour Party, technicians from Super one and now cooks and waiters from the Police Corps.
Where did you get this information from, because it should be headline news – for several reasons.
Your sources must be mixing things up, because this makes no sense at all.
[Daphne – They certainly have not. I got this information from the horse’s mouth. No doubt it will be followed up during the course of the day. I know these things sound strange and impossible to young people of your generation, but people of my generation know they are entirely possible with the Labour Party. It’s what we have been talking about all along. We saw far, far worse than that, and it was all treated as normal – precisely because it really was our normality.]
il-gurnata minn filghodu turik
lil min tafu issaqsix ghalih
il-qah… milli jkollha ttik
Daphne, I’m by no means ‘a young person of your generation’ but to me it’s still – literally – u n b e l i e v a b l e.
Daphne, that’s because you and I remember the time when bus-drivers went on strike and Mintoff’s solution was to force soldiers to use their army trucks to collect people from bus-stops.
Such fun – women, children and the elderly pushed up the ladder-steps at the back. Spielberg wouldn’t have done better.
It has made headline news:
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Pulizija+jintu%26%23380%3Baw+b%26%23295%3Bala+waiters&t=a&aid=99848475&cid=19
Thanks to Daphne, most probably.
[Daphne – No, not at all. But the person who spoke to me almost certainly spoke to them too.]
How utterly shameful. What’s next? Ordering the police to fill up jerry cans with water from the fountain, instead of having his nanny do it?
Were they looking for a Pulizija Laburist? A contract caterer with an NDA attached to it? Motivation incentives for promotion?
Is this why they said Security was understaffed?
Please tell me this is a joke.
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but it is not.]
@Hotelier – there’s more information on Maltarightnow.
It may be a joke now, but wait 5 years, and maybe not even that long, and we will be worrying about the access a leading criminal lawyer had to the police . Someone mentioned revising ethical guidelines did they not?
Access that criminals have to the minister of justice.
Apart from squalid and shameful (the Labour Party’s actual brand) this practice is also dangerous in terms of hygiene standards.
Tillapazza…bazwar minn hemm u bazwar minn hawn.
‘It looks like the Labour Party HAS NOT LEARNED ITS LESSON from a quarter-century in Opposition and thinks that it can picked up where it left off, with the police doing the government’s bidding – this time not beating up Enemies of the State and sometimes killing them….’
Not yet, not yet. But don’t be so sure. With all the transfers going on in the police force, and the SAG in particular, one has to wonder what is on their mind.
I’m in my mid-50s and people of that era remember well the dark days of the infamous SMU. We also remember well the police protected labour thugs and the rampage that went on. Many of them are still there and are being rewarded for services rendered.
Now let us fast forward to July 2017 and imagine a scenario. Both parties switch to election mode.
Mind you, Labour including the government are still/already in election mode. The polls show that the 36000 gap has dwindled dramatically and is disappearing fast.
All of a sudden these people get their faces out of the trough and realise that electors might be kicking them out and putting an end to their eating frenzy.
Does anyone really think that they will not do anything to cling to power? And yes that will include intimidation and violence.
They do not know any better and to them power is everything. A fantastic marketing campaign will win you an election from the opposition. But when you are the government it is results and good governance that count. And as we have seen, not even those are enough if other factors are present.
They do say that history repeats itself and the writing has already started to appear on the wall. Hopefully I am very wrong, about the violence bit that is.
Nothing surprises me with this lot. Now to brace ourselves for the next tasteless and improper decision.
Perhaps the Police needed a little puxxjatura to join the union.
If Manwel Mallia promotes this behaviour and code, how are the Police going to discern when and what rights have been breached when faced with finer white collar crime circumstances in their main line of business?
What do you expect from a fountain-water-harvesting minister?
John Bundy was right..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5dNnxqv6zA
Jghaddi ftit zmien iehor, u John Bundy stess johrog remix tad-diska tieghu stess.
He’s part of Mickey Mouse clan himself now unless he has, yet another, change of heart. Or is he too far gone?
Let us remember how it all started when in the 70s Mintoff decided to use the police corps as a brute force against the ‘enemies of the state’, which in simple terms meant anybody who did not support Labour.
