Comment of the night: Muscat’s visit to yet another despotic regime, this time Ukraine’s
This has just been sent in by Matthew S:
Has the Maltese press been napping again?
Joseph Muscat is making a whole song and dance about reaching agreements with Ukraine.
Why hasn’t any journalist asked Muscat what he thinks about Viktor Yanukovich’s human rights record?
THE OPPOSITION LEADER IS CURRENTLY IN PRISON.
THE EU HAS CONDEMNED YULIA TYMOSCHENKO’S IMPRISONMENT AS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.
Which side is Joseph Muscat on?
Can you imagine a US president travelling to China without being questioned about human rights issues? Can you imagine a German chancellor going on a little trip to Zimbabwe as if nothing is untoward?
That’s right. It never happens. But in Malta, it does. Consorting with and reaching agreements with vile and despotic regimes is the norm under Labour led governments.
Business is business and unfortunately governments have to deal with other governments which do not share their values but that doesn’t mean that all is fine and dandy. An alert press should be badgering the prime minister with questions about his thoughts on opposition leaders being locked up.
I don’t know whether it’s by accident or by design but the last time a PN led government led a delegation to Ukraine, it was in 2008. This was before the despotic minded Viktor Yanukovych came to power (he did so in 2010).
Incidentally, in the past six months, has Labour reached any agreements with any NORMAL countries with EUROPEAN values? China, Libya, Ukraine… It all seems so 1980s.
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Wikileaks has just published SpyFiles#3
“WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange stated: “WikiLeaks’ Spy Files #3 is part of our ongoing commitment to shining a light on the secretive mass surveillance industry. This publication doubles the WikiLeaks Spy Files database. The WikiLeaks Spy Files form a valuable resource for journalists and citizens alike, detailing and explaining how secretive state intelligence agencies are merging with the corporate world in their bid to harvest all human electronic communication.”
WikiLeaks’ Counter Intelligence Unit has been tracking the trackers. The WLCIU has collected data on the movements of key players in the surveillance contractor industry, including senior employees of Gamma, Hacking Team and others as they travel through Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and other countries.”
If one has a look at one particular intelligence contractor ( Hidden Technologies )called..Chris Nyland and follows Wikileaks Counterintelligence Locator Tracking, one discovers that this British company had meetings in Malta between 22.5.13 and 25.5.13.
A simple google search comes up with this..
http://hiddentec.com/general-news/hidden-technology-visits-malta/
Ministers Mallias Ministry is in the news again…
As Charles Mangion once said “It’s in their DNA”. He was speaking from experience at the time.
Yanukovixh’s rival Yshenko was poisoned. He survived, but he literally bears the scars on his face
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4035789.stm
Well, given that Sceberras Trigona was right there next to dear Joseph on the new balcony at the glasshouse the day they won the elections, I am pretty sure that his is the hand behind Labour’s foreign policy.
I wonder if the secret deals for weapon acquisition have already started being discussed.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130904/local/european-commissioner-geoghegan-quinn-to-visit-malta.484837
This woman is a really tough cookie. I look forward with glee to the grilling she’s bound to give the PM!
Will these talks include double tax agreements with Ukraine? Obviously this means that the many lap dancers, call girls, escorts etc. imported from this country can declare their income (sic). And also their “masters”. Of course, these will not be targeted for push back, even if the visas are expired. But then these are white and not black.
South American drug cartels use Ukraine as a transit hub to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
http://youtu.be/Eu2gobROwPc
Next on the list of Muscat’s travels: Pyong Yang.
We should remember that in 2012 Joseph Muscat said the following:-
“Labour leader Joseph Muscat has expressed his will “to work hard to expand the friendly relations between the Malta Labour Party and the Workers’ Party of Korea and between Malta and the DPRK in the political, economic, cultural and other fields,” according to the Korean news agency KCNA.
KCNA reported that Dr Muscat again expressed deep condolences again over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il on behalf of the Party Central Committee and on his own behalf during a meeting with the DPRK ambassador to Malta Han Tae Song.
The agency said Dr Muscat was convinced that the Korean people would greet the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung “with shining achievements in economic construction under the wise leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un”.
He hoped that everything would continue going well in the DPRK.
The agency said the Labour leader told the ambassador that satellite launch was a legitimate right of sovereign states.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said that Dr Muscat met the North Korean ambassador who was in Malta to meet the country’s authorities on his farewell visit.
“As is customary, the Leader of the Opposition expressed his condolences over demise of a head of state.”
Source: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120413/local/korean-news-agecy.415311
Now, let us not forget that the North Korean agency is a propaganda machine and hence it may very well be that it thwarted the Joseph Muscat said in a bid to show what a great leader the Great Leader was and how well he was considered by other (foreign) leaders. However, the article also reported what the News Agency had reported as having been said by George Abela and the denial and clarification issued by the President’s PR Office. In other words, the NK news agency had thrwarted the President’s message to mean something which it did not.
