Wormfood, we did excise the tumour, and not before inhaling tear-gas and dodging bullets.

I would think twice before calling the people who brought you democracy old farts.

That should have read “Mintoffian 70s”.

I am a victim of the 70s and 80s. I did not act scared. When a bomb was placed on my doorstep. I identified by name, under oath, the culprit MLP cabinet minister during the magisterial inquiry in spite of warnings to be discreet.

It was all in vain because the police never followed up the case.

When I proved that an acting Commissioner of Police had given perjured evidence against me before the PSC I reported the crime to the police who refused to take action.

I “challenged” the police before a magistrate to take action. My chief witness was threatened in open court that if he repeated the (true) evidence he had given before the PSC, he would be charged with something or other and dismissed from the service.

That witness bravely confirmed that the evidence he had given was absolutely true but he would accept the court’s advice that he could choose not to testify after the threats by the prosecution in open court.

The case was adjourned “sine die!” for sentence but a few days later sentence was read out in the privacy of the magistrate’s “secreta” behind my back a few days later.

There were others like me who were not “cowed into silence”. We do not deserve to be called “old farts”.

That appellation should be reserved to the politicians who committed those crimes and who are today in a position to continue doing so, to members of a police force that connived with the murderous criminals instead of protecting the innocent and who are now in a position to do the same, and to the emasculated courts of law.

Well said, Josette.

It is imperative for us to use every available tool to ‘fight’ for what is right and to make sure that the scum that is leading our country will not be allowed to repeat history.

Silence, whether voluntary, or through being afraid, is a perpetrator’s best ally.

I lived though the Mintoffian mid-50s, the Mintoffian 70s, and the KMB early 80s.

Through those decades what sickened me most was the consistent failure of people to speak out in the face of escalating abuse and injustice by the socialist MLP government.

By failing to speak out, those people propped up, then cemented in place, a climate that eventually led to murder by the police, killing of innocent individuals for political reasons, the government-planned and sanctioned frame-up and the intended faked suicide (fortunately thwarted at the last minute) of Pietru Pawl Busuttil, and countless other human rights abuses.

The comments posted here show that those same people have learnt nothing through that experience.

What has gone before is a reason to speak out in the name of justice, not an excuse to remain silent.

But the person or persons who saw the whole story are as bad if they can’t show who they are. It is our duty as human beings to have the guts to speak out. What is wrong is wrong.

Yes, and what is even more vile is that the man is young enough to be his son.

SCUM. That is what Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is.

That is totally unfair. Maybe we think that you young farts are not worth getting into trouble for. We HAVE stood up to them. Do you know how many people used to be admitted to hospital every time there was a demonstration or meeting or even silent marches? And that’s just the ones who dared go to hospital because you never knew what or who awaited you there.

I’m sorry but after the last election, I seriously doubt I ever want to put my life in danger again for a nation that is so undeserving of it. And especially you young farts who have had it so good for such a long time and after our money put you through your education (when it was denied us) to go and vote in these complete imbeciles.

Maybe it’s your bloody turn now, it’s your future after all. But don’t you accuse us of having done nothing when we spent the best part of our lives resisting them in any way we could.

I know of one case of a shooting in 1981 when a witness withdrew his testimony after receiving a visit from a then government minister. To this day, he still won’t talk about the issue. One man was maimed in that case.

But today things can be different. We all have mini cameras and videorecorders in the form of mobile phones. We can all ensure that if such an incident happens we record it and even pass it on anonymously to the press.

There is also the internet which is a tool which was not available in the 80s. This blog is an example of how different the situation can be. But we must be ready to stand up and be counted otherwise we are doomed to relive the past.

Things can be a lot different from the 80s but not if we are afraid to speak up. And, a message to Simon Busuttil. I respect you and was glad that you were elected PN Leader. But the softly, softly approach is not doing any good. It is just making people feel abandoned.

You old farts deserve it for allowing yourselves to be cowed into silence. How I despise your generation. You have made this country so dull and mediocre, half of you through sheer skullfuckery, opportunism and adulation for bastards like Mintoff and the rest through your refusal to stand up to them and excise the tumour when it was possible. But no, you had to go for the milktoastwater doctrine of forgiving and turning the other cheek and allowing the cancer to spread.