He started by undermining the police force in general and exposing them to public ridicule.
Then he gave absolute power to the hard-Labour-leaning ones in the force via its commissioner.
In those days he did not order them to dress up as waiters and serve guests at parties. Instead he gave them summer uniforms that were just like those worn by street-sweepers.
One word, Daphne: McJustice. It was originally coined by the Chief Justice of Minnesota, Kathleen Blatz, to refer to how justice was being dished out like fast food. I guess it applies to criminal justice personnel as well, under new Labour.
SEEMS TO ME WE CANNOT GET MINTOFF OUT OF OUR SYSTEM.
WE WILL BE CURSED FOR ETERNITY.
Oh Manwel and the art of waitering take me back to my favorite Fawlty Towers comedy guffaws.
What has Tony Zahra of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association got to say about this ‘unfair competition’ to its members who include, among others, his brother’s Island Caterers operation?
More than unfair competition, the issue is one of quality.
What’s the point of encouraging young people to get themselves trained at the ITS, if government engages people with no experience as chefs?
Is this government’s idea of promoting Maltese gastronomy with our distinguished guests?
Nothing much to say. Hoteliers got a permit of an additional two floors. They may consider asking Manuel to order the police to take care of the construction and finishing works in their spare time.
They order police officers to cook and serve, and then tell us that Labour delivers.
Yes, pizza door to door will be next. Now that they’re in the catering business, might as well do a bit of extra on the side.
There is more detailed information in this report:
http://maltarightnow.com/default.asp?module=news&at=Pulizija+jag%26%23295%3Bmluha+ta%27+waiters&t=a&aid=99848475&cid=19
Why are we surprised ? Helena Dalli had told us that a Labour government was going to deploy people according to exigencies.
Manwel Mallia thought that the police would do a better job than persons from the Institute of Tourism Studies. Veru pajjiz tal-MICKEY MOUSE.
If I were a delegate of the European Broadcasting Union I wouldn’t have been amused at being served by police officers ‘under cover’ as waiters. It gives the impression that the delegates were under police survillance. Such things used to happen in Communist countries
Yeah, the handcuffs swing into view while serving the soup.
Your comment reminded me of the staff at the Tripoli hotel were all the journalists were being ‘hosted’ during the uprising in Libya. They were all police or military men and women.
If the guests were told about the arrangement they would have either assumed that they were under surveillance (= police state) or that there was some grave security threat and their lives deemed to be in danger.
If they were not told, they would rate our hospitality/catering standards as inferior.
Either way, it’s a blow to our tourist industry.
Delegates will be thrilled to learn that security was provided by the waiters themselves. They might even suggest this amazing idea to their respective governments – I have no doubt that the police associations will be happy to accommodate.
I am sure this will find a place somewhere in European broadcasting.
It’s always exciting to have a policeman breathing down your neck while serving you food.
The more I think about it the more incredible it seems.
The bright side is that the atmosphere at home is jovial with everyone cracking jokes about waiters and policemen. There’s enough stuff for a fourth carnival.
Only, it is tragic rather than funny.
I just saw a couple of cooks directing traffic at Marsa, complete with tall white hats.
I stopped a mobile patrol which had its siren on, and they got very upset with me.
All I did was bring out my wallet and ask for an ice cream.
I’m APPALLED!
U lill-povra nanny ta’ Manuel Mallia – dak mhux xoghol PREKARJU?
Revolting.
It’s all about cost cutting Daphne. First we get the prisoners’ amnesty and they they get the policemen to work as waiters. Every cent counts.
What about the winery at Police Headquarters, Floriana in the 80s. If these functions will be the order of the day mightaswell use it.
Hi Daphne, Dr Mallia has just admitted in Parliament that this is true, but said the Police asked to cater. Who does he think we are believing this bull.
[Daphne – That is NOT the point.]
What about the MTA food handling permits? Did Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella grant a waiver there?
Making policemen cook and serve food, giving an amnesty to celebrate a political victory, putting law reform in the hands of a person who, even in the way he addressed those in office, showed that he does not know the meaning of respect and cannot distinguish between criticizing an act and ridiculing a person…This is a pattern which should have a name.