At any rate, no PRO of the Labour Party denounced what had been said by the NK agency, leading me to think that Joseph Muscat really said that ‘Korean people would greet the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung ‘with shining achievements in economic construction under the wise leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un'”
If Joseph Muscat REALLY said these words, he must be demented. In North Korea, people are literally starving in on the streets. No food, no education, no health service, not even blankets for ice-cold winters. People are dying by the thousands in their Nazi-like concentration camps. People are tortured, butchered and subsequently killed just because they do not snitch on their peers. Children are left to die of hunger and tortured if they do not report their own blood parents for high treason (which could very well be a non-consequential act which we, in normal states, do every day).
Your readers may wish to see this:-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/books/escape-from-camp-14-by-blaine-harden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
A simple Youtube search will yield some results on Shin, the escapeee from one such camp (the only one documented ever in over 50 years) telling his incredible tale. I have just read the book. I have cried and I am shocked to the core about the gory details inside. Another Holocaust is going on in North Korea.
Yes, fellow citizens, our Prime Minister has had the temerity to say utter those words. Later he tried to clarify (but not deny) and in the Times report of the 30th April, 2012, there is an account of what he said and how Gonzi, our last real Prime Minister, lambasted him on his position:-
“Speaking at his weekly PN meeting yesterday, Dr Gonzi said Labour’s clarification worried him no end. He said that while the whole world was condemning North Korea over its rocket launch, the leader of the Opposition clarified reports by reiterating respect for North Korea’s territorial sovereignty.
Dr Gonzi said this “dangerous declaration” was tantamount to “justifying” North Korea’s behaviour, betraying Labour’s amateurishness, which could seriously harm Malta’s good reputation. “We worked hard to earn a reputation as a serious country, which is always on the right side of history. I will let no one ruin this for us.”
The Times asked the Foreign Affairs Ministry to explain the diplomatic relations between Malta and North Korea, in light of Dr Gonzi’s statement that it is dangerous to declare respect for the country’s territorial sovereignty.
The ministry spokesman returned to quoting North Korea’s state news agency, pointing out that Dr Muscat allegedly said it was the country’s legitimate right to fire a “satellite” into space.
“This was not the first time Dr Muscat made bad decisions and wrong declarations in foreign policy,” the spokesman added.
Questioned by The Times about its clarification, Labour’s director of communications Kurt Farrugia said the party had no qualms condemning North Korea’s rocket launches but respecting the integrity of sovereign states was “normal in diplomatic meetings”.
He castigated the Prime Minister for only being able to come up with an attack over a short farewell meeting with an outgoing ambassador who had the same meeting with Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and the President.
Mr Farrugia added that the report by the North Korean agency carried as much credibility as another recent report by the Iranian news agency quoting Foreign Affairs committee chairman Francis Zammit Dimech making positive comments about Iran’s nuclear tests.
“While on Iran, maybe the Prime Minister can inform the public why he kept a recent meeting with the Iranian ambassador secret,” Mr Farrugia added.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman pointed out that Dr Gonzi regularly received courtesy calls from ambassadors. During the meeting in question the Prime Minister pointed out that the relationship between the two countries was complicated by sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme and by recent developments, particularly the attack on the UK embassy in Tehran strongly condemned by Malta.
Only when the conditions were right could Malta start looking forward to improving bilateral relations, the Ambassador was told.
Source:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120430/local/Gonzi-avoids-crisis-focuses-on-N-Korea.417643
(As an aside, one can see in this report, the subtle anti-Gonzi stance which the Times was taking at the time. Needless to say, the political crisis of the time was chickenfeed when compared the sheer seriousness of our leader of opposition (at the time) courting North Korea. God, what a chicken-brain nation we ended up being born in.)
Alex Sciberras Trigona must be delighted.
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/politics/maltese-prime-minister-joseph-muscat-is-planning-to-visit-ukraine-on-sept-4-328977.html
Besides China, prime minister Muscat’s consultant Shiv Nair also represents the governments of the former Ruusian Federation. My guess is that Ukraine is one of them.
Reference to earlier comment
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/businessdetails/business/businessnews/Indian-energy-guru-Shiv-Nair-is-Malta-s-energy-consultant-20130722
Shiv Nair is Joseph Muscat’s buddy. It is a relationship Nair has been nurturing for years. Muscat is but a pawn in his hands. That makes this dangerous for all of us living here.
It’s called ‘political opportunism’.
In 4 and a half years, Malta will be turned upside down.
MLP cherish the 70s and 80s and gradually Muscat is heading to that way of life. Totalitarianism is ingrained in their mindset.
The electorate was warned but they didn’t care.
And here we have one of Joseph’s ‘celebrity friends’ getting his picture taken in his natural pose. Funny (read worrying) story on how they forced Agence France-Presse to suppress this picture.
Very progressive and liberal, typical of this mould of ‘socialists’ out of which our own Joseph was cast, although he also has a fair sprinkling of Mintoff to give him that latent despotic trait.
Picture
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/69660000/jpg/_69660869_69660868.jpg
Story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23968573