Incompetent megalomania.
L-isbah parti dwar Manuel Mallia hija li l-ewwel qalilna li nies gradwati ser jinghataw prijorita bhala rizors uman fil-Korp, imbghad injora kollox u spicca jaghmel l-interviews hu lil nies li mhux gradwati u li bhekk jew l-Ministru ghamel U-turn jew hemm zewg Ministri… Wiehed li naraw minn barra u wiehed kompletament differenti li jahdem internament bil-maqlub ghal dak li jghid mal-press.
Issa qed jaghdilna li: it was policemen themselves who had asked for transfers.
Din hija sempliciment dahka fil-wicc u strategija biex tkisser kompletament dik li kienet l-SAG u tinholoq unit gdida ta’ nies maghzulha li sa issa ghada ma ssemmiet imkien. L-IRU imhabbra ricentement QATT ma tista’ tkopri xoghol ta’ sorveljanza (normal Patrol duties) u l-istess skwadra tkopri Rapid Intervention kif ukoll Anti-riot dities.
Dan ifisser li fl-ewwel dimostrazzjoni ta’ xi 20 persuna fil-Belt, ser jkunu sospizi l-patrols ma Malta kollha biex l-iskwadra tkopri stand-by f’kas ta’ xi dizordni fil-Belt? Meta suppost li Malta qed thejji ghall-Presidenza tal-UE u bhekk koncentrazzjoni ta’ delegazzjonijiet barranin jzuru Malta, l-IRU ser tofri sigurta lid-delegati u tabbanduna patrols f’zoni residenzjali?
Il-korp qatt ma pjana ghal SOPs izda partikolarment bl-introduzzjoni tal-IRU ser tinholoq aktar tahwid ta’ min hu ezattament responsabbli minn xiex.
It may be funny at this point, but the implications of a prominent criminal defence lawyer having the police ‘in his pocket’ for 5 years are simply frightening.
From the Times:
” Dr.Mallia also thanked the police for taking over the catering of a meeting of the European Broadcasting Unit at their own request.
The police, he said, had taken care of the food and the waiting service.”
I would have liked to hear the comments of the guests if they had know that the people serving them and those that prepared the food were policemen.
Why did the police do that – were they short of overtime pay ?
In agreeing to provide catering and waiter services to the Minister responsible for the Police, the Police Commissioner has exposed his men and the force itself to ridicule and contempt.
A worthy commander would have objected strongly to being requested to provide this service and, if overruled, would have resigned as a matter of principle. How can those who serve under him now trust his judgement and integrity if he behaves as a mere lackey of the governing party?
The new police uniform is out soon, and it will include a bow-tie for when duty calls at Girgenti Palace.
The temptation to call “waiter” to our local policeman is overwhelming.
As an ex-policeman what does James Alexander Tyrell think of this abuse by the party he was so keen to promote a few short months ago? Our Eddy Privitera must also be having a major brainstorm as he decides how best to comment.
He is probably going back through a few decades of his voluminous files to “prove” that the PN committed a much more dastardly act against the police.
I’m beginning to come to terms with the fact that the word ‘unbelievable’ is going to be a daily utterance with the emerging news.
Prior to the election, friends of mine who were as resigned as myself to a Labour victory, used to console themselves by believing that with the progress we had made under the PN administrations, there was not much bad that Labour could inflict.
Well now we have the answer and it couldn’t be further from that thinking. And all of this in just a 100-odd days.
The future is frightening.
Addio il-korsijiet tal-catering li jsiru ITS għall-Ministru.
M’hemmx bżonn ta’ professjonaliżu, m’hemmx bżonn ta’ taħriġ. Idħol pulizija u l-Ministru jagħmel bik li jrid minn kok fil-kċina sa wejter biex isservi l-mistidnien tiegħu.
Mintoffianmonics is the word you used. I firmly believe that Mintoff was a lamb compared to Manwel Mallia.
After only 3 months, he has the police in his pocket and unless controlled further by Muscat, this man is going to be very dangerous.
The policeman has excellent serving skills. He should become a waiter
In the meantime, a local council has been broken into … and money stolen …
This is beyond shameful and quite honestly, Daphne, if you had not stated that you got this directly from source I would not have believed it.
[Daphne – What is most disturbing, Vera, is that they see nothing wrong with it. It is not as though they understand that it is wrong and tried to conceal it. It was open, blatant, and the minister only made things worse by saying that the Police Commissioner himself offered the police as caterers and waiters. What on earth?]
My work with the public service brought me into contact with the Police Force at all levels for a number of years. I cannot begin to think how demeaning they found this whole episode.
The arrogance of these tin-pot piddly dictators is incredible. However all you blushing switchers beware as you try and laugh it off with an ‘u ejja, imbilli…’ – the contempt for the establishment demonstrated by this action should make us all stop and think.
By embedding their lackeys (as this new Commissioner so evidently is) and yes-people everywhere that counts they will find it all too easy to implement their warped ideas of how things should be.
Could the Police Commissioner’s intention have been to get his ‘boys’ some extra overtime payments ?
Were those officers detailed to do this catering excused real police duties that they were supposed to be doing?
What would have happened to any police officer who declined to do catering duties?
If the minister responsible for the police thinks that this exercise has enhanced his reputation, and that of the police corps, he must have very strange values.
L-ideja tal-gvern ghall-gustizzja: lill-kriminali ntuhom amnestija u lill-pulizija ntuhom it-tray.
u lil haddiema onesti intuhom transfers.
Fi zmien Pullicino il-pulizija kienu jibnu, isewwu l-karozzi u jaghmlu l-qadjiet …mhux biss ghal-korp imma ghal min kien tal-qalba.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Carnival, Local Councils and Pornography has stated that “the government’s main objective is to generate jobs through culture”.
I had never understood of what use this ‘culture’ thing was and why we spent money on it. It turns out after all that it can be used to create jobs, which can;t be a bad thing.
Oh and by the way, weren’t they going to put a roof on the roofless theatre? Did they change their mind?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-28/news/open-theatre-inauguration-date-to-be-announced-soon-1941045251/
Now we know who will be doing the catering for the occasion.
Pity Manwel Mallia’s daughters are so young as otherwise he would have organized their beautiful wedding at the police depot catered by Malta’s finest.
I fully agree with you that the fact that they are so brazen about this is the most disturbing element.
Anyway I did hear that for all his high-falutin’ ways and Inglizati meta jrid Manwel Mallia is from the depths of Qormi so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised at his bizarre ‘economising’ tactics.
Nothing wrong with Qormi of course except that I despise anyone who tries to mask his origins when he feels he should be fitting in with the in-crowd. This is very bitchy of me but I can just imagine how he hard he negotiated a discount on his mail-order bride.
[Daphne – No, he’s not from Qormi. He’s actually from the arse-end of Sliema. His family ran the Blue Lantern bar in Bisazza Street. But I agree, to hear him talk, you’d think he was into a world of Faberge eggs.]
Can I have your email address please.
[Daphne – [email protected]]
“As required”
It will be interesting to know whether these police officers carry the Food Handling Certificate as it is described in the official regulations of the Health Department.
It is against the law for people to handle food for consumption by members of the public unless those handlers are certified for that work.
Pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse.
So when Lou Bondi organises a national festivity like Freedom Day (praise be to the Salvatur), is he going to order the goodies from the Police Catering Corps? These people are, after all, his new best friends.
There is no end in sight . NET News has just reported that disabled children who attend the Wardija school will be sent home, accompanied by police officers, should their parents fail to collect them when they have behavioural problems.
Policemen accompanying disabled children. Shame.
No wonder he wants to engage more policemen to the corps. He’s going to have them fetching and carrying, cooking and waitering, and anything else that comes to mind.
Remember the days when we had to report sick leave at the police station (by sending a willing relative, of course) and later a policeman would come round to check you were really at home?
I used to work at Mid-Med Bank in those days and that was the procedure whenever we were ill. I think all government employees had to go through this charade.
Lovely days. Will they be back?
So on Wednesday he told the new prison correctional officers not to betray society, on Thursday he showed them how to do it subtly. Practice what you preach!
To serve and protect. Now I understand.
Policemen ordered to act as waiters at official banquets shows a worrying trend to the misuse of the police corps in the days of Mintoff and KMB.
Just you pray, wait and hope that they won’t again be employed as conspirators of MLP violent thugs trying to suppress free the free press and fundamental freedoms.
Ghal eggburger bic-chips l-ghassa jew id-depot irrid immur?
The theory of separation of powers states there are three powers. Under which power are the police force and the security service? Besides, in the words of a university professor, these powers are not watertight compartments.
It sounds just like a bad Blackadder episode.
I guess at the next do, it will be parliamentary secretaries in thongs.
Now they did it with policeman and next with the civil workers.
I am a civil servant. If my principal tells me to do something that’s not my job I will not do it. In every grade there is the job description and everybody should stick to it.
Open your eyes, workers, and don’t let them bulldoze us like they did to the policemen.
They chickened out.
It never occurred to me that policemen would stand for that kind of thing. Shame on you, Mallia.
I am trying to imagine what kind of canapés were served at the banquet. Onion rings in the shape of handcuffs and grissini for batons.
On a more serious note, the fact that the waiters did not have the proper training and licensing is against the law.
I believe that this fact should not be dismissed.
The law requiring the food handlers to licensed is published under the Food Safety Act, but offences to the relevant legal notice are subject to the Criminal Code.
This means that ultimately the police are responsible to prosecute. If no action will be taken against this farce, it will be discrimination against past and future action that will be taken against unlicensed people.
The argument is not at all about food handling – it is about policemen being made (or volunteering) to act as cooks and waiters for the Police Minister.
This is interesting.
So the police committed a criminal offence, namely handling food without the necessary license. The police are duty bound to prosecute when a criminal offence is committed.
Will the police prosecute itself?
Il-puluzija mhux stmati tajjeb taht il-Labour. Minn strike breakers fit-trasport pubbliku sa jnaddfu l-platti fil-kcina.
Dalwaqt jibdew jqaddsu wkoll.
Domine Dirige Nos.
And the people still seem to be stunned or mixed up.
They will come down to reality only when their pockets are affected.
It seems that all that the majority of Maltese think of is their pockets – no principles whatsoever, even if those principles are a guarantee of their civil liberties and democratic rights and safety.
The time will come when that will happen too and then they might wake up to reality and realise what is really going on with the PL in government. Pity we have to wait a few more years or hopefully, months for that to happen.
So first this minister puts criminals back on the streets, then he takes police officers OFF the streets …. to serve food as waiters.
And next they will probably be ordered to join the General Workers Union.
This is serious abuse of office and ministerial power, which this minister still has too much of. And if the prime minister does not recognise this – and takes no action to correct it – then he is knowingly acquiescing in the destruction of the ability of the police to perform even the minimal duties it is capable of.
The government should be investing in professional training of police officers, not cutting catering costs by using Floriana canteens.
Previously, if you needed a policeman at St Julian’s the answer was usually “I can’t come out – I’m on my own here” (while his five colleagues were out smoking and joyriding in the patrol car).
Now the answer is going to be “I can’t come out – I have to wait tables at Girgenti.”
At least the ‘high society’ will still be served by the police, even if no one else is.
At this – accelerating – pace of abuse there won’t be an election in four years and 258 days. The Labour ‘movement’ will simply be assumed to be a majority and the motion to extend the present government by another term will be passed by a show of hands at a mass meeting in Hamrun.
How frighteningly right you are.
Unless the Opposition and journalists start bombarding the government’s every move by a million questions, that is exactly what will happen.
DEFINITELY THAT THE SERVICE WAS AWFUL. IT IS NOT A POLICEMAN’S JOB. I KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING. I’VE BEEN 23 YEARS IN CATERING AND OCCUPYING SEVERAL POSITIONS.
He doesn’t want the Secret Service to waste time on drug traffickers, and I ask why. Muscat wake up, or your hands and feet are tied by Mallia.